The Importance of Anti-Racism in Trauma-Informed Family Engagement

Students of color are disproportionately affected by exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), racial trauma, and traumatic stress. Trauma-informed interventions in schools can promote healing among ACE-impacted students of color. These interventions require collaboration with family members to decide upon services and referrals; however, educators commonly face challenges with engaging families. The study purpose is to understand barriers and facilitators to engaging families in trauma-informed mental health interventions for ACE-impacted students of color. As part of a larger school-based trauma-informed trial (Link for Equity), 6 focus groups were conducted with parents/guardians of color and school staff (n = 39) across 3 Midwestern school districts. Participants were asked open-ended questions about trauma, discrimination, school supports, and family engagement. Transcripts were coded by two team members, and thematic analysis was used to identify barriers/facilitators to family involvement. Results indicated that families of ACE-impacted students of color commonly experienced racism including microaggressions and stereotypes from the school community, which deterred engagement and prevented trusting relationships between families and school staff. Parents highlighted feeling excluded from decisions related to their child's education and that their voices were not heard or understood. Participants discussed the need for schools to consider how family obstacles (such as mental health and trauma) may prevent families from engaging with staff, and they recommended structural changes, such as anti-racism trainings for educators. Findings highlight the need for anti-racist work that addresses interpersonal and structural racism in schools, in order to promote family engagement in trauma-informed mental health interventions.

Recruiting African American Children for Research: An Ecological Systems Theory Approach

With health disparities still pervasive and persistent in the United States, medical researchers and social scientists continue to develop recruitment strategies to increase the inclusion of racial/ethnic minority groups in research and interventions. Effective methods for recruiting samples of African American participants for pediatric research may be best understood when situated within an overarching conceptual model-one that serves to organize and explain effective recruitment strategies. A theoretical framework well suited for this purpose is Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory, which views individuals as influencing and being influenced by (both directly and indirectly) a series of interconnected social systems. Based on the ecological systems theory and on previous research from multiple domains (e.g., medicine, psychology, public health, social work), in the current article, we review strategies for effective recruitment of African American children and adolescents for research.

An Investigation of Greek Teachers' Views on Parental Involvement in Education

Parents' involvement in their children's education has been shown to have positive results in various aspects of child development such as behaviour, social-emotional development and academic performance. This article focuses on teachers' views of the major problems affecting home-school partnership and possible solutions to improve communication between school and family. It examines teachers' accounts of the components of parental participation in the process of pupil learning and evaluates teachers' suggestions for improving teacher-parent collaboration in Greek schools. The results show that Greek secondary school teachers have a positive attitude towards parental involvement in school but find that in fact parental involvement in Greek schooling is poor and infrequent. Most teachers ascribe poor parent-school relationship to factors such as parental unwillingness to respond to school initiated partnership schemes and to the parents' educational and social background. Generally speaking, Greek teachers appear to be in favour of an active collaboration with parents which will benefit schools, families and pupils.