In my address to parents/guardians, trustees, and school board personnel in the Toronto District School Board and the Toronto Catholic School Board (Wards 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22) I focused on the critical need to use parent knowledge to enhance our success in making schools safer and more culturally responsive and in improving educational outcomes for all students.

In this panel discussion, we explored how educators and parents can tap into the power of parent knowledge by building trusting and collaboration partnerships in school communities.

In this session with principals, teachers and school council members, I focused on differentiating between the conceptualization and practices of parent involvement and of parent engagement.

In this session, I shared research findings from my narrative inquiry into parent knowledge. I featured key strands of parent knowledge that have become apparent in my analysis of field text: intimate knowledge of children, intimate knowledge of teaching and learning, a knowledge of self as parent, cultural knowledge, the important place of values in one’s knowing, the influence of passions in one’s knowing, and principles to live by that guide what parents do and why they do it.

In this roundtable discussion, I focused on one strand of parent knowledge – principles to live by – sharing principles which guided the knowledge and actions of the three parents/parent partners in my narrative inquiry.

In this session, I shared a synthesis of research that illuminates what it is specifically in the involvement/engagement of parents that can be linked to improved student achievement, and educational outcomes such as retention in school, completion of courses, high school graduation rates, and so on.

In this session, I facilitated a process in which principals made explicit their assumptions and beliefs about the place and voice of parents in their schools and then examined the implications of these beliefs in defining/redefining the roles and responsibilities of leaders, staff and parents in their schools.

Parents, educators, staff, community and family members joined together to explore their current practices with parents in relation to involvement and engagement, invitation and hospitality, and trust and relationships.

In this session for preschool and family educators in public, private and community-based organizations, I explored how parent knowledge can be used to co-construct a curriculum that is reflective of and responsive to the families for whom it is designed. I modeled ways to invite parents and family members into the telling and writing of birth or adoption stories, name stories and family stories to bring a curriculum of lives into the family/early learning setting.

Pushor, D. (2007, November). Parent inclusion: We are all family. Invited address, Making Connections: A People for Education Conference on Education Issues, Toronto, Ontario.

Pushor, D. (2007, November). Parent knowledge. Circle of Light: A First Nations, Metis and Inuit Education Conference, Ontario Ministry of Education and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Toronto, Ontario.

Amendt, T. & Pushor, D. (2007, November). Parent engagement. Circle of Light: A First Nations, Metis and Inuit Education Conference, Ontario Ministry of Education and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Toronto, Ontario.

Pushor, D. (2007, October). Involvement to engagement: Community education practices in Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan Community Schools Association Annual Conference, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

Pushor, D. (2007, October). Community engagement in schools: Aligning beliefs and practices. Invited half day address, Project Teams Gathering, Manitoba Education Citizenship and Youth, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Amendt, T. & Pushor, D. (2007, May). Community engagement: Policy and practice in Saskatchewan schools. Shawane Dagosiwin: Aboriginal Education Research Forum, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Clandinin, D.J., Huber, J, Pushor, D., Schultz, B., Coulter, C., Butler-Kisber, L., Caine, V., Michie, G., Mitchell, R., Rolling, J. Steeves, P., & Pinnegar, S. (2007, April). Moving into the academy as narrative inquirers. Symposium presented at the Annual Meeting of The American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.

Pushor, D. (2007, January). Parent engagement: Creating a shared world. Invited research paper presentation, Research Symposium, Ontario Ministry of Education, Toronto, Ontario.

Pushor, D. (2005, November). Celebrating our success:  Fostering collaboration and community through research. Panel member, Learning from Practice, Dr. Stirling McDowell Foundation for Research into Teaching, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Pushor, D. (2005, April). Parent engagement and leadership. Annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Quebec.

Pushor, D. (2005, April). Parent knowledge. Annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Quebec.

Pushor, D. & Ruitenberg, C. (2005, February). Place Interrupted: The visual counter-narrative of Princess Alexandra School. Provoking Curriculum Conference, Victoria, BC.

Pushor, D., Timm, M., Cain, M., Sawatzky, L., Harper, S., Bear, C., Kennedy, S. (2004, November).  Parent engagement and leadership. SchoolPlus Congress, Regina, Saskatchewan.

Pushor, D. (2004, August). Working alongside parents: Schooling practices of possibility. Keynote address, Halifax Principals’ Retreat, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Pushor, D. (2004, May). Administrative lenses: Seeing parents big, seeing parents small. Canadian Society for the Study of Education, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Pushor, D. & Murphy, B. (2004, May). Knowledge building: What the margins can teach the center. Canadian Society for the Study of Education, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Olson, M., Orr, J., Murray Orr, A., Pushor, D. (2004, May). The power of story in graduate teacher education:  Pushing boundaries, opening up spaces. Narrative Matters 2004: An Interdisciplinary Conference on Narrative Perspectives, Approaches, and Issues across the Humanities and Social Sciences, Fredericton, New Brunswick.