Often, these groups have different ideas about what involvement really means. The challenge is to validate and include different perspectives in a program that will reach the most families. Jesse warns that revising a current program must always take into consideration both personal interactions and policy issues. Often, parents or guardians of minority children may not be invited to involvement activities because of unconscious bias on the part of school staff, because staff too are uncomfortable, or because they have not explored ways to overcome language barriers. Common sense often works best.
Cultural awareness is central to successful family involvement programs.
It is critical to provide materials in parents' native languages or at various reading levels to fit language and educational differences. Equally important is learning culturally appropriate ways to communicate with diverse groups of parents without stereotyping. Cultural Differences L earning is a social and cultural process. If we don't recognize this, we're setting up kids to fail. Jr. Students do not shed their cultural skins at the school door.