Strategies for Preservice Teachers to Effectively Engage Families in their Child's Learning

Parents play a critical role in the education of young children, so pre-service teachers must have effective strategies for engaging families in students’ learning activities. In order to explore how well pre-service teachers are prepared for this challenging task, we surveyed elementary teacher candidates to determine their experiences in working with parents/caregivers and to find out whether they felt prepared to carry out the types of general teacher-parent interactions that will be expected of them in their profession. We also provided them an opportunity to partner with parents through Family STEM events.