Family Engagement in Education: Inclusive Approaches for Creating Collaborative and Equitable School Communities

Family Engagement in Education is a timely and powerful text that emphasizes the transformative power of strong, collaborative partnerships between families and teachers as essential to creating inclusive, equitable learning environments for students.

Drawing on the lived experiences of educators, family members, counselors, administrators, and community activists, this book explores how schools can tap into the vast knowledge, energy, and resources that families offer. Through authentic stories of successful collaborations and research-backed educational practices, it provides theoretical overviews and practical strategies for building reciprocal and positive family-teacher relationships. The book begins with appreciative inquiry as a strengths-based framework to examine practices that deepen our understanding of why these partnerships are key to promoting equity in education and to advancing a relational pedagogy. The authors’ collective insights urge educators and families to work in tandem to support all students, creating school communities where every voice is valued and heard.

Essential reading for educators and school administrators, Family Engagement in Education is a roadmap to creating family-centered schools where students thrive and every family is an integral part of the educational journey.

Joseph Passi is an Assistant Professor of Special Education at Purdue University Northwest. His research and teaching focus on inclusion, family engagement, special education law, and sociocultural perspectives on disability. Before entering higher education, he taught in Chicago Public Schools for 17 years.

Paul Thayer teaches the family-centered-care courses in the Child Life & Family-Centered Care program at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. His areas of expertise include grief and loss, professional ethics, and family studies. Before joining BU Wheelock, he was a pediatric hospice director.

Janice Littlebear tutored K-8 migrant students in their Alaskan homes and taught Grades 3-8 in one of the most diverse communities in our nation for nearly two decades. Janice then worked at the University of Alaska, leading the Alaska Statewide Mentor Project in serving teachers new to the profession, helping them embed cultural standards and place-based strategies into everyday instruction. Dr. Littlebear continues to consult with educators about cultural pedagogy.

Michelle Parker-Katz is Clinical Professor Emerita at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she taught, did fieldwork in public schools, and coordinated programs in elementary general education and in Special Education. She also taught in the UIC Foundations of College Teaching Certificate program to help folks learn best practices for college teaching with community connections.