This past summer, I was asked to create a family literacy handout to be distributed to Chester residents. Knowing that Chester residents are marginalized in many ways, I was thinking a lot when I was creating the handout: What are the impacts of this handout? Even though I tried to broaden the definition of literacy so that it is not limited to things their children are learning in schools, there still contains some very white, middle-class way of understanding family literacy—reading books with/to their children for example. However, I was uncomfortable making the handout because I knew by then that Chester was holding an ever-growing Hispanic population and they might not be literate in English. Also, many Chester residents, regardless of race, are handling two or three jobs at the same time, so it is really a luxury for them to take time reading with their children. Making this handout to me was like blaming at those parents of not being responsible enough for their children, but I know most of them are very responsible.
This week's readings really resonate with this experience and answer some of the questions that I had. In particular, they broaden the definition of "parental involvement" to parental engagement, recognizing that there are a lot more ways in which parents can engage in their children's learning processes. Out of school programs are definitely a way to help. From my experiences in Chester, and also in my field placement at Furness high school, communities are oftentimes more helpful than schools. There would be certain programs gearing towards immigrants or emergent bilingual students for their needs. In these programs, as Gallo and Link observed, students would feel more comfortable talking about their political circumstances and other stuff that they are not willing to or cannot discuss in schools. Moreover, different cultures may have different expectations to teachers and schools, so the communication between teachers and parents is also very important. As García contends, teachers should act like ethnographers to really learn from students' households and communities. It is essential for teachers to decolonize the concept of parental engagement and make a more humanized, individualized way for each student and their family, inviting and cooperating with the student's family and community to better serve for their education. In other words, teachers and schools should not put the narrow understanding of parental involvement to blame the parents of not being responsible. Rather, they should recognize their funds of knowledge and leverage it.