We begin with a broad overview of the variety of roles parents play in their children’s learning, followed by a brief look at the history of parent engagement, in order to shed light on how parents’ and schools’ perceptions of the role of parents in learning have changed over time.

The day moves on to look in depth at the body of research that underpins contemporary approaches to engaging parents in their children’s learning.

Barriers to engagement are a problem for many teachers. before lunch, we take a look at some of the most commonly cited barriers to effectively engaging parents in their children’s education; including access to resources, cultural and linguistic diversity, parent education, work and childcare responsibilities and parent and child health.

The afternoon begins with an examination of the main documents and resources currently informing most schools’ parent engagement strategies, including the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians, The Family-School Partnerships Framework, The Family-School and Community Partnerships Bureau and Partners4Learning.

The afternoon concludes with a look at current research in the field of parent engagement, with a particular focus on what the latest research says about impacts on students’ academic outcomes. This informs our final discussion of evidence-based strategies teachers can use to engage parents in home learning and in school based learning.