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Memorandum submitted by Olivia O'Sullivan and Kimberly Safford, the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE)
1) Research has been carried out by the Centre
for Literacy in Primary Education for Creative Partnerships into parents'
responses to and involvement in creative partnerships in schools
2) Centre for Literacy in Primary Education The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education is an educational centre for schools and teachers, parents, teaching assistants and other educators. CLPE has a national and international reputation for its work in the fields of language, literacy and assessment. CLPE was founded in 1972 as The Centre for Language in Primary Education and became an independent charitable trust in 2002, changing its name to The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. 3) Report authors
4) Kimberly Safford, Senior Lecturer in Primary English at the School of Education, Roehampton University. She is co-author, with Myra Barrs, of Many Routes to Meaning (CLPE, 2006) which looks at the development of children's language and literacy skills through creative projects in schools, and co-author with Sue Ellis, CLPE, of Animating Literacy (CLPE 2005) a project which recorded positive changes to teachers' practice and children's literacy learning through work in creative projects. She is also co-author with Olivia O'Sullivan and Myra Barrs, CLPE, of Boys on the Margin (CLPE , 2004) a research report funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation looking at boys' underachievement in literacy.
5) Rationale for research into parents' responses to and involvement in creative partnerships in schools.
Based on renewed interest in the significance of parents' involvement in their children's learning and its contribution to raising standards, this research aimed to:
· identify factors in creative projects in schools which engage parents and to elicit parents' views on the creative curriculum · analyse different models and methods of parental involvement in schools within Creative Partnerships programmes · develop understanding of how creative approaches can foster parents' engagement in children's learning
6) The research was based on: · Written questionnaires to schools · In depth follow-up interviews with 40 parents in a range of schools in England · In depth interviews with school staff
7) Main findings The report's main findings are as follows:
7a) Creative projects have a positive impact on home-school communication. Children's enthusiasm for creative projects in school leads them to talk at home about what they do in school and parents in turn become enthusiastic about what the school offers. Results are mutually reinforcing: children do interesting things, talk to parents about this work, and parents are motivated to find out more by becoming involved in children's learning and in the life of the school.
7b) The home discussions generated by a creative curriculum enable parents to develop perspectives on their children as learners; these perspectives increase parents' sense of efficacy in relation to children's learning (Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler 1997). Parents feel that they understand what children are doing in school and what children are gaining from these experiences. This understanding enables parents to join in and support children's interests and enthusiasms, either by contributing their own skills and expertise, by learning alongside children, or by ensuring children continue these interests in after-school clubs or classes. This developing understanding also provides parents with positive points of contact with the school. For most of the schools and projects in this survey, parental involvement was not a focus of creative projects. Coordination with Family Learning approaches, including Family Link workers to sustain contacts with parents, would increase the potential for this to take place on a wider scale.
7c) A range of models of creative partnership can involve parents, although parents tend mainly to access final products and performances. Some parents were invited to participate in earlier stages of planning and development of creative projects, through interactive displays, meetings and 'tasters' for adults of children's creative projects. Schools which utilise Family Link Workers and offer Family Learning courses as part of a creative curriculum are able to engage parents and sustain their participation by offering adults ongoing opportunities to play, practise and learn.
7d) Parents believe that creative projects motivate children to be in school and have a significant, long-term impact on children's confidence, skills, wider learning, overall development and life chances. Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler proposed that a key construct of parental involvement was that parents have a strong sense of their children's unique characteristics. Parents see the creative curriculum providing real opportunities for 'personalised learning' where children thrive as individual learners within group activities, and that the creative curriculum gives children 'an outlook on ambition' by providing real-life contacts and contexts for leaning and skills. Parents perceive arts partners in schools as what Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (ibid.) characterise as 'high involvement' teachers who are positive about children.
7e) Parents believe that a creative curriculum contributes strongly to a distinctive school ethos where children and parents feel pride in their school. This feeling continues even when children no longer attend the school, particularly where creative projects leave a lasting visible legacy in the form of architecture, murals, mosaics, sculptures or gardens.
7f) The creative curriculum offers low-risk invitations to parents to become involved in school. Creative programmes positively enhance parents' perceptions of the 'general invitations, demands and opportunities' from school (Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler) and widen parents' range of 'permissible' activities and behaviours in relation to the school. These activities and behaviours often involve 'little c' creativity (Craft 2001) which bridge home and school contexts. Parents tend to feel confident and comfortable making a contribution, whether they are using their own skills or learning along with children. Because parents perceive creative projects as an invitation and may perceive the core curriculum as a demand, the creative curriculum can reach parents in ways that a basic skills core curriculum may not. The creative agenda has the potential to offer 'multiple invitations, opportunities and requests' to parents which are welcoming and proactive. These invitations have the power to make a positive difference in parents' involvement decisions, which are 'recursive rather than linear' (Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler). Schools which use creative projects to make ongoing offers and invitations to parents send clear messages that parents are welcome and valued by the school. Creative programmes generate what Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler describe as 'inviting climates' in schools, developing the school as a community which is meaningful for parents and families. Creative projects give parents reasons to come into schools and make positive comments.
7g) The benefits to children of work in a creative curriculum extend to parents. Children's engagement causes parents to reflect on their own experience as learners, and this experience can cause parents to take-up cultural and other learning opportunities for themselves as well as for their children. Creative approaches to learning can work as agents of curriculum change and processes of innovation which reach beyond the school to engage parents and communities. A key theme in parent interviews is the sense of being valued by the school in creative projects, and feeling as that the project takes them to new areas where they have never been before. According to the DfES (2003) parents want more and deeper involvement in schools; a creative agenda is an effective way to work towards higher levels of participation.
8. Other areas of research carried out by CLPE for Creative
Partnerships are: · The development of children's thinking skills through working in creative projects (Many Routes to Meaning, Kimberly Safford and Myra Barrs, CLPE 2006). This research aimed to investigate how children's work in creative arts influenced their language and literacy development and learning.
· Positive changes to teachers' practice and children's literacy learning through work in creative projects (Animating Literacy, eds Sue Ellis and Kimberly Safford, CLPE 2005).
July 2007
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