Engaging Families, Educators, and Communities as Educational Advocates

Book excerpt: This edited collection broadens understanding of family–school–community partnerships by focusing on how community groups, educators, and university professors engage with public education to achieve their own goals rather than goals defined by schools, school systems, and governments. Authors critically examine various school–community partnerships that collectively aim to improve decision-making, democratize policy processes, resist policies that support the marketization of public education, and advocate for racial equality. The book’s chapters focus on advocacy efforts within and across three national contexts—England, Canada, and the United States. Together they expand current scholarship by demonstrating how different constituencies develop alliances, experience tensions, and navigate the politics inherent in change efforts. By examining the intersections of parent and community organizing, teacher unions, and school–community partnerships across national contexts, the chapters uncover fruitful new terrain for understanding the theory and practice of educational activism. This volume was originally published as a special issue of Leadership and Policy in Schools.