In the last edition of School Advocate, I began to talk about how important the attitudes and dispositions of educators and school staff are to truly engaging parents in processes of schooling. Since that writing, I have found myself continuing to be fascinated with the word “disposition.” Typically, we think of a disposition as a thing, as a trait a person possesses – a “characteristic attitude,” a “state of mind,” an “inclination” (http:dictionary.reference.com/browse/disposition). What becomes possible, though, when we think of disposition as an action, as a conscious act to “dis-”/position – to move “apart” or “away from” (http:dictionary.reference.com/browse/dis-) a usual “position,” a usual stance?
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to attend a public ward meeting in a core neighborhood in my home city of Saskatoon. The meeting was intended to be an opportunity for citizens to ask questions of and to provide input to key public officials – the mayor, the alderperson, the police chief, the fire chief, a city planner and so on – on matters of local concern. A very long time was spent that evening, while each of the dignitaries addressed those in attendance, prior to the microphones opening and the opportunity to ask questions or make comments being provided. Finally, after waiting a long time, a woman who had been standing in line had her turn to address the city officials. With passion and emotion, she said, “All evening I have been listening to each one of you speak to us about the work you are doing to build capacity in our neighborhood. No one has acknowledged that we HAVE capacity. We live here and so we have a very good understanding of what the issues are and we also have very good ideas of what the solutions are as well. We do not need you to come here with solutions. We do not need you to come here to build our capacity. All we need you to do is to help us garner resources so we can realize the capacity we already have.” Her words were powerful; they sent shock waves through me in a way that will stay with me forever.
Lori Pulai’s words were an act of dis/positioning. She was asking – demanding really – that each official in attendance move away from his usual stance as knower and knowing to take a new stance as a listener, as a learner, as a guest in a community which possessed knowledge and capacity. In Vinz’s (1997) writing, she asserted that “dis-positioning” calls for engagement in continual processes of learning to “un-know” and “not-know” (p. 139). To “un-know,” city officials would have had to come to the meeting intending not to talk first, but to listen first. They would have needed to come to hear what suggestions community members had for their neighborhood’s growth and development, rather than with plans and strategies for the community. To “not-know,” city officials would have had to have been comfortable to come to the meeting trusting in a process – one of conversation, perhaps one of debate and even potential disagreement – open to working through moments of ambiguity and uncertainty as the process unfolded. Lori was asking city officials to take up a new position, one which offered community members a true opportunity for engagement in their neighborhood’s development.
Parents are asking the very same thing of us as educators, school staff members, trustees, senior administrators and policy makers. They are telling us structures such as school councils and parent involvement policies are not enough to make engagement possible. They are asking each and every one of us to assume a new dis/position in order to realize the possibility structures offer parents for their engagement in their children’s teaching and learning.
An April 23rd email I received after the release of the March 2009 School Advocate reads,
As a first time co-chair with my children’s school council, I am feeling burnt, exhausted and unsupported. I truly and firmly believe that the systems are there to allow for Parent Engagement, however, the people who we are supposed to partner with (the staff, the principal, the trustee, the superintendent) do not “invite true parental involvement.”
This parent told a story of a dying school council and how her goal was to invigorate it and to draw new parents to it. She told of how a trustee showed up at one meeting unannounced and then intervened in the process of the meeting, a process determined by her and her co-chair. She told of a being asked into a meeting in the principal’s office afterward, where she was informed of how “disappointed” the trustee was in the meeting. She told of how their next school council meeting was cancelled by the principal. She told of being directed by the superintendent to work with the Board’s school council consultant. She told of the school council consultant’s refusal to come to their school council meeting because their anticipated attendance was not high enough. She told of another meeting where the superintendent and a trustee arrived together, once again unannounced and once again not in a show of support for the work they were attempting to do. Finally, she told of her co-chair’s frustration and desire to quit. She ended her email, with these words,
Our partners, the ones we are trying to support, feel it’s all about control; they have no commitment to honor and respect the process and the individuals in their role. When conflict arises, they want to avoid it in hopes that it will go away. Well, they win. I work, I have a young family and aging parents, and I can’t wait to go away. …I will go away and spend time with my kids in a way that will impact them directly.
Another email, this one dated April 28th, also speaks out against the current positioning educators frequently assume.
As of last night, I felt ready after 3 years to give up being a voice and volunteer for our school and our board. Parent voices are being lost, and engagement is a term thrown to the wind. I don’t expect as a parent that my voice leads, but I do expect to be respected and heard. I often times find in particular that parents are intimidated by this education system … I feel very strongly that School Councils can and should act on behalf of their communities, unfortunately and often though, they are not heard.
This parent’s words follow a story of how, when their school community asked for an opportunity for communication and consultation on an issue of importance to them, they were told they would have to submit their concerns in writing in order to have a meeting with representatives from their Board’s administration. Six months after their meeting, they received a one page response to their questions. This parent ended her email with the words,
I am tired of performing the duties of a ladies’ auxiliary, and being treated as such. This education system is losing parents who want to help and try to be engaged, by not being engaged with parents [in return].
When I think about the words of these two parents, I’m drawn back to a session I attended at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association in New York in March 2008. While John Raible was talking about the situation of marginalized youth in large urban centers in the United States, he could just as easily have been speaking about the situation of parents who are trying to be engaged in their children’s schooling. He spoke of how we “shut them out, box them in, and lock them down” (personal notes, March 25, 2008). How much of that is just what educators do to parents when they call them to their office, cancel their meetings, ask parents to submit their questions in writing in advance of a meeting, respond six months after a meeting, or say very little? These are actions that reflect a disposition to protect the power and authority of those within the system, to maintain control of the agenda, to attend more to procedures than to people. These are actions that make school council meetings and structures of communication and consultation safe for those within the system. They are actions which ensure the comfort of those within the system, but they do it at the cost of parents’ discomfort. They are actions which will continue to cause parents go away in frustration, to give up in despair.
The stories of the parents are poignant – and they are bold in their critique. At the end of my March article, I said that we need to ask ourselves what is needed to create a dis/position that sees parent voice and input into decision-making as meaningful. Perhaps creating that dis/position begins with using parents’ critique as a vehicle to move us to action, rather than to anger or despair. Perhaps it begins with looking at what we do, and why we do it, and being honest both about what the cost may be and who may bear that cost. Perhaps it begins with an emphasis on building relationships and trust. Perhaps it begins with our engagement in a process in which we learn to “un-know” and “not-know.”
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