Engaging 'Hard to Reach' Parents: Teacher-Parent Collaboration to Promote Children's Learning [Paperback]

This is a readable yet academically rigorous book that draws together findings from contemporary theory, research and practice. It provides a range of positive and constructive approaches for schools and other organizations which will help them to meet the challenge of engaging effectively with parents, and in so doing improve the quality of education for all children, especially those from disadvantaged communities.
Peter Farrell, Sarah Fielden Professor of Special Needs and Educational Psychology, School of Education, University of Manchester

Clarity and integrity permeate this important book. An excellent variety of real-life examples of schoolparent collaboration is discussed, and the balance of policy, theory and practice is outstandingly well-handled. This highly readable book will appeal to both practitioners and education students from the UK and from international contexts.
Professor Gary Thomas, Head of School of Education, University of Birmingham

Teachers often comment that the parents they most want to speak to have least contact with the school. There are many reasons why families participation in schooling may be low  from difficulties with English to pressures of work  but there is consistent evidence that all parents are acutely interested in their childrens education and want to know how to help. Parents are a childs first and most enduring teachers, and they create home environments where children spend much of their waking lives. Their involvement has an impact throughout childrens school careers.

In Engaging Hard to Reach Parents, Anthony Feiler emphasizes what schools can do to facilitatethe communication process, rather than adopting a blaming or deficit view of families. Real-world case studies of initiatives ló4