A timely collection of sound research addresses father involvement in their children’s education. Promising Practices for Fathers’ Involvement in Their Children’s Education visits a less known side of parent involvement, the side of fathers’ active engagement with their children’s education in the home and that is less visible in the schools. Their contributions from preschool to career decision-making and accessibility to their children’s education are covered in ten chapters, focusing on in-depth research from Canada to Argentina and Korea to Africa.

(sponsored by the Family School Community Partnership Issues SIG) Promising Practices to Empower Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Families of Children with Disabilities offers research-supported school practices to empower families from diverse cultural backgrounds to make informed decisions regarding their children with diverse disabilities. In order to insure that every child is receiving the most appropriate educational program, these practices should be included in teacher and administrator preparation program throughout every county, state, and province. Every site administrator, school counselor and special education teacher should have a copy of this book at one’s fingertips for ready reference. Suggested practices include activities for parent organizing, parent education, ways to provide co-mentoring of families, and formal support at Individualized Education Program meetings.

The technology revolution has made it critical for all children to understand science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) or risk being left behind. Promising Practices for Engaging Families in STEM Learning explores how families, schools, and communities can join together to promote student success in STEM by building organized and equitable pathways for family engagement across all of the settings in which students learn – including, schools, early childhood programs, homes, libraries and museums –from the earliest years through adolescence. This thought-provoking monograph includes three main sections with chapters from leading thinkers in the field: > The first section provides the theoretical and research base for the importance of family engagement in STEM and draws out the challenges and opportunities that exist– from the transmission of adults’ anxiety and lack of confidence in their own STEM skills, to inequalities in out-of-school learning opportunities, to biases and misconceptions about the kinds of STEM supports offered by families from low-income and immigrant homes. > The second section builds on this research by presenting success stories, best practices, and approaches to engaging families in STEM. > The final section focuses on how policies at the local, state, and federal level can support the promotion of family engagement in STEM. Taken together, the monograph shows that STEM is a powerful mechanism to connect, engage, and empower families. > STEM provides opportunities for parents and children to spend time together asking fun and meaningful questions that link in-and out-of-school learning. > STEM creates new experiences for families to co-construct and support learning with their children from the earliest years throughout formal schooling and onto college and career pathways. > STEM also presents possibilities for families to build confidence and agency in supporting children’s interests; especially those families who might be marginalized because of their economic or language status, race, or culture.

This volume is directed toward research to practice issues related to partnering with families of children birth through age 5. This monograph and the next monograph focuses on family and school involvement issues in two age categories. This sixth volume analyzes family involvement practices across a variety of settings and programs at the early childhood level. The seventh monograph in this series addresses research and practices related to family–school issues in middle and secondary schools. The chapters address, to varying degrees, five themes based on the principles of familycentered partnerships: 1. Recognizing and respecting one anther’s knowledge and expertise; 2. Sharing information through two-way communication; 3. Sharing power and decision making; 4. Acknowledging and respecting diversity; and 5. Creating networks of support The monograph supports the accomplishment of these goals as a whole by providing important insights about exemplary programs and promising practices, informed by current research. Also it highlights policies and theoretical perspectives relevant to these aims. Individual chapters offer a variety of practical strategies and recommendations that families, early childhood practitioners, policymakers, and researchers can use to enhance their knowledge and strengthen their skills for partnering effectively.

Family and Community Partnerships: Promising Practices for Teachers and Teacher Educators, offers a fresh new look at the competencies, strategies, and practices that effective educators develop to build strong partnerships with families and communities. Written by leaders in the field, the book is an outgrowth of a cutting-edge initiative led by the National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement to reimagine how educators are prepared for family and community engagement. Based on four guiding practices - reflect, connect, collaborate, and lead alongside families – each section of the book highlights theory, real-world strategies, discussion questions, and activities that can be used by teachers, teacher educators, and professional learning specialists to inspire new ideas for courses, workshops, and for self-reflection.

The monograph Promising Practices for Teachers to Engage with Families of English Language Learners provides practical activities, communication skills, events, resources, and policies to work with families who are English language learners. This book is primarily targeted toward preservice and novice teachers who are searching for ways to connect with families from diverse cultures and varying proficiency levels in English. However, the contents contain an array of practices that are useful for teachers at all levels, parents, other educator groups, and administrators.

