Six Resources for Making the Most of Family-Educator Conferences

Later, two parents even asked for more activities to do at home!" In early childhood, family engagement includes home- and school-based participation of families in their children's learning, with the goal of building genuine and collaborative partnerships between educators and families (NASEM 2016). Family-Educator Conferences: Resources in Action Accumulated research suggests key features of effective family engagement approaches include (e.g., Landry et al. 2021; Bierman & Sheridan 2022) * trusting relationships between families and educators that value family perspectives * family-teacher communication that engages families in setting goals for aligned school and home learning * supports for families to extend learning at home Teachers typically receive limited training and support around family engagement broadly (Walker & Legg 2018) and strengths-based family-educator communication specifically (Edwards et al. 2019). [...]phone calls, text messages, conversations at pickup or drop-off, and notes home can start and continue conversations with families. Within that framework, it is useful for teachers to analyze and discuss case studies that focus on an assets-based perspective of families-especially those from marginalized backgrounds-and the funds of knowledge each family brings to their child's learning and development.