Maneuvering the Road of Education Administrators: Reflections as a Teacher Researcher

Ramirez reflects on his journey of seeking to establish relationships with administrators and families. While many quality administrators involve families, there are others who wish for parents to only be present for fund-raiser events. The issue could be that many teacher and administration courses fail to train future educators about how to treat parents as allies rather than enemies. At two universities where he had worked, he created master's-level courses on families and schools. During the sessions, many teachers tried school-home strategies and found the parents responded positively. Teachers reported that their classroom management improved, as students began to self-monitor, and discovered that creating home partnerships was worth the effort, because it benefited both the students and themselves as teachers. Although there will be teachers who may not want to participate in a simple effort like positive phone calling, if an administrator works with a couple of teachers, at least some of our students and parents will feel connected.