Blog 6 - Parent-Teacher Conferences

Parent-Teacher Conferences

While reading Chapter 3 in Managing Diverse Classrooms: How to Build on Students’ Cultural Strengths, it occurred to me that I have never been given any information on how to best conduct a conference with a parent in my teacher preparation. I taught for two years without knowing the best way to reach parents, and I was absolutely confronted by angry parents on more than one occasion (French isn’t exactly the most respected subject in deep east Texas). The major recurring theme of my parent-teacher conferences was “this is an elective; you shouldn’t be failing my child when it isn’t even a real subject.” I’m not sure I even had parent-teacher conferences, per se; we had Open House once a semester, where I met mostly with parents of students who were inclined to academic success, and I received phone calls and emails occasionally (read: after report cards were mailed).

To me, the most absurd part of my experience was during my first year teaching when, after not being able to get parents to take me seriously on the phone, I mailed a letter to parents of students who had not returned their textbooks at the end of the semester that my department head took to the library and had standardized for all teachers to use. I was happy to help streamline the process for the campus, but it felt a little strange to be giving advice when I felt clueless. The letters were sent as an act of desperation, which I suppose most teachers felt when trying to get textbooks returned at the end of the semester.

The only way to really remedy this would be to encourage teacher education programs, or possibly even school districts during their first-year teacher programs (and beyond), to focus more on how to host effective parent-teacher conferences. We are absolutely learning the benefits of parental involvement during our pre-service education, but applying it can be tricky. There are several programs that are adapting the medical simulation model to parent-teacher conferences, where they basically simulate a conference and then give the student (future teacher) feedback on how to improve or what to avoid (Dotger, Harris, & Hansel, 2008; Dotger, Dotger, & Tillotson, 2010). This idea would be extremely beneficial to all pre-service teachers.

Our book discussed a novel concept created by one of the Bridging Cultures teachers, who developed a new format for parent-teacher conferences. Focusing specifically on the collectivistic societies of Latino students, Ms. Altchech designed a group conference, where as many families as possible came at the same time and she provided an overview of the class, test scores, report cards, etc., and then allowed parents to approach her individually if they had any additional questions or concerns (Rothstein-Fisch & Trumbull, 2008). This seemed to work well for her class, and I can see it working well across all cultures because it allows parents who just need to know the basic information to receive it and go on with their day, and provides the same opportunity for parents who want to be more involved the one-on-one time traditional, student-led conferences provide. I know that I had several classes where my mother would probably have preferred to just get the information and get on to the next room (I am one of three children). It is a concept that I believe to be very relevant to teaching in this area, so I feel fortunate to have this text.

Further research on the topic led me to an article on parent-teacher communication within the African-American community, which is also relevant to teaching in this area. Regina Brandon (2007), assistant professor of special education at San Diego State University, found several factors that impact parental involvement in schools, and focused specifically on parent isolation in African-American families. Various reasons, including negative opinions of schools/faculty, low levels of their own education, socio-economics, and personal constraints, may lead to this feeling of isolation of African-American parents from schools. Brandon (2007) suggested several ways to increase school-home communication with these families, both from the school’s and from the individual teachers’ perspectives, such as establishing contact early, providing outlines of typical conference meetings, suggesting questions to ask, addressing parents by their formal names (Ms. Miller; Dr. Hoyt) until asked to do otherwise, and surveying parents about their expectations and conceptions from and of the school. These are, again, very transferrable to other cultures because they address a higher emphasis on manners and politeness.

Reading all of this information on various tips and strategies to hold parent-teacher conferences has me feeling much more prepared to potentially re-enter the classroom this Fall. At least now I know where to look for information. In my future classroom, I will most likely experiment with the group model followed by individual conferences with those who prefer them. As for using manners, I grew up in the South, so I don’t foresee a problem with that. I found that these techniques, though focused on Latino or African-American families, should be very helpful with all families represented in my future classroom.

References

Brandon, R. R. (2007). African American parents: Improving connections with their child’s educational environment. Intervention in School and Clinic. 43(2), p. 116-120.

Dotger, B., Harris, S., & Hansel, A. (2008). Emerging authenticity: The crafting of simulated parent-teacher candidate conferences. Teaching Education. 19(4), p. 337-349.

Dotger, S., Dotger, B., & Tillotson, J. (2010). Examining how preservice science teachers navigate simulated parent–teacher conversations on evolution and intelligent design. Science Education. 94(3), p. 552-570.

Rothstein-Fisch, C. & Trumbull, E. (2008). Managing Diverse Classrooms: How to Build on Students’ Cultural Strengths. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development: Alexandria, Virginia.