This volume will address major frameworks for understanding family involvement and government support of family involvement projects in the initial chapters. The following six chapters present a theoretical base for understanding school, family, and commu-nity partnerships and research supporting promising practices. Included within each chapter are examples of research in action, focusing on spe-cific interactive activities or programs designed to bring families and schools together. Such promising practices are organized into chapters dealing with two-way home-school communication, family literacy projects, school-site parent centers, parent- school collaborative governance, and family-school education programs spanning infancy through young adult-hood. The monograph concludes with a chapter on teacher preparation for work with family, school, and community partnership issues. Besides their research expertise, each author brings a unique back-ground as classroom teacher, parent, and community social advocate to their writing. Individually, most of us have spent our early professional years within the classroom, acquiring the value of connecting home with school for the benefit of the children. As parents and grandparents, we have advocated for parental interests within the school. As community advocates, we strive for collaborative communication across groups who serve children and their families. We invite you to share our passion for working with families and community groups within our schools.

This vital addition to Springer’s ‘Educating the Young Child’ series addresses gaps in the literature on father involvement in the lives of young children, a topic with a fast-rising profile in today’s world of female breadwinners and single-parent households. While the significant body of theoretical understanding and empirical data accumulated in recent decades has done much to characterize the fluidity of evolving notions of fatherhood, the impact of this understanding on policy and legal frameworks has been uneven at an international level. In a field where groups of fathers were until recently marginalized in research, this book adopts a refreshingly inclusive attitude, aiming to motivate researchers to capture the nuanced practices of fathers in minority groups such as those who are homeless, gay, imprisoned, raising a disabled child, or from ethnically distinct backgrounds, including Mexican- and African-American and indigenous fathers. The volume includes chapters highlighting the unique challenges and possibilities of father involvement in their children’s early years of development. Contributing authors have integrated theories, research, policies, and programs on father involvement so as to attract readers with diverse interest and expertise, and material from selected countries in Asia, Australia, and Africa, as well as North America, evinces the international scope of their analysis. Their often interdisciplinary analyses draw, too, on historical and cultural legacies, even as they project a vision of the future in which fathers’ involvement in their young children’s lives develops alongside the changing political, economic and educational landscapes around the world.

A comprehensive collection of essays from leading experts on family and community engagement The Wiley Handbook of Family, School, and Community Relationships in Educationbrings together in one comprehensive volume a collection of writings from leading scholars on family and community engagement to provide an authoritative overview of the field. The expert contributors identify the contemporary and future issues related to the intersection of students’ families, schools, and their communities. The Handbook’s chapters are organized to cover the topic from a wide-range of perspectives and vantage points including families, practitioners, policymakers, advocates, as well as researchers. In addition, the Handbook contains writings from several international researchers acknowledging that school, family, and community partnerships is a vital topic for researchers and policymakers worldwide. The contributors explore the essential issues related to the policies and sociopolitical concerns, curriculum and practice, leadership, and the role of families and advocates. This vital resource: Contains a diverse range of topics related to the field Includes information on current research as well as the historical origins Projects the breadth and depth of the field into the future Fills a void in the current literature Offers contributions from leading scholars on family and community engagement Written for faculty and graduate students in education, psychology, and sociology, The Wiley Handbook of Family, School, and Community Relationships in Educationis a comprehensive and authoritative guide to family and community engagement with schools.

Using both scientific and feminist approaches in its analysis, Sex and Gender: A Biopsychological Approach provides a current and comprehensive understanding of its titular topics, making it an invaluable textbook for instructors and students. Sex and gender can only be properly understood when examined in the contexts of biological, psychological, and social processes and the interactions between those processes. The structure of this book facilitates this necessary exhaustive discussion: First section: a biological analysis that discusses evolutionary, cellular, and genetic processes, and their effects on physical and behavioral development Second section: a psychological and sociological analysis that discusses stereotypes, sexism, and theories of gender Final section: a discussion of the current global challenges surrounding sex and gender, such as discrimination and religious and social oppression of various groups Across chapters: bonus features that can be used as discussion topics, student essay topics, or special topics for instructors to expand the text’s discussion into the classroom The text’s unique focus on biological, psychological, and social processes – as separate entities and interacting processes – make Sex and Gender crucial for a comprehensive and advanced understanding of the subject. This is an essential resource for instructors who want to bring a thorough and complex analysis of sex and gender studies to their classrooms.