Epstein’s book School, Family, and Community Partnership clearly explains teamwork practice and describes the whole strategy accurately. However, I have several questions regarding the framework’s execution, which are not covered in the book. For example, the author did not show the information regarding the participant’s age. The study of Magnusson et al. (2020) shows that children’s reactions to the same situation can differ depending on their age. Even though the whole book aims to explain the behavior of all family members, it would be more interesting to understand how people of different ages can react to specific tasks of the framework. Epstein (2018) explains that six types of involvement show different kinds of personalities of parents and how these aspects might affect the child’s development. Decision-making and communication could be elaborated on in more depth to explain the influence on babies and teenagers.
The book also shows a structured plan of the End-of-Year Celebration Workshop which explains how families will participate in activities and develop their skills. However, it is not clear what could happen if some members miss classes. I am interested if people have a chance to take additional workshops to cover all previous topics and how they can agree with the tutors to take individual classes. Ishwarya et al. (2019) state that people stay more motivated when they can take extra time to recap missed information. Moreover, it is complicated to understand if people can join practices after the break, which is at 10:30, or after lunch at 1:00.
The author proposes a specific plan for organizing ATP, which includes teachers and parents. According to Epstein (2018), the workshop participants should use an effective team structure consisting of 4 main aspects. Members of the group should decide who is in ATP, when the meetings occur, how the results will be transferred to the School Improvement team, and what the budget is. However, it is unclear if people can use their specific structure to make the workflow more stable or if the proposed steps are important and should be followed directly.
References
Epstein, J. (2018). School, Family, and Community Partnership: Your Handbook for Action. Corwin Press: 4th Edition.
Ishwarya, A., Devi, R. G., & Jyothipriya, A. (2019). Knowledge, attitude, and perception of parents toward their children’s education and extra curriculum. Drug Invention Today, 11(5), 1161-1163.
Magnusson, M., Ernberg, E., & Landstrom, S. (2020). Forensic interviewers’ experiences of interviewing children of different ages. Psychology, Crime & Law, 26(10), 967-989.