A textbook for education courses in Parent/Home-School Relations.
This highly practical and popular text examines the nature of the contemporary family and its relationship to the school, and provides teachers practical advice for developing strong partnerships with their students' families in order to better understand the complexities of home-school relations.
Supporting family members as full partners in education, this text stresses the need for teachers to have positive working relationships with the children that they teach. By understanding the nature of the contemporary family and the diversity of the families from which their students come, teachers can learn how to build those relationships. This text takes a topical approach. Beyond its in-depth look at ever-evolving families, this text provides solid, practical examples of building good home-school partnerships and fostering parent involvement.
In addition to covering the traditional topics of ethnic families, change in families, and parent-teacher communication, Olsen, Fuller, and their contributors delve further into the issues facing families today. Looking at the effects of poverty, advocacy, the father's role, parents' perspectives on schools, family/domestic violence, bullying, and school violence on families, the authors offer practical techniques that give educators the tools to cope with the many factors affecting their students.
Diversity (cultural, racial, religious and sexual orientation) is integrated throughout the text, making Home-School Relations one of the leading texts available to prepare teachers for all the forms of diversity they will encounter. Additionally, the text includes a multitude of practical information such as descriptions of the successful parent-involvement programs, contains an excellent chapter on communication skills and activities, helps educators understand the legal and policy aspects of home-school relations and educational choices, and incorporates working with students with special needs in the classroom.