ERIC Number: ED383402
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1993
Pages: 103
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
A Parent Awareness Program for the Junior High School Setting with a Focus on Proactive Communication through a Political Empowerment of Parents.
Marchesani, Richard J.
An 8-month practicum was developed to eliminate the communication gap experienced by parents moving from the multi-communicative atmosphere of the elementary school to the relatively incidental reporting environment of the junior high school. The practicum sought to increase home-school communication through parental awareness and involvement. An unexpected outcome was the intensity of teacher resistance to parental involvement, causing a shift in the practicum's focus from awareness to political involvement. Subjects were 72 parents of sixth- through ninth-grade students, and an unspecified number of teachers and students. Parents collaborated on publishing a newsletter, writing letters, and organizing educational forums to foster debate on issues of education specific to their children and the school environment. Increased parental involvement led to the establishment of school committees seeking to replace the junior high school with a middle school. Results of the practicum indicated that the solutions to many of the problems with the school were political, and that understanding the power base of both teachers and the union is a necessary precept to any parental action for improved home-school communication. (Ten appendices include questionnaires and post-program surveys, workshop handouts, a home-school relations checklist, and a letter from parents to the newspaper. Contains 26 references. (SM)
Descriptors: Change Strategies, Communication (Thought Transfer), Family School Relationship, Intermediate Grades, Junior High Schools, Middle Schools, Parent Attitudes, Parent Participation, Parent School Relationship, Politics of Education, Questionnaires, Resistance to Change, Student Attitudes, Teacher Attitudes
Publication Type: Dissertations/Theses - Practicum Papers; Reports - Descriptive; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
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Author Affiliations: N/A
Note: Ed.D. Practicum Report, Nova University. Some pages contain light, broken type.