Claiming Our Ignorance And Making New Friends:
A Different Approach To Family Involvement

Excerpts

In 1996-1997, our research group included four university teacher educators and eight classroom teachers. Our objective was for each teacher to use ethnographic observations and interviews to learn more about one student's home and family, with the goal of integrating this knowledge into our teaching. Each teacher made at least three visits to the home of a student whose family had recently immigrated to the Houston area. The home visits were documented in field notes, and most of the parent interviews were audiotaped. The research group met to debrief one Saturday morning each month from November, 1996, through April, 1997.

Liz's Reflections: Personalizing Instruction and Research

When the project began, Liz had taught English in an inner city middle school for one year on an emergency certificate and was taking a language arts methods courses for teacher certification and for her Master's program. Liz had grown up in the neighborhood where she taught and still lived there. Although her family was not Latino, she spoke some Spanish and felt comfortable making conversation with the parents of her students. It was clear from her early comments, however, that she was still struggling to become comfortable as a novice teacher. She talked about the students' lack of motivation and about her need to gain more control over classroom behavior.

At first, Liz chose a girl whose family had moved back and forth from Mexico to Houston several times. Her rationale for selecting this girl was to learn more about the family support of a successful student. The second year, Liz not only chose a student to visit, but she also invited colleagues on her campus to join a Funds of Knowledge inquiry group. She met regularly with these teachers to discuss what they were learning from their home visits.

Building on What Students Know

Liz's reflections clearly demonstrate that this project taught her that her students' life experiences had to be the basis for their school learning:

I see curriculum requirements through new eyes. . . In my reading classroom this year, there are a couple of things I am doing that I can trace to FOK (the Funds of Knowledge project). One is giving students choices of reading material on a regular basis. My FOK experience has made me more aware of my students as individuals, and this is a way I can encourage their individual interests academically. Additionally, I am choosing literature for my classes that I think will appeal to them. I feel better equipped to judge what may appeal to them because of FOK. (November, 1998)

Making Friends with the Families

Liz emphasizes the power of these growing personal relationships with the families of the students she visited:

. . . I have found that it is difficult to think of these home visits as "home visits" and our conversations as "research." It feels odd to use these words to refer to the friendship that has developed between my student's mother and me. I never expected to find a friend in my research, but that's what happened. (November, 1998)

Personalizing the Teacher/Student Relationship

This project also has influenced Liz's stance as a teacher and her relationship with her students:

Before, I was an outsider; I kept a certain distance between myself and my students by choice---Me and Them. Although I was thoughtful and creative in my teaching, my own goals and concerns were my highest priority. Now, I think that we are all in this together. Somewhere along the way I began developing a more personal relationship with all my students. I think it's because I talk to them. We chat. They care to tell me when a grandmother dies or invite me to a quinciñera. They ask me what I did on the weekend, and I tell them. I am more responsive to my students in general. What I teach has not really changed so much as how I teach. My students have priority in my mind over my curriculum. (November, 1998)

Foregrounding Friendship; Backgrounding Research

Finally, Liz rejects the trappings of the anthropologist and field researcher. She finds that she learns more when she approaches the family as an interested person, a potential friend:

One thing I am doing differently in this project is that I have abandoned the accoutrement of the researcher in making home visits. In my continuing experience, I have found that the tape recorder, notebook, and pen are barriers to communication. They seem to intimidate the families I have visited. They highlight the differences between us and create tension, which seems at odds with the purpose and goals of this kind of research. (November, 1998)