Families take the floor at the second sessions of Transnational Meeting 5 in Poznan

In this third topic of the 5th Transnational Meeting, the essential role of families in motivating children and young people was addressed, and how their participation in education is key to improving the school experience and boosting good academic results. The objectives of the meeting were:

• To know about parental involvement in schools and how this improves education experience and results of their children.
• To look at ON BOARD partners’ -and other external- experience of parents’ involvement in education and school’s projects and see how this can be developed as part of the Educational Innovation Network project.
• To work on one project to be jointly developed by schools-families in each of the ON BOARD partner cities.

Families and teachers, a sometimes difficult but indispensable relationship

As usual, the session was attended by different stakeholders, in this occasion the invited participants mainly included teachers, parents, school headmasters, members of Educations Departments, representatives of parents’ councils and ON BOARD ULG (URBACT Local Groups) Coordinators. Jordi Collet, lecturer in the Sociology of Education at the University of Vic, Barcelona, took the floor and focused on some of the barriers that currently hinder the family-professor-student relationship:

• The problem inherited from educational models shaped in the nineteenth century, which did not consider the role of families and the participation of the community in the educational function.
• The frequent misunderstanding between parents and teachers and the lack of time for teachers to develop activities involving families.
• The difficulty of access to technological tools by the most disadvantaged families.

Family diversity in today's Europe

Collet pointed out that in Europe today the idea of family is changing, in form, composition, structure and functions, and has become much more diverse. In Collet's opinion, public administrations must take into account this plurality and ensure that no one is left behind in educational plans, guaranteeing equal opportunities for all and promoting forums for school-family participation more than ever.

At the end of his speech, Professor Collet gave some advice on how to improve the proposals involving families put forward by the members of the ON BOARD project. He referred to some successful practices that have helped to free up relations between families and schools, strengthening bonds of trust and creating spaces for parent-teacher-schools participation. 

Sharing ideas and critical friends’ feedback

Project partners also had the chance to share best practices on involving families in education projects and how to transfer them. ON BOARD cities shared before the meeting videos showing these practices. They also had the opportunity to share them with their ULG, specially families’ representatives and see which projects would be interested to replicate/adapt at their cities.

During the online session, ON BOARD partner cities worked in separate groups with their ULG members and defined which project to involve families would they adapt back home and how. These practices would act as a driver to boost families’ involvement in the construction of their local Educational Innovation Networks.

Each of the partners' proposals received constructive feedback from another member (“Critical friend”) to help them improve. 

ON BOARD & COVID-19

ON BOARD partners took the opportunity of the TM5 meeting to held an informal update on the current situation arising from COVID-19 and how participating cities are handling it through the educational innovation network.

Would you like to know more about the learnings and conclusions? Find here the TM5 Report with the main conclusions and learnings. 

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