The progamme was created as a response to difficulties about engaging parents of newly arrived migrant during and after the refugee crisis on Europe from 2015 onwards. When developing the response, the issues has been proven to be a long-standing one. It was quickly understood, that the problems with parental engagement can only be addressed if the teacher side is addressed first.
The training programme developed within the project is for teachers and school leaders and supports them in acquiring positive mindsets and skills that will enable parents’ motivation to also get more engaged in schooling. The training framework developed is based on needs analyses, desk research and a localised approach, and focusing on self-reflection of teachers, first making them think and explore, then plan and take action. It focused on various aspects important for communication and especially digital communication: vision and values, places and spaces, literacies and digital literacy, and communities and culture. The programme builds on digital technology not only in training design, but also focuses on social media as a good means of communication migrant parents are comfortable using and that can support bridging linguistic gaps. Training is accopmanied by a guide of good practice and information leaflets for parents in migrant languages.
The project was first implemented in the United Kingdom, Germany, Greece and Austria, where local partners could carry out needs analysis and engage teachers and school leaders in training through their established status in teacher training. Implementation was supported by the engagement of parent leaders in these countries. Furthe implementation has been supported from the Netherlands, via members and partners of Parents International. It has also been spread to professional communities via peer reviewed publications and has been promoted by the European Policy Network on Teachers and School Leaders as inspiration for further developing teachers' communication and critical thinking skills, and for them to implement multilingual practices.
Parents International is ready to support the implementation of the programme anywhere. The training material is publicly available in English, German and Greek, the information material for parents is in a number of lanuguages, including the languages of migrants in Europe, but we advise those who wish to implement it to contact us for support.
