Interviews with Professionals in the Family and Community Partnership field

Having the opportunity to interview two professionals working in the family and community partnership field has been quite enlightening.  The two ladies have both work in the Head Start program.  However they also offer to different perspectives.  One of the interviewees currently does a great deal of work with a fatherhood initiative program. She is very passionate about her work because her father was a positive role model in her home. She desires for children to be able to experience a positive relationship with their father or significant male figure.  My other interviewee believes it is important to prepare teachers to promote family and male involvement.  She feels some teachers personal experience may hinder promotion of family and male involvement in the classroom.  She shared building the capacity of teachers in this area is critical of building teacher parent partnerships.

The process of interviewing these very busy ladies has been challenging due to their schedules.  They are both doctoral candidates and do a lot of community work.  I have work to be flexible with their schedule while making sure I meet class requirements.  I am gaining insight on things I can do more efficiently as I am fast approaching my project study.

I have found as I am progressing through this course project that my topic is leaning heavily toward male involvement and less to parent involvement.  I chose the topic of parent involvement because it is so important in young learners lives.  However my challenge topic has led me to look at father and male involvement not just from a local perspective but national and international.  It has been interesting to learn how other cultures view the males role in the child's personal and educational lives. I hope to be able to share this great information with others.