Three Sun West teachers have authored a report entitled Promising Practices for Meaningful Family Engagement. The three teachers are Pam Grasby Sawatzky from Westberry Elementary School in Kindersley, Amber Thompson from Outlook Elementary School and Carly Robson Gilchrist from Walter Aseltine School in Rosetown. Their report was based on research they did that was recognized in 2020 with the McDowell Foundation Research Award. Click here to read their research report summary.
As three researchers, each from distinct rural communities, they sought to establish and communicate a host of possible practices that are central to engaging families to support student learning. Their project proposal asks, “What practices offer possibilities for the meaningful engagement of parents?” and seeks as well to understand, “What are the critical elements of these practices that contribute to success?”
Knowing the learning will be deeply affected by not only the positive experiences that they had alongside the families they worked with, they also analyzed:
It is their hope that through their research dissemination, teachers in both rural and urban centres will have a window into an understanding of the possibilities to create authentic family engagement opportunities.