[00:01] SPEAKER_01:
Welcome to Principal Center Radio, bringing you the best in professional practice.
[00:06] Announcer:
Here's your host, Director of the Principal Center and Champion of High Performance Instructional Leadership, Justin Bader. Welcome everyone to Principal Center Radio.
[00:15] SPEAKER_00:
I'm your host, Justin Bader, and I'm honored to be joined today by Dr. Irina Bokas. Arena is the editor of Kids Standard Magazine and a faculty member at Mott Community College in Flint, Michigan. She's a frequent contributor to publications such as ASCD Express, Education Week, and the Huffington Post, and she currently works on the Michigan PTA Leadership Development Committee and produces a TV program called The Future of Learning. Arena is also the author of Building Powerful Learning Environments from Schools to Communities, which we're here to talk about today.
[00:50] Announcer:
And now, our feature presentation.
[00:53] SPEAKER_00:
Irina, welcome to Principal Center Radio.
[00:55] SPEAKER_02:
Thank you, Justin, for having me.
[00:56] SPEAKER_00:
So the book is about building learning environments that connect schools and communities. And I wonder if we could start by having you just say a little bit about what that means in practice. What does it mean to build a learning environment that's not just kind of self-contained within the classroom or self-contained within the school, but that actually connects the school with the community around it?
[01:19] SPEAKER_02:
Well, that is actually the essence of my book. Most teachers, I believe, know that how well students develop as learners within a classroom learning environment largely depends on synergies with other learning environments. In a learning environment, a school is similar to one children have at home. There are usually no contradicting messages to interfere with the process of learning. On the other hand, if at school a teacher strives for an environment, let's say, that promotes curiosity or thinking, but at home child thinking is not valued and the focus is placed on adult authority, then it might create confusion for learning in both environments. So as you just mentioned, the learning environment traditionally has been viewed as something that educators created at schools.
[02:07]
But we have to come to realize now that learning is not limited to one classroom of schools. It truly happens anytime, anywhere. And it could be at a family dinner table, community, sport event, anywhere. And in today's interconnected and technology-driven world, it can be even nowhere, which means virtual. So when we consider a learning environment, it is necessary to look at it from a perspective of multiple tiers. Even though there are multiple components to each one, it is possible to distinguish two distinct layers or levels.
[02:45]
And there is a micro-learning environment and a micro-learning environment. In a microlearning environment, that is, you typically contain space, such as a classroom or home, which is created and maintained by environment providers, such as parents or teachers. A macrolearning environment refers to the entire context of influences that come from all of the learning environments a child enters. Some learning environments can overlap with an environment of the classroom, such as an online learning environment. Teachers are using this at school. And some will come in close contact with this.
[03:25]
So what's also important to understand that learners themselves are an integral part of any learning environment. As they shift between various environments, including those in virtual spaces, they affect those environments and others in these environments as well. So if we want to create a powerful learning environment, we have to see families, communities, learners themselves, as school's partners and co-builders of this environment. And a school and a family need to work together and in tandem rather than cross purposes. So co-building happens when schools, families, and communities join their efforts in both decision making and sharing responsibility for education of children. And this includes not only opportunities for learning, and to apply and expand this learning, but also taking care of children's social, emotional, and physical needs.
[04:21]
So in order to do so, schools have to partner with families and communities. So we're talking partnerships.
[04:27] SPEAKER_00:
I'm sure we can get into kind of what those partnerships can look like, but I wanted to circle back to the idea that you mentioned of micro learning environments as well as the macro learning environment. So you said that typically we think of Our self-contained kind of micro environment in the classroom or the school or parents kind of self-contained micro environment at home. But you also mentioned the macro environment that kind of connects them and that kind of has outside influences as well. How does a school go from thinking just in terms of that macro environment, you know, and I think we can sometimes develop kind of an us them mentality, like we do things correctly in our micro environment at school. And if only parents would do things correctly, for their kids in their micro environment at home, you know, their students would be better off. But how can we kind of change that perspective, so that we do see the whole system, you know, that we do see the macro environment at work?
[05:21] SPEAKER_02:
Well, that is actually coming to sort of our understanding of what our barriers are. And I believe that what barriers really are, including our own mindset, really comes from our old ways of thinking. So number one thinking has always been that schools don't need parents. They are the experts in something. And because of this, they don't use professional and cultural human capitals of families. Just one example that was given by Ken Robertson in his book Creative Schools, he described the experience of his colleague and highly regarded writer and editor with his children's schools.
[06:04]
He offered his help with school writing projects. And year after year, his offers were declined. So what frustrates many parents is how hesitant school system could be when it comes to accepting expertise of parents to offer enhancements to their programs, which I believe that families and parents are probably the most untapped resources in education. So how do we change this mindset? Well, the mindset probably needs to understand or switch, I guess, to thinking that it's not that schools are experts in education. Because they're experts, they need to provide everything and they know everything and they can do everything.
