Developing Teacher-Parent Partnerships Across Cultures: Effective Parent Conferences

Abstract

The rich cultural diversity of today's special education programs challenges traditional patterns of communication between schools and families. This diversity demands the implementation of communication patterns sensitive to all parents, but particularly to those responding to culture and ability differences. To address these demands, teachers first face the challenge of becoming aware of the personal beliefs, values, and expectations that guide their interactions with others. Second, they need to enhance communication with all families by using culturally responsive interaction practice. This article addresses teachers' challenges in the context of productive teacher-parent conferences because such conferences represent the most common means of family-school communication and offer a building block for teacher-parent partnerships.