Preparing Educators to Engage Families ─ Case Studies Using an Ecological Systems Framework

When a student training to be a primary school teacher gets out into real educational settings, they are often confronted with family issues for which they are ill-prepared. Using an ecological systems framework that breaks issues into subcategories such as meso-, exo- and chronosystems, this volume provides a series of useful case studies that will help prepare teachers for better engagement with families. After presenting a theoretical perspective for each of the five sections, three case studies are provided per part to help illustrate useful ways that educators can work with families. Each case is followed by a number of discussion questions intended to get students thinking about major issues in the case, contributing factors, and possible next steps. The volume closes with a three page glossary. Although only four authors are listed on the title page, the volume is the product of 32 contributors. All of the slightly altered cases were originally generated by work conducted by the Harvard Family Research Project. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)