By Joanna Geller, Ph.D.
Cultural brokers are individuals or organizations that help culturally and linguistically diverse families navigate the language, customs, and norms of schools and school system while simultaneously affirming parents’ culture and rights. Often, cultural brokers have titles such as “home-school liaison” or “family engagement coordinator.” Ample literature shows how cultural brokers promote family engagement.1 However, there is little research on how cultural brokers can develop teacher and staff capacity to engage in equitable partnerships with families. This is a missed opportunity, because as both school staff and community members, cultural brokers have the unique potential to bridge divides between schools and families.
The 4M framework, introduced in this brief, stems from a qualitative case study exploring the impact of a cultural broker on educators in one school located in a mid-size southern city, where >85% of the students were Black, and the majority of teachers were White. The cultural broker, who was also the school’s community school coordinator, facilitated an in-service professional development program, called Teachers Involving Parents (TIP).2 The TIP program was held after school for six 90-minute sessions, and teacher participation was voluntary. I observed each session and conducted follow-up interviews with 10 of the 12 educators enrolled in TIP, as well as the cultural broker.