MAEL 212 - IFE

MAEL 212
The School, the Parents and the Community

ECTS Value: 5 ECTS

Contact Hours: 25

Self Study Hours: 60

Assessment Hours: 40

Overall Objectives and Outcomes

This module will explore the link between educational leaders and their relationship with parents and the community. Education leaders will reflect, evaluate and engage in various ways and strategies

By the end of this programme, participants should be able to:

Competences

a. Assess and evaluate present practices in schools in which parents and the community involvement exist;
b. Critically assess the possibilities for the involvement of parents and the community;
c. Engage in critical comparative analysis of school, parents and community partnerships/examples present in colleges and schools overseas;
d. Comprehensively assess and implement ways to increase links between the school, the parents and the community;
e. Devise and introduce effective ways to involve the parents and the community in order to incorporate them into the school’s learning structure and consequently enhance students’ learning and well-being.

Knowledge

a. Define Community and Parent involvement;
b. Outline various examples and degrees of parents and community partnerships as listed in educational literature;
c. Critically analyse the present and current community and parents’ involvement in local schools;
d. Reflect on the benefits of parents & the community’s involvement;
e. Critically discuss the barriers to community and parent involvement and find strategies to overcome them;
f. Create discussion on methods that can help educators to work in synergy with the community and the parents,
g. Review and engage in practical ways through which parents and the community can be involved.

Skills

a. Critically analyse and discuss the process that helps educators to engage in parent-school-community links;
b. Identify and devise strategies to enhance parent-school-community links
c. Link applied and existent present practices involving parents and the community with the school to literature;
d. Develop skills to ensure that parents and community partnerships are present at all levels;
e. Enhance the parent-school-community links through internal school collaboration and external local and non-local networking.

Assessment Methods

This programme adopts continuous and summative methods of assessment including assignments, online tasks, reflective journals, projects and video presentations. For further details, kindly refer to the Teaching, Learning and Assessment Policy and Procedures.

Suggested Readings

Core Reading List

1. Davies, D. (1991). Schools Reaching Out: Family, School, and Community Partnerships for Student Success. Phi Delta Kappan, vol. 72(5), p.376.
2. Elias, M. J., Patrikakou, E. N., & Weissberg, R. P. (2007). A competence-based framework for parent—school—community partnerships in secondary schools. School Psychology International, vol. 28(5), pp.540-554.
3. Epstein, J. L. (2010). School/family/community partnerships: Caring for the children we share. Ph Delta Kappan, vol. 92(3), pp.81-96.
4. Epstein, J. L. & Salinas, K. C. (2004). Partnering with Families and Communities. Educational Leadership: Schools as Learning Communities, vol. 61 (8), pp. 12-18. Retrieved from: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.494.2020&rep=rep1&type=pdf.
5. Houston, P. D., Blankstein, A. M., & Cole, R. W. (Eds.). (2010). Leadership for family and community involvement (Vol. 8). Corwin Press.
6. McPherson, C., Alves, A., Burns, M. & Diaz, Y. (2014). Family-school-community collaboration. National Association of School Psychologists, 43 (3), 12-14
7. Sheridan, S. M., & Moorman Kim, E. (2016). Family-school partnerships in context. Springer.

Supplementary Reading List

1. Bezzina, C. & Cutajar, M. (2013). Collaboration: Joint working by individual state-maintained schools in a new statutory system in the Maltese Islands. British Educational Leadership, Management & Administration Society (BELMAS), 27(1), 19-24. DOI: 10.1177/0892020612458946
2. Burch, P. & Palanki, A. (1994); Action Research on Family-School-Community Partnerships. Journal of Emotional and Behavioural Problems vol. 1, pp. 16-19.
3. Epstein, J. L. (1996); Perspectives and previews on research and policy for school, family, and community partnerships. Family-school links: How do they affect educational outcomes, pp.209-246.
4. Garrett Dikkers, A. & Catapano, S. (2013). Building connections among home, school, and community. Childhood Education, 89(2). 115-116.
5. Gross, J. (2015). Strong School-Community Partnerships in Inclusive Schools Are” Part of the Fabric of the School… We Count on Them”. School Community Journal, 25(2), 9-34.
6. Epstein, J. L., Sanders, M. G., Simon, B. S., Salinas, K. C., Jansorn, N. R., & Van Voorhis, F. L. (2002); School, family, and community partnerships: Your handbook for action (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
8. Sanders, M. G., & Epstein, J. L. (1998); School-Family-Community partnerships in middle and high schools: From theory to practice. Retrieved
from www.csos.jhu.edu/CRESPAR/techReports/report22.
9. Stefanski, A., Valli, L. & Jacobson, R. (2016). Beyond involvement and engagement: the role of the family in school-community partnerships. School Community Journal, 26(2), 135-160.