Partnership pedagogies : family-school-community educational partnerships in disadvantaged settings

Education and community are inextricably linked and their mutual reliance validates
the existence of the school. Education at its best unleashes human potential and
enables individuals and communities to flourish. This is best achieved when families,
schools and communities work closely in partnership in the education process.
Developing educational partnerships, however, is a challenging and complex
endeavour. As gatekeepers in this undertaking, teachers are required to move beyond
traditional teaching roles, to remain open to new ideas and experiences, and to build
new alliances with parents and local communities. Such a model of teaching and
learning challenges schools to become active agents of change in renewing the vitality
of life within their communities. In this study, ethnographic and grounded theory
approaches were employed to explore home-school-community educational
partnerships in five Irish primary schools and in so doing endeavoured to construct
partnership pedagogies that will help inform future policy in educationally
disadvantaged settings. The study argues that a variety of benefits and outcomes for
families, schools and local communities accrue from working in partnership in
children's education. The range of outcomes and benefits for children and adults
include academic achievement, social and personal development and capacity
enhancement within the community. Family-school-community educational
partnerships allow for a greater sense of ownership of the educational agenda, and this
in turn generates higher levels of intrinsic motivation and a more culturally responsive curriculum. As a consequence, families and local communities develop a closer identification with their school, resulting in enhanced social capital throughout
the school community.