Parental Involvement in Education - a Seminar Presentation

This is a seminar presentation on the importance for parental involvement in the schooling process. It's a little sketchy, but may offer some ideas to someone approaching a similar

topic.

Write up Successful schooling opportunity formula and box for tally of parental involvement.

So often we as education students we hear of our goal as future teachers should be to offer social just schooling to all, regardless of ethnicity, class, gender, et cetera. But what about when achieving socially just schooling becomes a lot more complex and challenging when considering what lies outside of our classroom control Ð'- the home environment, and its influence on a child's education. This is the area that we will be discussing today Ð'- parental involvement and consistent learning environments. I will be introducing this topic, giving you a feel for it.

Were your parents involved? Write on board, tally them up yes and no.

Yes- how?

No- we will come back to.

Draw up timeline of Vincent and Adolf. Two examples.

Firstly, we are going to focus on the school section.

I want you g uys to help me create the characters of Vincent and Adolf here. Draw a representation of what a succeeding child "looks" like and a unachieveing student "looks" like. Use symbols and then explain them, or write words.

Okay, now let's give them skill pocket money.

Now hand out Chocolate coins, blu tac their ideas of their skills on them. Two each, one valued skill, one not-so-valued skill. Put in a basket on either side of class Adolf and Vincent.

I pick them out and read them. Ask who wrote them, get them to explain.

What have we just done? What does this show? what would you call this collection of currency?

CULTURAL CURRENCY. CULTURAL CAPITAL. Pierre Bourdieu french sociologist died in 2002, but very significant in exploring the different capitals. Social, symbolic etc.

Habitus. culture. Values. the school creates a culture that certain skills and behaviour are valued over others. There is a particular Cultural currency that is needed in a school to play the game and succeed and barter.

School-valued coins:

Who decides on these? Where have they come from?

Do you think it's possible to change the habitus/school culture? What can we focus on?

They are very hard to budge. So what can we focus on? (the other groupÐ'...)

The under-valued coins: we can focus on including these values into our classrooms, but e cannot be unrealistic and expect the whole school habitus to be turned around.

We must include, but then instruct. Include their culture etc, but teach your students to use our cultural currency/capital Ð'- it is necessary to achieve in school. Key is balance, to not lose anything, only gain.

Who can think of any example of this in action? Perhaps a film or book? Real-life?

>Take the Lead Example.

>Example of aboriginal schools.

What we've just talked about is ways to sort of Ð''treat' the discrepancies between those who have the cultural currency and those that do not. What about aiming at preventative measuresÐ'... at the root cause to close the gap even more?

Ð'...Ð'...Ð'...We are now going to look at the HOME environment on Vincent and Adolf's timeline

The root of the discrepancies lies in the child's home environment. Long before little Vincent meets his first teacher, he has been well acquainted with two of his own Ð'- his parents.

They have taught him how to eat, walk, run, play, et cetera and as you may remember in EDUC1029 equipped him with his unique

"school bag" of skills, values, assumptions, understandings and behaviour.

>Refer to Vicki and Than study

If someone is familiar with it, get them to explain it.

They have giving him his pocketmoney of cultural capital.

Parents, not teachers, are the primary agents of their child's development (Silvern, 1988, van Leer Foundation, 1986) Parents are the ones that equip their children with both assumptions on education that determine their valuing of schooling as well as their skills to succeed in "playing school". If parents have the cultural currency that the school accepts, their child will have been advantaged and supplied with the rules of the game of school. Think about your parents' cultural currency Ð'- raise your hands if:

you were encouraged in school

your parents valued education

yours parents were well educated

you had time allowed