Each edition of the "IDRA (Intercultural Development Research Association) Newsletter" strives to provide many different perspectives on the issues in education topics discussed and to define its significance in the state and national dialogue. This issue focuses on parent and community engagement and includes: (1) Community Conversations about…

Home visiting is a common method of providing early intervention services to families. The reason home visitors in early intervention programs begin working with a young child and his or her family is usually because the child has a developmental delay, diagnosed disability, or is at risk for developing a delay. It seems reasonable for a home…

This study aimed to investigate the problems facing parental involvement in Jordanian kindergartens from the parents' perspectives. A 36-item questionnaire that addressed five domains was designed by the researchers and distributed among the study participants. The study sample consisted of 297 parents of kindergarten children from various…

Schools flush with students' parents showing up and helping out have long been the envy of those where classrooms echo on back-to-school night. But in recent years, incidents reported in the news media have dabbed shadows on that glowing picture of parent involvement, raising issues about whether demanding adults have made teachers' jobs harder…

Innovative programs for migrant students prove the payoff of making parents partners in classroom learning. This article features "Abriendo Puertas," or Opening Doors, an innovative program developed by Texas A&M University specifically for migrant education. The program emphasizes on literacy, academic success, and--most…

Over the last three decades there has been a notable increase in interest about fathers and their role in the socioemotional, academic, and cognitive development of young children. Concurrently, there has been a shift in this nation's ethnic minority demography, where Latinos are now the nation's largest minority group. The father-involvement…

This article illustrates how an ethnographic perspective can provide a descriptive methodological approach to parent-research as a process of inquiry within the field of education. By juxtaposing data and illuminating reflexive accounts from a longitudinal parent-research study, I suggest that such a perspective provides critical insights into the…

Lately the interest to develop a gender-perspective in preschool has grown in Sweden. The aim of this study is to focus on Swedish preschool work teams understanding of gender and gender-sensitive pedagogy and their descriptions of what they actually do to be gender-sensitive preschools. Studies of gender and children often focus construction of…

This study describes how parental involvement not only is shaped by the school context but also shapes the school context for college opportunity. The study also describes the ways other aspects of context, particularly the higher education context and the state and economic context, shape parental involvement. Although parental encouragement and…

This article suggests ways early childhood music educators can help parents bring more meaningful music activities into their homes. Suggestions are based on survey results from 50 parents with young children at home. The survey investigated the relationship among parents' perceived musical ability, the amount of time they spent in musical…

The Musical Play program is designed to assist children ages 2 to 5 and their parents. The program creators sought to help families build a repertoire of songs and activities for everyday living and to encourage musical play at home. The program includes developmentally appropriate songs, materials, and activities and incorporates a wide variety…

This review provides an overview of an important aspect of early childhood home visiting research: understanding how parents are involved in program services and activities. Involvement is defined as the process of the parent connecting with and using the services of a program to the best of the client's and the program's ability. The term…

Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, we examined patterns of nonresident father involvement 1 and 3 years after a nonmarital birth (N = 893). Cluster analyses were used to determine patterns of involvement across different father behaviors. About half of fathers displayed low involvement when children were 1 and 3 years…

Bullying among school children is a long-standing problem that detrimentally affects a substantial number of students. School officials have recognized the impact of bullying and have introduced various methods to manage the problem. To help ensure that these methods reduce bullying, it is critical that school personnel understand critical issues…

The author investigated parental perceptions of the individualized education program (IEP) meeting among 51 parents of students who were receiving special education services from 1 family support service agency. Survey questions pertained to the following areas: (a) IEP meeting experiences, (b) knowledge level of special education law, (c)…