The purpose of promoting involvement is to build knowledge in the school about the child and knowledge among the parents about the educational, social, and cultural possibilities that exist for the child in the school. While there is continuous communication, educators can inform and share with parents everything related to the child's progress, difficulties, improvement of achievements, exposure to computerized knowledge systems, and more. Moreover, in the case of migrant parents from minority groups, the language of the school is not the mother tongue, therefore, the purpose of communication with the educators is also to mediate the school language and norms of the receiving society, and it may be key to student advancement and achievement.
A positive relationship was found between parental involvement and children's achievements and there is extensive activity in educational institutions in the development of parental involvement programs (Fan, Williams, & Wolters, 2012; Wilder, 2014).
Levinsky College of Education – in the course 'Language, Culture and Immigration' pre-service teacher explored their own educational vision and how it reflects pedagogical-didactic and social-behavioral responses to the culturally, linguistically, ethnically and religiously diverse classes. They experimented with activities designed to foster pluralistic educational perceptions that emphasize the importance of the teacher's activities to promote multicultural and multilingual education and to process educational and pedagogical activities tailored to each culture, race and social group.
The pre-service teachers studied theories on issues of language, culture and immigration and connected them to the field of teaching while developing intercultural competence, designing teaching methods of learning adapted to a multicultural and multilingual community. As part of the course, they formulated pedagogical and social answers to the question of how teachers and educators can integrate the culture of the country of origin and family literacy knowledge in the teaching-learning ways in the classroom and give expression to this in the teaching methods in the classes.
The pre-service teachers held a virtual exhibition on 'Parental and Community Involvement' in which they presented their educational perceptions and activities about parents' integration and called for action. Here are some examples and comments from the pre-service teachers’ reflections.
For our children
The announcement calls for action and offers several actions written in English - "It is important for us to note that we saw importance in the parents' ability to orient themselves in the poster, so we chose to write this poster in English".
Let's plant the seeds of tomorrow together
Joint activity Parents Teachers Students – 'Establishing a community garden in the school'. This poster was written in three languages: Hebrew, English and Tigrinya. Garden care is an experiential and creative activity, with a product, suitable for children as well as adults. The immigrants will be able to express their preference for special herbs used in their kitchen. A source of pride and appreciation in the school while strengthening their visibility in the neighborhood and strength their community.
Garden care will develop values of commitment, responsibility, emotion, care and investment on the part of the children. Preservation of the mother tongue will be done after the initial planting; the children and parents will prepare identification signs for the plants in the three languages.
Hand in hand if you just give me a hand - a call for partnership
Let's work together for a better future for our child
References:
Eliyahu-Levi, D., & Ganz-Meishar, M. (2019). The Personal Relationship between the Kindergarten Teacher and the Parents as a Mediator between Cultures. International Journal of Early Years Education. (https://doi.org/10.1080/09669760.2019.1607263)
Fan, W., Williams, C. M., & Wolters, C. (2012). Parental involvement in predicting school motivation: Similar and different effects across ethnic groups. Journal of Educational Research, 105(1), 21–35. (https://doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2010.515625)
Wilder S. (2014), effects of parental involvement on academic achievement: a meta-synthesis. Educational Review, 66, 377–397. (https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2013.780009)