[06:45]
When we educate a child, it's more than just learning in a school. And because of this, we need to remember that parents are also experts and they're experts in a child. So if we can combine school's expertise in teaching and parents' expertise in knowing what the child needs, That's where we create the synergy and whole child, if you wish. And also, of course, right now there's a lot of budget issues or perhaps we cannot, teachers cannot just know and do everything. And parents have a lot of expertise in things that schools don't. So why not to, let's say, invite a parent who is a scientist and do some lab work or micro lab or whatever with children in a classroom?
[07:37]
the learning can be applied right away. Or a parent who is a builder can do some sort of math lesson with kids that show how to build things based on certain parameters. That type of expertise can be easily used in schools.
[07:50] SPEAKER_00:
I think one of the challenges that we face at the school leadership level, though, is we're often looking for things that we can kind of scale, right? Like if I have an opportunity for student learning, if we want to make an opportunity available to our students, we want to make it available to all of our students. And if we want something to serve a classroom, we want it to serve all of our classrooms or benefit all of our teachers. And I think sometimes that keeps us from doing exactly what you said of, you know, taking advantage of the resources that are available in our parent community of capitalizing on the skills and the willingness to, you know, to make a difference and contribute to that kind of partnership. What are some of your thoughts on that scale issue? Because I think we're kind of terrified of anything that feels like it's not equal within the school.
[08:38] SPEAKER_02:
Well, there's a lot of conversations going on about what is equal or perhaps another thing about equality versus what is equitable. And I believe that probably talking about equity is better here than talking about equality because different children in different classrooms might have different needs and we will not be able to give Everybody the same thing. And perhaps what one we want to give one person, this person already has. So much better is to assess the needs of a specific learning community, which could be a micro learning community within a classroom and give them what we have. Another thing, of course, with this is that every classroom will have some parents that are good at something. And the same lesson could be taught differently.
[09:30]
In one classroom, it could be parents that are good at that. In another classroom, it would be a parent who is good at something else. But they all can contribute their expertise. And it's okay, I believe, because they're providing enhancement. They're not actually substituting for what the teachers teach.
[09:50] SPEAKER_00:
Well, Irina, let's get into some of the barriers a little bit more specifically, because I think the idea of developing partnerships with our families, bringing parents into the school more, taking advantage of the resources that are available there and the expertise that's available there is really appealing. But There are a lot of either mental or perceived or real barriers to doing that. What do you see as some of the main barriers to building a powerful learning ecosystem for a school? And what can we do about those barriers as school leaders?
[10:20] SPEAKER_02:
Well, I believe that people support what they create. And in order for us to build a community, we really need to make people builders or co-builders of the educational community. So the barrier here that I see is that our educational organizations, a lot of them, don't have in place processes and structures that will include all stakeholders in decision-making process. Of course, most districts have committees or teams comprised of administrators, teachers, board members, community members, and parents. They meet several times a year, discuss initiatives considered by the district. But the main issue with those committees is a lack of objectivity.
[11:03]
Stakeholders are very few in numbers. Two, three parents, for example, who attend meetings are likely to express their own point of views. And those views might or might not be shared by most district parents. So there is a lot of limitation to such input, including parents' socioeconomic, individual bias, experiences with schools, and perhaps even their children's academic strengths and weaknesses. So while schools do gain some parental presence in these committees, they never really hear the voice of district parents. Also, many committees are only advisory in nature.
[11:40]
And as valuable as that might be, sharing opinions and suggesting ideas obviously is not the same thing as making a decision on whether an initiative should be implemented or even less so on how exactly it should be implemented.
[11:55] SPEAKER_00:
Right. And not to put too fine a point on it, but I think as schools, we like parents like you, right, who understand education, who, you know, oh, you have a PhD, you are involved in all this work with you know, the PTA and you understand the work of educators. So it's easy for us as schools to see a parent, you know, kind of in your situation as an easy partner. But I think what you're saying is maybe you're not a typical parent, right? And how do we broaden that?
[12:22] SPEAKER_02:
Probably not. And not only that, I would not go as far as to say that I can represent all parents. As there are PTA council president, as I used to be, or a school president, what I can do, I can take what was being considered and obtain either questionnaire or some sort of working with parents and obtain their take on it and then deliver that sort of voice. If something like this is done, then yes, my voice becomes a voice of my organization's parents. It becomes much more powerful and much more grounded than my personal voice. And a lot of times it's not done.
[13:00]
We have the meetings, then we go back to our schools. If we share it with somebody, great. If not, fine also. And that is how it is. So it just becomes my personal voice. So I also think that many districts, talking about another barrier, is that many districts don't invest in partnerships with families and communities.
