Families and communities

Listening to parents and teachers and then working on ways to close the gap between their widely differing expectations.

Here are the voices of 50 women who are seldom heard – working class mothers – commenting on their own schooling and that of their children.

An innovative approach for introducing an HIV/AIDS topic to the health curriculum, showing the importance of involving parents in knowledge transference.

Children in violent homes are often very isolated from support outside the home. School can be one place where their need for help or protection is identified. How should teachers respond?

If home-based education is effective, can schools be "de-schooled" by allowing the "invitational school" to replace the "custodial school".

Exploring children's perceptions of families as part of a classroom activity can be a valuable way of broadening and challenging their pictures of families.

Parental perspectives on their children's progress can be invaluable to the assessment process, as shown by two British examples – ALL ABOUT ME and Guidelines for Writing a Parental Profile.

Is the traditional folklore that parents and teachers are on different sides of the fence still valid? Is there a case for "them" and "us"?

When a school acknowledges its cross-cultural differences and reaches out to all parents, the students can achieve better academically. This success story comes with the warning that improved home/school communication needs to be maintained for the benefits to continue.

Questions and responses that provide a starting point for professionals who are beginning to grapple with the meaning of inclusive school programmes. Reprinted from Phi Delta Kappan, October, 1996, pp. 150–156.