(Mis)Understanding Families

This practical resource will help educators to identify, address, and meet the needs of the diverse families in today’s classrooms. It is the first book to critically examine how families are represented in the media, schools, and other institutions and apply that information to build effective home-school partnerships. The authors examine how different relationships between families and teachers are defined by discourses that circulate through formal and informal curricula. They explore how families and educators can collectively reconceptualize these conversations to create positive educational experiences for children. Discussion questions are included in each chapter so that readers can examine their working relationships with the families of their students.

Monica Miller Marsh is an associate professor of education at DeSales University. Tammy Turner-Vorbeck is an adjunct professor of education at Purdue University. They have co-founded the Family Diversity Education Council and coedited the recently published book, Other Kinds of Families: Embracing Diversity in Schools.

“This is a volume central to the preparation of all teachers.”
—Gloria Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin–Madison

“This book stakes out new ground in the area of home-school collaboration.”
—Kenneth Teitelbaum, Dean and Professor, Southern Illinois University Carbondale

“(Mis)Understanding Families takes a refreshing look at home-school relations, with inspiring examples of how such relations can be reinvented in North American schools. Educators and those who teach them would do well to take heed of the call.”
—Susan Auerbach, California State University–Northridge