Introduction

Mrs. Ford

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Communication

The Nova Scotia Education Act states that teachers and school principals are to “communicate regularly with parents of students in accordance with policies established by the regional centre,” (p. 22, p. 20, 2018, c. 1, Sch. A). However, studies show that a little over half of public-school parents report never even receiving a phone call home throughout the school year (Kraft, 2016, Kraft & Rodgers, 2014). The school-home, and more importantly the teacher-parent-student, connection has a major impact “on children’s development and academic achievement” and having “positive relationships with one another helps determine children’s academic success,” (Galindo & Sheldon, p. 90, 2012).

Communication Issue Between School and Home

Communication between school and home is frequently left to the teacher to facilitate with little to no guidance from the school. Overworked teachers often leave home-school communication as an afterthought unless there is a behavioral or academic issue within the classroom that needs to be addressed. While communication has always been important between school and home (Goodall, 2016), the teacher-parent communication remains infrequent (Kraft, 2016).

It is important that teachers create a positive learning environment for students as well as for parents from the very beginning in order to create purposeful communication (Fadum, 2019) regarding student learning. The “parent-teacher communication is essential in the process of building stronger relationships between teachers and parents/guardians and achieving a higher level of academic success,” (Nisbet & Opp, p. 3, 2017). The communication from school to home is usually presented as one-sided where “schools push information to parents but do not provide any means for parents to share information,” (Goodall, p. 123, 2016).

Different Forms of Communication

Passive approaches such as emails, newsletters, or class websites are popular one-sided forms of communication (Epstein, 2011) and do not allow parents to engage in meaningful conversations about their child or their child’s learning. Harris & Goodall (2008) state “we do not know enough about how to design programmes of intervention that work with different groups of parents in different settings. Creating such knowledge of design requires more in-depth research into the parental engagement that captures the voices of parents and students in a serious and authentic way” (p. 281).

Technology can drastically change the teacher-parent relationship and may even “capture the voices of parents and students,” (Harris & Goodall, 2008) when used as a communication tool in the classroom. Digital portfolio apps create an online learning space for home and school communication, where students can discuss and share their learning daily with their parents and where parents can engage in two-way communication with both the teacher and their students.

Digital Portfolio Applications

The adoption and application of these tools, FreshGrade, SeeSaw, or ClassDoJo will promote the development of a positive relationship with home through daily communication by using dialogue that engages parents in their students' learning in a convenient way. Creating a positive relationship between teacher and parent is important because families who feel more comfortable and welcome in school environments are more likely to be involved (Galindo & Sheldon, 2012).

Rationale

Resources

Chapter 1 of the Acts of 2018, The Education Act

Epstein, J. (2011). School, family, and community partnerships : Preparing educators and

improving schools (Second ed.).

Fadum, K. U. (2019). Digital portfolios : engaging parents to support early learning (T).

University of British Columbia. Retrieved from

https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0377235

Galindo, C., & Sheldon, S. (2012). School and home connections and children's kindergarten

achievement gains: The mediating role of family involvement. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 27(1), 90-103.

Goodall, J. S. (2016). Technology and school-home communication. International Journal of

Pedagogies & Learning, 11(2), 118-131. doi:http://dx.doi.org.qe2a-proxy.mun.ca/10.1080/22040552.2016.1227252

Harris, A., & Goodall, J. (2008). Do parents know they matter? Engaging all parents in learning.

Educational Research, 50(3), 277-289.

Kraft, M. (2016). The Underutilized Potential of Teacher-Parent Communication. Communities

& Banking, 27(2), 15-17.

Kraft, M., & Rogers, T. (2014). The Underutilized Potential of Teacher-to-Parent

Communication: Evidence from a Field Experiment. Economics of Education Review, 47(C), 49-63.

Nisbet, Kelsey and Opp, Allison. (2017). Effects of the Remind App on Parent-Teacher

Communication at a Mixed-Income Middle School. Retrieved from Sophia, the St.

Catherine University repository website: https://sophia.stkate.edu/maed/227

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