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The family, school, and community often collaborate with the ultimate objective of improving the well-being of learners. Nyatuka (2017) asserts that family-school-community collaborations are a shared obligation and reciprocal practice whereby learning institutions and various community organizations and agencies work together with families on constructive and culturally suitable forms, and families adopt measures to proactively enhancing their children’s learning and development. Learning institutions and community initiatives also strive to heed to parents, encourage them, and ensure that they have the resources and to be impactful companions in their children’s learning experiences (Nyatuka, 2017). The relationship between the three parts affirm that collaborations are important for assisting learners achieve their maximum potential, and while the engagement of community and parents has always been a basis of learning institutions, increased acknowledgement and support of the significance of these collaborative initiatives is required. State agencies focusing on education and institutions of higher learning are increasingly becoming aware of the importance of family-school-community collaboration and are dedicating enough time and resources to this area. Whereas this course covered a lot of valuable information about family-school-community partnership, I believe that I can offer more insight into the subject by reiterating that problems are mitigated over time on mutual basis and the relationship is nurtured over time rather than spontaneously.
An insight that I feel that the course does not address adequately is its lack of emphasis on the need to mitigate problems on mutual basis instead of putting blame on each other. When learners are encountering challenges, parents and school personnel know that two-way communication is needed. I would want to emphasize that school personnel and families understand that they perceive the children’s conduct in their respective environments, and thus, withhold ruling until all parties have had the chance to offer input. I will use the opportunity to show that blame should not be directed only to the learning institution or the family. I would urge that stakeholders abide by the recommended approach for solving problems, which entails identifying the problem, analyzing the issue, describing the matter, and looking for the original causes (Firend, 2014). Furthermore, I would recommend that the team finding a solution to an identified problem come up with alternative remedies, implement the remedy, and measure the outcomes to determine whether the adopted solutions give the targeted results (Firend, 2014). I feel that the course ought to have addressed the need for mutual problem solving because it is not uncommon to witness constraints or misunderstandings in what people do. However, disregarding this area could derail how parties into the family-school-community collaboration deal with emerging issues.
The other issue that I would recommend that be part of the program because I feel it did not receive much attention is the need to emphasize that family-school-community partnerships are cultivated and nurtured over time rather than abruptly. I base my argument on the view by Molina (2013) that the relationships between family and school is an ongoing undertaking. I would reiterate that educators and families need to collaborate in various initiatives within and across learning facilities to mitigate mutual issues and offer mutual guidance for improving the learning progress of school-going children. Thus, teacher acknowledge that engaging partners, and particularly forming stronger ties with parents in the present time will bolster the collaboration in future. The additional information is important because some groups working to form family-school-community collaborations may give up when initial attempts fail to give the needed outcomes. However, this should not be the case because such initiatives are bound to encounter such problems and resilience is what keeps people together. Nonetheless, failing to give this area the attention it deserves could affect the creation of family-school-community relationships because stakeholders may be tempted to give up when certain elements do not work as expected yet being a little more patient would result in success.
Each of the identified factors merit consideration because they contribute significantly to the target topic. I believe that including information that shows the need to solve problems mutually is important because it is expected that family-school-community partnerships would encounter challenges as it happens in other areas. For example, the relationship could be constrained by lack of enough support from either side, which could create more pressure on the partnership. Therefore, advocating for the inclusion of this concept in the course content would be a significant benefit because stakeholders in such relationships would know what it takes to perform well. I also feel that the need to explain that such relationships are nurtured over time is important and relevant to the topic because it would help to reinstate commitment and resilience even during difficult times when things do not appear to be working out well. Consequently, the team responsible for creating the curriculum that touch on family-school-community partnerships should see the need to include these two suggestions to allow both educators and learners acquire a broader view of the subject. Furthermore, incorporating the two concepts in the curriculum would provide the opportunity to build stronger and more productive family-school-community relationships.
References
Firend, A. (2014). The problem solving model “PSM”. Global Business and Management Research: An International Journal, 7(1), 4-7. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282122648_The_Problem_Solving_Model_PSM
Molina, S. (2013). Family, school, community engagement, and partnerships: An area of continued inquiry and growth. Teaching Education, 24(2), 235-238. doi:10.1080/10476210.2013.786894
Nyatuka, B. (2017). A survey of school-family-community partnerships in Kenya. Journal of Professional Capital and Community, 2(2), 229-243. doi:10.1108/JPCC-04-2017-0010