Since the beginning of 2 1 century, the voices from all walks of life in the United States calling for strengthening the relationship between schools and families are getting louder and louder. Many educational theories and practitioners have conducted extensive and in-depth discussions and studies on home-school cooperation. The National Education Goal Pane of the U.S. Department of Education lists "parental participation" as the eighth national education goal. That is, "every school has the responsibility to encourage parents to develop partnership with schools, promote parents' participation, and help children grow up healthily in social, emotional and academic aspects". Many primary and secondary schools have also taken measures to establish and improve the home-school contact system to attract parents to participate in and support school work. Home-school cooperation has entered a new stage of development. What role parents play in home-school cooperation plays a vital role in the breadth and depth of home-school cooperation.
First, multiple parental roles.
1? As learners and supporters
As learners, parents participate in re-education activities and learn how to educate their children. Participating in children's education in this role is the traditional mode of parents' participation, which is also the most common, and is often favored by teachers, parents and school administrators. Parents also generally feel relaxed in activities, and their roles are not threatened by others. In this kind of activity, the interview between parents and teachers is often limited to discussing the education of individual children (usually discipline), which has nothing to do with the overall education of the school. Parents are only interested in their children's progress, and the school requires parents to do their best to promote their children's progress. The relationship between teachers and parents keeps a certain distance, and the contact is mostly one-way, arranged by the school, and parents are generally passive. Home-school communication is the main feature of these activities. The main purpose of participation is that the school gets the support of parents for their children's education, and parents learn relevant educational theories and methods in activities.
Perhaps, American parents are not necessarily more enthusiastic about learning and helping teachers than our parents, but because the school actively creates conditions, parents can learn how to help their children finish their homework through various channels and support the school's work in many ways. There is a lot of information about parents' education on the campus network of American primary and secondary schools. Just log on to the campus network of an American primary and secondary school. Generally, there is a PTA (English abbreviation of American Parent-Teacher Association) column, which must contain various family education network resources. In addition to online parent education, schools are the base of parent education. 1992, the Carnegie Foundation prepared a special report entitled "Preparing for learning: the mission of the country". The report concludes that if all children are to be fully prepared for school, they must give priority to seven aspects. The second is to train capable parents and carry out school-based parent education programs in each state. Specific to the school, the ways to encourage parents to participate in learning are as follows: a. Use the opportunity of parents' meeting to explain to parents in the group how biology or history teachers use cooperative learning to teach courses; B. invite parents to participate in on-the-job training for teachers; C. Take the initiative to contact all parents-including home visits. They also use the following methods to provide more information to parents: publishing school and class newsletters regularly; Show students' works in the whole school and community (including banks, shopping malls, municipal government/township government); Organize student exhibitions and course festivals; Show students' growth record bags at parent-teacher conferences.
Therefore, if American parents can become active learners and supporters, it is largely because of the conditions created for them by American schools.
In the scope of support, American parents' support for teachers is not only to provide teaching AIDS and necessary facilities and information, but also to participate in student evaluation, curriculum reform, school daily affairs and so on.
For some parents, maintaining communication with their children's teachers, consultants and other teaching staff is in itself a purpose of participation and the only form of participation they pursue; But for other parents, this is just the beginning. They will gain the courage and experience to participate in these activities, thus playing a more active role in school education.
2? As a voluntary participant
Comer (1993) found in the actual investigation that 10% to 15% of parents serve the school as volunteers in the school development plan.
Participate in teaching and enrich school education resources. Parents' volunteers are rich curriculum resources of the school. They participate in classroom teaching activities to promote students' all-round development. The United States is a multi-ethnic country, and many children of new immigrants often need more individual counseling in class. At the same time, students' learning level is different. Conscious stratified teaching can better take care of children's needs. Many parents' volunteers have high cultural quality and professional expertise, and are often asked to help teach or even bishop some courses in class.
