Getting engaged: possibilities and problems for home–school knowledge exchange

Abstract

In this paper we report some of the literacy and numeracy actions developed on the Home School Knowledge Exchange (HKSE) project and examine these in relation to the engagement of participants. The exchanges of knowledge included two‐way processes where aspects of children's out‐of‐school worlds informed teaching and learning in the classroom as well as the more usual sharing of knowledge about school with children's families. We comment on patterns of parental engagement and on the development of actions that built not only on parental knowledge but also on the agency of the child. A key implication of this work is that ‘one size does not fit all’—more successful actions include different family members at different times and in different ways. Although the positive potential of home–school knowledge exchange for engagement is discussed, the difficulties and complexities of this field are recognized and explored.

Acknowledgements

The HSKE project was funded by the ESRC (reference number L139 25 1078) as part of its Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP). Further information about the project can be found on the project website (http://www.home‐school‐learning.org.uk) and the TLRP website (http://www.tlrp.org). The authors are very grateful to the children, parents and teachers who participated in the project and to the local education authorities (LEAs) of Cardiff and Bristol for their support. The HSKE project team consists of: Martin Hughes (project director), Andrew Pollard (who is also director of TLRP), Jane Andrews, Anthony Feiler, Pamela Greenhough, David Johnson, Elizabeth McNess, Marilyn Osborn, Mary Scanlan, Leida Salway, Vicki Stinchcombe, Jan Winter, Wan Ching Yee.

Notes

1. Matched comparison schools were also recruited to the project. These schools did not take part in activities. Assessments carried out with students in these schools provided a basis for evaluating the effects of the project on children's attainment and learning dispositions.

2. The teachers were also parents.

3. A team of three full time researchers was responsible for collecting and analysing a range of process and outcome evaluation data.

4. Reserves were recruited in the very small number of declining cases.

5. For detailed information on the range of knowledge exchange activities that were implemented, see Feiler et al. (in press) and Winter et al. (in press).

6. We use three dots (…) in transcriptions to show that text has been omitted and two dots (..) to show a slight hesitation or discontinuity.

7. At the time of the project, all families appeared to have access to a video recorder.

8. Figures relate to the proportion of children represented by at least one parent.

9. “Transaction” designates … an ongoing process in which the elements or factors are … aspects of a total situation, each conditioned by and conditioning the other. (Rosenblatt, 1978, p 17)

10. At this point in the project, the children from the original class had been reorganized into two new classes. Both classes became project action classes.

11. Parents of all the children in the school who received help from EMAS were invited to the meeting.

12. Our use of ‘home’ includes the out of school world in general.

13. Parents retained any photos they did not want to be used in school.

14. In two schools, the classes were reorganized over the summer with the result that in any one class, only a proportion of children had photographs.

15. For fuller accounts of this activity see Greenhough et al. (2005), and Hughes and Greenhough (this issue).

16. Somali has been scripted only recently and is heavily dialectized.

17. Using a digital camera can give participants more control over which aspects of private lives are revealed, as the set of pictures may be reviewed and edited before the camera is returned to school.