Creatures of Habit

The missing link: parents in a 21st century education

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Much of my thought process and conversation with peers has revolved around the implications of teaching 21st century literacies, student reaction, and school-based experience. But I have realized this week that I have been ignoring a key component in this profound transformation of the education system: the parent. While being so consumed on student/teacher reaction to these new focuses and strategies, I have largely left out the question of how a parent's role may or may not fundamentally change.

I think this is an important point to postulate on, as throughout my studies I have been made increasingly aware of parental impact on student achievement. Students with parents who are engaged in their learning tend to be more successful in their academic output. However, this can be affected by a variety of factors, including socio-economic status. A classic study that demonstrates this statement was the six-year study by Hart and Risley (1995) that followed the outcomes of children selected from different socioeconomic backgrounds. They found that by age 3, the children of professional parents were adding words to their vocabularies at about twice the rate of children in welfare families. Both the quantity and quality of phrases directed at the children by caregivers correlated directly with income levels. They found that a pattern of slow vocabulary growth helped put in place a slower cognitive pattern by the time children turned 3. In fact, IQ tests performed later in childhood showed the welfare students' scores trailing behind those of the more affluent children by up to 29%. But when put into context, these types of studies make sense. If you are on shift work, do not have adequate access to education or resources, your children will be fostered within that social sphere and will not have experiences beyond that until they are of age to provide it for themselves (eg. reading books or going on trips).

courtesy of www.ascd.org

Not only may parents have cultural, ethnic, religious, or class-based differences from the social school structure; they will now be in a different educational sphere. The way in which our parents were taught is drastically different from the 21st century learning process. Even when I go into placements at the high school I graduated from, I am consistently shocked to see how much has changed even within four years. In consideration of this I believe that parent-student-teacher engagement is more important than ever. While I do not suggest that parents should dictate how 21st century learning should look in the classroom, they should be made aware of it so they can assess if the domestic and educational spheres of their children are complimentary. 

While the majority of online sources showcasing 21st century learning is very teacher/administrator-directed, I did manage to find some really great sources for parents to gain a better understanding of their child's education system:

A Parent's Guide to 21st-Century Learning by Edutopia is a downloadable PDF for parents interested in understanding the new framework for learning across grade levels. As advertised, "Discover the tools and techniques today's teachers and classrooms are using to prepare students for tomorrow -- and how you can get involved. What should collaboration, creativity, communication, and critical thinking look like in a modern classroom? How can parents help educators accomplish their goals? We hope this guide helps bring more parents into the conversation about improving education. " 

Parents & Communities - The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is an interactive website that provides resources for parents to understand what 21st century skills are and why they are important in the education system. P21's publications allow parents to understand how they can prepare their children for active engagement in their studies. Like Edutopia, this site also provides downloadable PDF documents.

I think that it's really important for parents to receive resources like this to better understand what is going on in their children's classrooms, and how they can be an effective mentor at home to continue the development of learning. If we can't provide this for parents, our advocating for a system that can better engage students will be drowned out by the negative and ill-researched acclamations of media such as this globe and mail article, which likened the effective and creative strategies of individual teachers to a hybrid version of Summerhill. There is a clear need in the education system to advocate these changes to not only students, (soon to be-)teachers, and administrators - but to parents as well. If we are unable to open the minds of all involved, we are condemned to be creatures of habit.

21C Learning: implications on parenting?

The obvious first implication in the new story that may conflict with notions of parenting is character education. While I believe that character education is important for the success of the student and their intellectual growth, the actual process of implementation might be more difficult. Who gets to decide what values promote grit, creativity, and other important aspects of character education. Some parents may argue that they send their children to learn, not to be. Some parents may view character education as an inherent intrusion into the parenting styles in the ways they teach their children to conceptualize the world

Can objectives like the development of citizenship have different values to different people?