MULTICULTURAL MULTILINGUAL FAMILY-SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS IN HAWAIʻI: “A BACK AND FORTH RELATIONSHIP”

Abstract

Family engagement has been shown to support student success; however, many educators wonder how to improve their own family-school partnership skills. This need for partnership becomes even more critical for multicultural multilingual students, who often encounter equity gaps due to differing schooling norms and expectations. Using the Dual Capacity-Building Framework (Mapp & Kuttner, 2013), I interviewed five multicultural multilingual families and five educators who have worked with those families to understand the experiences of multicultural multilingual family-school partnerships at a Title I school in Hawaiʻi. Findings supported the literature regarding the importance of family-school partnerships, progressing beyond partnership to relationships, and the need for quality-based measures of family engagement. Recommendations include the need for further multilingualism training in family-school partnerships, pre-service and in-service training in family-school partnerships, and institutional support for family-school partnerships, as well as a focus on family-school partnerships with Asian and Pacific Islander families.