Preservice educators' attitudes and beliefs towards families can have a profound impact on family-centered practices (FCPs) and family-professional partnerships (FPPs); unfortunately, negative beliefs about families can surface during preservice early childhood preparation and can be a challenge for faculty in higher education to address. This…

This qualitative study examined preservice special education teachers' (PSETs) movement toward critical consciousness and humility in working with families of children with disabilities using a Freirean lens grounded in three phases of consciousness: intransitive, transitive, and critical consciousness. The authors expanded upon a Family as…

This article reports on the development of preservice teachers' knowledge, comfort, and beliefs about family engagement in elementary mathematics. Nine traditional undergraduate female participants, who were involved in the delivery of 21st century mathematics learning workshops for families, completed both a pre- and post-assessment consisting of…

Traditionally pre-service teachers are undersupported as they develop culturally sustaining family engagement strategies through teacher preparation programming. As COVID-19 forced teachers, and in turn student teachers, to teach virtually, we explored how this setting affects student teacher access to students' home lives and families and impacts…

When teachers develop strong and effective partnerships with families, children experience significant benefits (see for example, Anthony, Williams, Zhang, Landry, & Dunkelberger, 2014; Fan & Chen, 2001; Henderson & Mapp, 2002; Jeynes, 2007; Weiss, Lopez, & Rosenberg, 2010). However, collaborating with families remains an area in…

Engaging parents in their children's education beginning in early childhood leads to improved academic and social outcomes for children (Brannon and Dauksas in PRISM: A Journal of Regional Engagement 1:94-105, 2012). In the field of early childhood special education (ECSE), teachers are likely to have frequent contact with diverse families, as the…

Special education teacher collaboration with families is essential to supporting students with disabilities, yet such partnerships often fall short in practice, and teachers report they are not adequately prepared to work with families. In order to prepare competent teachers for working with families, a Family Collaboration Project was…

This study investigated the practice of family-centred positive behaviour support professional training for preservice special education teachers to understand the outcomes of implementing this training in the practical field. The emphasis of the first phase was to provide foundational knowledge, namely 14 hours of lectures and 7.5 hours of video…

When families are engaged in their education, children's academic, behavioral, and social-emotional development is indirectly supported. Many teacher-training programs (TTPs) focused on preparing teachers to communicate and work with families have been developed, although inconsistencies regarding their effectiveness exist. The current…

Presently the family participation, which is considered as an important part of the education, makes a huge contribution to the whole education of the children. Therefore it is necessary to know the views and the attitudes of the teacher candidates especially before they become teachers and accordingly they should be supported regarding the family…

Teachers regularly communicate with families, yet few candidates are well-prepared for this professional activity. This gap can hinder family-school partnership and pupils' success. Given that candidates' opportunities to learn about family engagement (FE) depends on the decisions and values of individual teacher educators, we illustrate how FE…

The research is clear that parents and families are an essential component to the education of the whole child. Since this is so well-documented, it is essential for educator preparation programs to have coursework and experiences focused on this critical aspect of education. New teachers must leave educator preparation programs with the skills…

Strong family-teacher partnerships increase family engagement, promoting positive outcomes for children. Early childhood educators need knowledge, skills, and dispositions for establishing strong, meaningful partnerships with diverse families. This research investigated the impact of academic service-learning (ASL) on undergraduate students'…

Positive family-school-community relationships are associated with student success. Creating successful relationships with parents is an important but difficult task for teachers to master. Therefore, teacher candidates need opportunities to learn how to develop collaborative relationships with parents of all children, including children with…

This study reports on preservice teachers' reported feelings of confidence with learning and teaching science relative to their participation in a science enrichment program. Through Saturday Science, local families are invited to explore various topics with hands-on activities designed and facilitated by students in an early childhood education…