Building Fearless, Confident CLD Learners

Abstract

Family engagement in schools is important for the success of all students, but especially critical with parents of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students. Building-level administrators and teachers are in a unique position to serve as the agents to create positive, strong relationships with families. This chapter presents a qualitative case study of an exceptionally diverse elementary school located in an area with an increasing CLD population. Through multifaceted interviews, focus groups, and observations, four overarching themes emerged: (1) creating a positive, supportive, welcoming environment to support families and cultures; (2) building relationships and purposeful communication as core values; (3) teacher training, roles, responsibilities, and support; and (4) the importance and impact of community partner relationships. These themes along with their implications for school practices that promote effective school-family-community relations and connections to extant literature are discussed.