The Harvard Family Research Project separated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education to become the Global Family Research Project as of January 1, 2017. It is no longer affiliated with Harvard University.
Harvard Shares Professional-Development Methods to Support Family Engagement (K-2 Parents and the Public blog, Education Week, 12/10/13)
December 10, 2013
Noting concerns within the education field that family engagement is often not reinforced in a cohesive and structured way, this K-2 Parents and the Public blog in Education Week highlights Harvard Family Research Project’s December issue of the FINE Newsletter, which presents new professional development methods for teachers to learn how to promote family engagement. The blog looks at a number of articles in the newsletter, including Professional Development in Family Engagement: A Few Often-Overlooked Strategies for Success, by Christine Patton and Shannon Wanless, which discusses numerous reasons why it is important for teachers to continue to learn and practice family engagement skills on an ongoing basis throughout their careers.
In another newsletter article, Teaching Future Educators and Families: Helping Maximize Children's Learning, author Périsida Himmele laments the fact that teachers at the pre-service level often receive only minimal preparation in family engagement. Himmele states, "Faculty who teach pre-service teachers can change that by making family engagement a cornerstone of all of their courses instead of positioning it as an add-on or a dispensable piece of their instruction."
Read Harvard Shares Professional-Development Methods to Support Family Engagement.