Course Description
Interactive relationships among families, schools, and communities from the interdisciplinary perspectives of anthropology, education, sociology, history, political science, and psychology.
Athena Title
FAM-SCH-COM INTERAC
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in EDEC(EDMS) 8150 or ESSE 8150
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
To review the historical and current relationships among families, schools and communities, to develop an understanding of diverse societal influences that impinge on the family today, and to develop an understanding of and respect for the multicultural nature of classroom populations so as to be able to plan and implement classroom and family-oriented activities that take into account cultural diversity. To examine and analyze theoretical perspectives, current research, and current models for understanding family-school- community-partnerships. To demonstrate proficiency in communication skills for interacting with families. To demonstrate the ability to plan and implement activities that foster home-school collaboration. To demonstrate knowledge of programs, resources, and support groups for parents and children. To develop an applied project to enhance skills in working with families and community agencies.
Topical Outline
Perspectives on middle school family involvement, research demonstrating the benefits of family involvement, immigrant families, African American families, math and literacy curricular workshop approaches, communicating with special needs families, homework, creating family-school-community partnerships, exploring and constructing new perspectives on families schools and communities, implications of new perspectives for our teaching practice, socioeconomically and linguistically diverse families, benefits of and barriers to family involvement in schooling, conferencing strategies, individualizing to meet parents' strengths and concerns, home and community contexts for learning, challenges to collaboration.