Abstract
Across the international arena, the importance of families working with schools in the interests of improving learning for students is increasingly being recognised. This chapter discusses a system-wide reform effort by four Catholic dioceses in the Australian state of Victoria directed towards improving student outcomes through strengthening family-school-community partnerships; and the role of educational systems in supporting and enabling such reform. The reform effort was located in the Australian Commonwealth Governments’ Family – School Partnerships Framework for parent engagement, based on Epstein et al.’s (2002) categories of parent engagement. This provided a useful guide for considering the multiple dimensions of family school partnerships and student learning. These dimensions included: communicating; connecting learning at school and learning at home; building community and identity; recognising the role of the family; consultative decision-making; collaborating beyond the school; and participating. Based on data collected from nine case study schools, this chapter discusses school and system level impacts on improved links between parent participation and student learning.
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Acknowledgements
The research which informs this chapter was undertaken as part of a Catholic Education Commission of Victoria funded project 2010–2013. Special recognition is given to the contribution of senior officers in Catholic education. In particular Stephen Elder, Maria Kirkwood, Elizabeth McQuade-Jones, Mary Tobin, Dennis Torpy, John Stafford, Shani Prendergast, Anne Speakman, Mary Lovelock, and Brenda Keenan.
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Mitchell, A., Chapman, J.D., McNamara, S., Horne, M. (2014). Schools and Families in Partnership for Learning in Faith-Based Schools. In: Chapman, J., McNamara, S., Reiss, M., Waghid, Y. (eds) International Handbook of Learning, Teaching and Leading in Faith-Based Schools. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8972-1_38
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