[13:23]
And what I mean is that there's always not enough money, not enough time when it comes to a lot of things in education. But no professional development of staff on how to partner with parents. There are no clear expectations, no supporting infrastructures. And because of this, it becomes extremely difficult to know what is it actually we're supposed to do about parents. So talking about what can be done about it. Well, I'm thinking that it could be a number of things that can be done.
[13:57]
Number one, we need to develop a family community engagement strategies. And while we do so, we have to do this with representation from a variety of stakeholders, especially families. Number two, we need to create new district and school policies, or perhaps we need to revise the ones we have. that will allow parents and community organization take part in education and instructions based on their credential and expertise. Because sometimes we cannot do it because our policies prevent us from this. Building district capacity for partnerships through creating partnership centered programs, positions and professional development for staff.
[14:39]
Then we need to ensure that there is reporting learning accountability for family and community engagement. And finally, it's restructuring decision-making process. The committees, groups need to include representation from all major stakeholders and to make sure that they represent the voice of district families.
[14:57] SPEAKER_00:
Well, and thinking back to my time with Seattle Public Schools and the tremendous work that the school family partnership kind of department did, you know, it's one of those things that principals tend not to really have the bandwidth to think about and to develop structure around. So I was very grateful whenever we had guidance from that department and from the terrific staff in that department who would kind of set a structure out to say, this is what it can look like. These are the kind of events you can have. Here is a list of some of the factors that will help you get more support and get more attendance at these events. And I think just that district level support, as you mentioned, is so critical because at the school level, we're dealing with so much. We stay so busy with our own staff and our own students that the idea of kind of purposefully reaching out, not only to parents who are interested, but to all parents and really purposefully engaging
[15:52]
all parents in our school community, you know, it requires a level of thought and intentionality that I'll be totally honest with you, I did not have the bandwidth for that. I was not thinking about that. So that district support was absolutely critical. And getting, as you mentioned, the parents who are kind of naturally inclined to participate, getting them to see themselves as a liaison to other parents and a resource for bringing in more parents, not just the representative parent. I'm going to be the voice of all parents just because I showed up, but it's my job to kind of bring in additional perspectives and bring in more parents. And I want to really give some kudos to the parents in our school community at Olympic View who went to great lengths to...
[16:37]
do surveys and to talk with people, not just people who are easy to reach and people who showed up to everything, but very intentionally did a survey at a time when we knew almost everybody would be present, like for open house and things like that, and really worked hard to include the voices of people who we might otherwise just not go to the effort to pay attention to. I just saw some tremendous efforts on that front in my school.
[17:03] SPEAKER_02:
That's great. Because it usually doesn't happen. And what I do believe that you're right on the point that without a district support, about the high level of support, we cannot possibly have partnerships. We can have a little partnerships here and there, but to sustain a real community partnerships with families, businesses, other learning institutions, It has to be done at the district level.
[17:29] SPEAKER_00:
Yeah, and I want to be clear that I take no credit for that. I really am grateful for the district support and the parent leadership that made that possible. What are some of the biggest misconceptions that you see, Irina, about partnerships between schools and families, communities? What are some of the misconceptions that we tend to have in schools?
[17:49] SPEAKER_02:
Well, there are actually a few of them. Thank you for asking. Number one is probably... the most common is the focus.
[17:58]
And it seems to be commonly perceived that schools have to partner with families to raise funds or offer students some fun experiences, like bake sales, donuts with mom, dad, chaperoning field trips, camp events, and so on and so on. But certainly there are many positives in such activities. But this is just one and not necessarily the main type of partnership that can be formed with families. There are also learning-oriented partnerships, service-oriented partnerships, enrichment-oriented partnerships, and they all can be developed with members of students' families. So number two, I would say, also very common, is we are thinking of engagement as a partnership. So we would say, well, family engagement or family school partnership, sort of the same thing.
[18:46]
But there is really a big difference between a mindset of parental engagement and the mindset of partnerships. In engagement, schools assume an active role while parents sort of sit around waiting to be engaged. And if this were the other way around, it's kind of funny to think about it. If the parents would be sitting around the dinner table thinking, how are we going to engage our teachers? So it's not really the same thing as a partnership. So what partnership means is a relationship among people.
[19:18]
where all parties realize, first of all, a give and take nature of any relationship. What do we wish to gain by embracing partnerships? What are we willing to give? In a culture of partnership entails that all parties share the ownership of what has been accomplished. And it's not about parents or community organization helping schools in educating their children, how it's commonly perceived. But it's about all stakeholders actually feeling responsible and accountable for creating the best learning environment for students.
