Page 3890 - Week 12 - Thursday, 30 October 2014
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Since coming to government, the federal coalition has focused strongly on both these issues. “Parental engagement” and “empowerment in our schools” are both modern buzzwords used frequently in conversations these days, whenever education matters are discussed. In truth, both have been the subject of much research, both domestically and internationally, for many years.
If we go to the first part of this MPI, parental engagement, I well remember the president of the Association of Parents and Friends of ACT Schools, APFACTS, coming to talk with me some months before the last election, expressing frustration that she was not able to get more traction on the importance of parental engagement within the ACT government and school community. I was able to reassure her that the ACT Liberals well understood the significance of parental engagement, not just as a policy framework, but in practice.
APFACTS have certainly led the charge on the need to invest in a better understanding of the importance of parental engagement. They have conducted workshops and spoken in many forums on this issue.
Earlier this year the minister for education announced that the ACT government was funding some work by the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth, ARACY, on a project to improve the level of parental engagement across ACT public, Catholic and independent schools. It is a welcome initiative, and I congratulate the minister for taking a collaborative and inclusive approach to this subject.
It was good to see the announcement endorsed by all sides of the education spectrum—Moira Najdecki from the Catholic Education Office; the ACT Council of Parents & Citizens Associations president, Vivienne Pearce; and the APFACTS president, Charuni Weerasooriya. Both parents groups had been lobbying for some time for what Ms Pearce termed “a more structured approach to parental engagement”.
The research the minister commissioned was aimed at establishing a definition of parental engagement, a measurement tool to look at levels of engagement across the ACT as well as benchmarking how parental engagement can improve outcomes. It is important that all facets of education in the ACT—public, Catholic and independent—are being included in this research, because there was a time, not so long ago, that ACT Labor ministers chose not to recognise any education system other than that delivered in a public setting.
The research alliance commissioned to undertake the work published a paper in 2012 titled “Parental engagement in learning and schooling: lessons from research”. The paper brings together current research on parental engagement, highlighting the benefits, demonstrating what works and also indentifying strategies to facilitate engagement. It describes parental engagement in broad terms, calling it a partnership between families, schools and communities, raising awareness among parents of the benefits of engaging in their children’s education, and providing them with the skills to do so.
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