Opening Community Circle (10 minutes)
What is one learning you’ve been sitting with, or one action you took since our last time together?
Community Agreements (5 minutes)
Reread the community agreements, participants share in a circle one that they want to push themselves to commit to today.
Facilitator's Script to Introduce CRSE Family and Community Engagement (2 minutes)
- “CRSE Family and Community Engagement is: the practice of authentic, equal partnership with families, rooted in a deep knowledge and appreciation for the rich social and cultural identities, assets and contexts that families bring to learning” (NYU Metro Center).
- “CR-S Family Engagement Sees Families As
- Assets, along with their cultures, that are essential to learning
- Partners of equal knowledge & power
- Experts on their children & communities
- Problem-solvers, not problems to be solved” (NYU Metro Center).
Discussion: RTWT Protocol (50 minutes)
- What makes this challenging to do?
- What structural & institutional barriers to CR-S family engagement exist?
- What beliefs, messages and experiences do school staff have that can be barriers to engagement with families?
- What beliefs, messages and experiences do families have that can be barriers to engagement with schools?
- What do we need to commit to do differently? What can CR-S family engagement look like in our school community?
Key Takeaways
- Trust is necessary in all relationships in a school.
- We often focus on teacher/student relationships without recognizing the true work it takes to create and often neglecting the other relationships in the school. staff/staff, staff/families, staff/admin, families/families, students/students
- Connecting to learning
- Outreach and communication
- Power-sharing and decision-making
Reflection: Journal (7 minutes)
- What is something you are learning that is challenging your thinking or beliefs? Affirming your thinking/beliefs?
- What is one action I/we can commit to doing after this session to work toward BIPOC and LGBTQ+ Liberation?
- What is one action I/we can commit to stop doing after this session to work toward BIPOC and LGBTQ+ Liberation?
Closing Community Circle (7 minutes)
Pick one of these to share as you go around the circle.
Additional Resources
- Resource sheet
- Documents from CRE Hub
- CRE Family Engagement
- Listening Tool for Educators for CRE Family Engagement
- Take Home Journaling Questions
- What identities do I share and not share with our parent community?
- How do I see our parent community? What narratives & stereotypes have unknowingly internalized that impact the way I see the communities I work with?
- What power and privilege do I have relative to families in my school? What is the possible role that privilege could play in my interactions with families?
- What practices can I intentionally engage in to start addressing those misconceptions and barriers to forming stronger relationships with parents?
Develop close partnerships with families and communities as sources of knowledge,
experience and skills, and leaders in shaping school priorities and deepening learning.