[19:52]
And that mindset of partnership, if we want to think how can we switch gears, so to speak, it starts with a deeply seated belief that schools and therefore educators serve the public. And parents are an essential part of this public, and they have a huge vested interest, their children. This mindset also recognizes the fact that all the families have some skills to help their children succeed, and most parents are experts when it comes to their children. That would dictate respect for parental insights regarding their children's physical, instructional, social, and emotional needs. And the third misconception is that schools need to keep parents happy, satisfied, in other words. And that thinking dictates an emphasis on developing congenial relationships, when people are nice to each other and everything is good.
[20:46]
Of course, there is nothing wrong with being nice, of course, but the essence of a partnership and your partnership is in being collegial relationship. We need to think of parents as colleagues. And if we switch gears of thinking, well, they're just parents or helpers to they're my colleagues, I think that will change the entire attitude with how we act with parents.
[21:08] SPEAKER_00:
Oh, that's huge. We need to think of parents not just as helpers or as kind of customers, but as colleagues.
[21:16] SPEAKER_02:
Exactly. Customers is a good word here. Customer satisfaction.
[21:21] SPEAKER_00:
Well, and I think that's where we get defensive because we, you know, especially when a lot of what we hear from parents is a complaint or an idea for an event. And personally, what was hardest for me to deal with when parents would come in with ideas was let's do another event. Let's do another fundraiser or another this or another that, you know, and over time as a school, you kind of fill up with events, right? You have enough. Yeah. If any school that's been open for more than five years probably has enough events on the calendar already.
[21:49]
And we tend to say, okay, we're kind of done. We're kind of full. So no to everything from now on. But when we're colleagues, there's a level of listening that takes place. And I can think back to specific parents that I definitely had that relationship with as colleagues. and as partners in the education of their children.
[22:10]
And parents from all social classes who are involved in very different ways, I'm not just talking about people who showed up every day and did whatever task we asked them to and led the fundraiser, but in a variety of different ways, really contribute as decision makers and as partners in the education of their kids. So I love that vision.
[22:29] SPEAKER_02:
Definitely. And if you were to sit down with your school parents or leaders, and have a plan outlining all the events that they want to do and coordinating it and showing it, okay, that's what we are doing. Okay, what are you guys want to do? Then you can create a plan, an annual plan. And then during this year, you will not have any other requests for any additional events. They will understand what you're doing and you will understand what they're doing and how you can make it work.
[23:00] SPEAKER_00:
So the book is Building Powerful Learning Environments from Schools to Communities. Irina, if people want to find out more about your work and connect with you, where can they find you online?
[23:11] SPEAKER_02:
They can either connect with me using my Twitter account, which is at Irina Bokas. They can also visit my website, which is culturesofpartnerships.com. My book's currently available for pre-order on Amazon and Roman and Littlefield website. That is a publisher of my book. And that's pretty much sums it up.
[23:33] SPEAKER_00:
Well, Irina, thanks so much for joining me on Principal Center Radio.
[23:36] SPEAKER_02:
Thank you very much for having me. It was a pleasure.
[23:40] SPEAKER_01:
And now, Justin Bader on high-performance instructional leadership.
[23:44] SPEAKER_00:
So high performance instructional leaders, what did you take away from my conversation with Irina Bokas about school and community partnerships? I think one thing that really stands out to me is what we talked about right at the end there, the idea of seeing parents as colleagues and involving parents, not just as helpers, not just as people who put food out and cut things out and run copies for us, but as partners in decision making on behalf of their children. And we all have parents in our school communities who are easy to work with, who show up a lot, who offer to help. But I think the broader mission that we share with all of our parents is a desire to help our students succeed, to give them the support and the enrichment that they need. And all parents matter in that partnership.
[24:34]
So one thing I want to challenge you to do is to actually look at your decision-making processes. Now, sometimes we try to minimize decision-making by having policies and by having traditions and by having strong routines, and I think those are good things. But when we are making decisions, when we're actually sitting down and reconsidering what it is that we do as a school, we need to make sure that parents have a seat at that table and not just a representative or two, but that all parents have a voice at that table. So I want to encourage you to look into your decision making policies and procedures. And if you'd like some help with that, we have a course called High Performance Decision Making, which is part of our Principal Center Professional Membership. And in that course, we go through the different decisional roles that people can play, whether they are informed about decisions but not involved in making the decision, whether they are directly involved or represented by someone else, whether they actually make the decision themselves or make it as part of a team.
[25:33]
We go through all of those different considerations, and I think there's a lot to think about there with parents and how we can get parents to be more involved and more of, in the true sense, colleagues in the work that we do on behalf of students. So check that out at principalcenter.com slash join.
[25:51] Announcer:
Thanks for listening to Principal Center Radio. For more great episodes, subscribe on our website at principalcenter.com slash radio.