Parents often participate in planning and assisting in organizing large-scale school-wide activities. Parents have given great support to school sports meetings, art festivals, celebrations, outings and other activities, including participating in designing activity plans, helping to edit and print related leaflets, arranging activity venues, and some specific services and safety maintenance work. In these activities, on the one hand, parents play a role in supporting school education; on the other hand, by playing games with children, parents can better understand their children's development, thus effectively promoting communication between parents and children. In addition, it also reduces parents' concerns about the safety of their children's activities.
Parents actively participate in the school's education and management of their children. American public opinion generally believes that due to rigid standardization and procedural education, the power of many primary and secondary schools is over-concentrated, and bureaucracy and dogmatism prevail. In order to change this situation, on the one hand, as an integral part of the reform of school education management, educators have established a series of responsibility systems. This responsibility system allows parents and the wider society to participate in the formulation of school education goals, so that they can understand and master the situation of school education, thus giving play to their supervisory function. On the other hand, in the voice of reforming school education management, many parents have actively participated in the school education management of their children's schools. They join hands with school administrators and teachers to manage the school, study and solve various unique problems faced by school education, and jointly undertake the achievements of formal education for the next generation. Parents' participation has improved school education management and established a brand-new cooperative relationship among teachers, parents and school administrators.
Raise funds to improve school conditions. Parents often help schools to raise funds to fill the loopholes left by government funding cuts, including teaching tools, cleaning tools, scientific and technological equipment, teaching materials and even teachers' salaries. According to statistics, in recent years, 79% parents have donated money to their children's schools, 39% parents have donated at least 100 dollars a year, and 1 1% parents have donated at least 300 dollars. In order to raise funds for education, PIA has done its best at the grassroots level. In addition to encouraging members to donate money, collecting membership fees, and organizing members to raise money from relatives, friends and colleagues in the company, PIA will also come up with various ways, such as selling coupons for shops or restaurants to parents. Organize some student competitions, so that parents can give rewards according to students' grades as donations to the school, such as skipping rope competitions, and stipulate how much money to give to the school each time. This not only raised funds for the school, but also inspired students' love for the school. With the support of PIA, the pressure on schools and teachers is greatly reduced, and teachers can focus more on the education and growth of students. For parents, in order to give their children a better educational environment, they will not be stingy with donations (this money can be tax deductible). Of course, these donations are arranged by the parents' association as a whole, and the accounts are strictly audited, so they should be reported to parents and teachers publicly.
3? As a decision maker
American parents' participation in school decision-making and the formulation of children's education plans is protected by law. In theory, American parents pay education tax. As taxpayers, they have the right to supervise the use of their own taxes, which is the legal basis for Americans to participate in school decisions. American Public Law 93-380 (1974) stipulates that school districts and schools funded by the federal government should set up advisory committees, which should include a large number of parents to assist in the implementation and management of educational projects. A year later, the American Education for Disabled Children Act was promulgated, which stipulated that parents had the right to attend school meetings on children's education and to express their opinions on the decisions made by the school. The role of this regulation goes far beyond the special education of disabled children, and it also has a far-reaching impact on the participation of parents in the management of ordinary primary and secondary schools. Parents participate in the whole process of school decision-making, that is, decision-making formation, decision-making implementation and decision-making supervision.
Encourage the establishment of parent-teacher conferences or other parent groups to fully reflect and represent the interests of parents. All organizations involve parents and ensure that they receive appropriate training in policies, courses, budgets, school reform actions, safety and personnel, and all management bodies give parents equal representation. Parents are allowed to participate as partners when setting school goals, formulating or evaluating school-related projects and policies, and parents are encouraged to participate in school district, state and national committees to discuss and solve educational problems. Parent-teacher association, parent advisory committee and parent committee are the organizational forms for parents to participate in school decision-making, among which parent-teacher association is the most common organizational form. Parents' associations often send parents' representatives and school leaders to form a board of directors to jointly plan and manage school activities, so as to ensure that the school's educational policies and behaviors are in line with students' interests and can promote their healthy development.
