Pursuing Parent and Community Voice
Those working to make changes within a community should seek to work with and learn from those we wish to benefit. In education, student voice is important, but so, too, is parent voice.
What is parent voice?
In education, parent voice refers to the values, opinions, beliefs, perspectives, and cultural backgrounds of the parents, guardians, and families of students enrolled in a school, which extends to parent groups, cultural organizations, and other entities related to a school through familial connections. (The Glossary of Education Reform, https://www.edglossary.org/parent-voice/, emphasis added)
Getting hold of parents is inherently more difficult than getting hold of students, as we have heard time and again from our West Hawai‘i schools. Parents have many barriers keeping them from engaging with the school and sharing their opinions; often, educators only hear from parents when things have gone wrong.
Engagement becomes increasingly challenging as the students get older, as parent engagement tends to drop off after elementary school. While it is unfortunate that many factors affecting this trend are beyond the school’s control, there are still ways to get parent voice even if parents can’t provide much of their time. For instance, local schools have found that offering food, showcasing students’ work and talents, raffles, and other incentives help somewhat.
Studies have shown that most parents want to be involved, but may not know how. Anyone working with students should seek to make themselves inviting to families, so that they know how to reach out, and feel comfortable doing so. While outreach events may be poorly attended due to parents’ limited time or transport, technology can be useful to communicate in both directions, while demanding little. Where possible, build relationships with parents and get to know them. Reach out first if you have to, and allow people to share their thoughts without having to speak directly with someone; for example, asking for feedback through a simple feedback form they can return whenever they wish, or sharing anonymous surveys online.
Especially now, making efforts to communicate is important. More people are at home, but more people also face a barrage of stressors. We as advocates and educators need to reach out to reassure and reassess with families. For example, following announcements about classrooms reopening, some schools sent digital surveys to families to find out what kind of learning they prefer for their children, ask how to best communicate, assess technology and transportation needs, and provide an opportunity for parents to ask questions.
What about community voice?
Education affects everyone, and those without children in the school system can still provide valuable insight and action. The community is the entity we ultimately hope to have a lasting effect upon, and its views are important for continuing to work in ways that reflect local knowledge, values, and needs.
Seeking community voice can be more than one-off town hall-style meetings. Don’t just ask for the community to share their ideas with you; keep ongoing communication with the community. Let them know what you’re working on, what you’re interested in, and what you’re offering to the community. Invite the community to be part of the school or your organization regularly, in formal and informal ways. Volunteer programs, advisory councils, classes, and inviting community to events or to share space and resources are all ways to encourage ongoing, comfortable relationships. During these times of social distancing, try offering webinars, online discussions, and activities people can do at home. Find out what people need, share resources, and build relationships. Relationships are key to trust, helping to elicit authentic, diverse voices, and encouraging collaborative effort.
Considerations for both parents and community members
Special attention should also be paid to who you are currently hearing from, and by extension who you are not hearing from. Diversity of voice is important, especially when working with children who may have home situations and family expectations that are different from your own background. Take the time to come up with ways to engage at least one person from a certain group, and then learn from them or draw on their connections to engage more people from similar backgrounds.
One way to be inviting and engaging is to ensure that those who share have meaningful influence. If there is a clear power imbalance, people will not be motivated to put their energy into sharing with schools or being an active partner. Show that you are sharing power by listening more than speaking, allowing community members/parents to influence the agenda, and ensuring there is follow-up communication to discuss how their feedback was used and how their input might be needed again.
Especially during social distancing, think also about technological barriers, and do what you can to reduce them. For example, if a family has limited access to the Internet because they cannot go to the public library at this time, offer to drop off paper materials or help them over the phone. It’s also a good time to network with other organizations and find out what’s working for them, and partner to reach as many people as possible. [Link to our partnership blog post?]
Check out https://www.saferoutespartnership.org/blog/equitable-community-engagement-time-social-distancing for more community engagement ideas and concerns during this time.
Engaging parent and community voice can be difficult and time-consuming, but as you work hard to find what works, you will discover so much about how issues affect the community, and how much passion for change there is to draw upon. Voice can drive action. As you reach out, engage parents and community members to help spread the word about your work and encourage even more people to share with you. We don’t know yet what the “new normal” will be, but that’s a great reason to find out what parents and community members want that to look like.
