Family involvement in creative teaching practices for all in small rural schools

Abstract

Parental involvement is interpreted as a key form of support that can contribute to the establishment of inclusive practices in schools, but this can be difficult in sparsely populated areas. Using ethnographic methods of participant observation, informal conversations and document analysis, this article therefore focuses on family involvement practices in two small rural schools in Aragón (Spain) that carry out creative teaching practices as a way to encourage parental participation. Our data show that teachers promote parental involvement using strategies such as acceptance, expression and communication in school. These strategies seem to be negotiated in each situation based on the values prioritised by the teachers as a result of their interaction within the context they find themselves in. Factors such as family mobility, dispersion of homes and sociocultural status appear to condition these strategies.

Keywords:

• ethnographic methods
• parental involvement
• small rural schools
• inclusive education
• teacher strategies

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the teachers, children and families of the schools. We also thank the participant members of the EERA Network: 14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research Alternative and the EERA Network: 19. Ethnography, in the round table on ‘Investigating Rural Youth, Education, Identities and Place: Ethnographic Methodologies for Investigating Education in Rural Communities’ for the feedback on the subject. On the other hand, we would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their critical and constructive feedback to earlier version on this paper. We are indebted to Carmen Julve our colleague involved in the process of research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

This research has been supported. In the first year, the study was financed with the help of the Established Research Group, granted by the local Aragonese authorities (Gobierno de Aragón).

The study was financed by lLocal Aragonese authorities (Gobierno de Aragón) during two years within the framework of extended research ‘Evaluation and methodology: Bases to improve teaching in an inclusive rural school’ [grant number 262-101] for the first year, and ‘The improvement of teaching and learning in a rural school from a creative perspective inclusive’ [grant number 262-103], for the second year.

Finally, the specific attention on the parents’ participation was supported by the Sub-program programme Fundamental Research Projects of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [grant number EDU2012-32657 2012].

Notes

1. The title is a play on words that combines the local diminutive suffix ‘-icas’ for the Spanish word for ‘Recipes’ with the Spanish acronym for ‘Information and Communication Technologies’ (TIC).

2. A chestnut festival.