Exploring How Educators Perceive Enacting Asset-Based Family Engagement

Despite widespread acknowledgement of the importance of family engagement in supporting children’s academic and social success, many educators feel underprepared to establish meaningful connections with families. Research reveals that many educators perceive family engagement through a narrow lens, expecting families to participate in school-directed activities that may alienate families from marginalized backgrounds. This design-based study examined how participation in a virtual professional development course might serve as a space for educators to (re)consider how they engage with families. Pre-and post-questionnaires from 34 educators assessed changes in their perceived frequency of and methods for family engagement. Participants used Likert scale items to report how frequently they enacted asset-based family engagement before and after participating in the professional development. Educators’ open-ended responses provided additional insights into their perceptions of family engagement. Findings indicate that participants perceived increased frequency and use of asset-based approaches following the professional development. Additionally, participants shifted how they described the roles and responsibilities of families and staff regarding engagement. These findings underscore the potential benefits of virtual professional development in bridging gaps in educators’ understanding. Practical applications of our findings include adapting the pre- and post-questionnaires into a tool that educators can use to self-assess their development towards using asset-based family engagement approaches.