Parents discuss the policies and practices of the school system, the methods adopted by parents and teachers in cooperation, the notices of students' grades and homework, and the associations in the school through discussion groups. Parents actively help the school to determine the educational objectives, goals in specific fields and courses for students to study, and put forward constructive suggestions on the appropriateness and revision of courses for the school's reference. In addition, the group formed by parents for a special problem is another form in which parents can influence the school decision-making process.
Second, the reason analysis
From the multiple roles played by American parents in primary and secondary school cooperation, it can be seen that their home-school cooperation has reached a higher breadth and depth. The author believes that there are several reasons for this, and hopes that the following analysis can provide useful suggestions for the cooperation between primary and secondary schools in China.
1. The promulgation of relevant laws and regulations provides a strong guarantee for this.
Since the 1960s, the United States has formulated a series of laws and regulations on the cooperation between primary and secondary school scientists and schools, which explicitly incorporated the right of parents to participate in school education into the laws of the federal government, thus providing a strong institutional guarantee for them. 1970, the us congress passed the amendment to the primary and secondary education law, in which the first article clearly stipulates that every school district with federally funded projects should set up a parent advisory Committee to assist schools in designing, formulating and implementing projects to promote the development of children from low-income families, and the members of the Committee should be selected from the parents of students. Parents' right to participate in education has been formally incorporated into the federal education regulations. And the promulgation of the above-mentioned Law on Education for Disabled Children, which stipulates that parents have the right to attend school meetings related to their children's education and have the right to express their opinions on the decisions made by the school. The Goal of 2000: Educate America Act also stipulates that every school should actively develop cooperation with parents, let them cooperate with teachers, help children study at home, and welcome parents to participate in school education decisions.
2. Standardized organization promotes its rapid development.
Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), the organizational form of school cooperation for primary and secondary school students in the United States, has shown a trend of normalization, forming an integrated organization from the state to the local level, which plays a decisive role in parent-school cooperation.
It is not difficult to see that PTA not only provides parents with various network resources for family education, but also provides rich conditions for parents to voluntarily participate in school education, such as organizing parents to raise funds and improving school conditions. Moreover, parents' participation in school decision-making is mainly carried out in the process of parent-teacher conference activities or meetings as members of parent-teacher conferences.
PTA has common tasks, common activities, complete organizational forms, perfect rules and regulations from the state to the local to the school, and the superiors guide and help the subordinates. American Parent-Teacher Association has a long history, a large number of personnel and remarkable achievements, and has become the most influential children's NGO in China.
3. The democratic and open school management mode provides a relaxed atmosphere for it.
All democratic and open management models attach more importance to the relationship between schools and the external environment, while centralized and closed management models tend to reduce the relationship between schools and the environment to the lowest degree in order to perform their duties. Public primary and secondary schools in the United States belong to a typical democratic and open management model. The headmaster is in charge of school management. Principals have a high degree of autonomy in running schools, and principals share some power with teachers and parents. Parents' representatives directly participate in the school Committee and exercise decision-making power. In addition, the National Association of School Boards also actively explores other forms to allow all those affected by decision-making to participate in decision-making, that is, "sharing decision-making". This approach includes setting up a "field committee" or a "single-purpose group", which includes parents, students, community representatives and representatives of all people directly affected by the policy. This kind of cooperation can only be responsible to the public through the school board of directors, share power with the school board, cooperate with each other, and the minority obeys the consensus.
4. Schools actively create conditions for parents to participate in education.
On the websites of American primary and secondary schools, the school has set up many resources about parents' education and how parents can help their children study and live, covering students' homework study, safety education, health education, ways to participate in school activities and so on. Parents can get very rich educational resources online. At the same time, as an important base for home-school cooperation, the school will also take the initiative to invite parents to participate in various trainings to educate their children; Take the initiative to contact all parents-including home visits. It is precisely because the schools in the leading position of education actively create many conditions that the cooperation between home and school can develop quickly and well.
In short, the cooperation between primary and secondary schools in the United States is relatively mature, and parents have played a variety of roles and played a decisive role. At the same time, how the state, various educational organizations and groups, schools and teachers promote the depth and breadth of parents' participation in education is also worthy of our study.
(References omitted)
Editor Chloe Wang.