Schools and Families in Partnership for Learning in Faith-Based Schools

Across the international arena, the importance of families working with schools in the interests of improving learning for students is increasingly being recognised. This chapter discusses a system-wide reform effort by four Catholic dioceses in the Australian state of Victoria directed towards improving student outcomes through strengthening family-school-community partnerships; and the role of educational systems in supporting and enabling such reform. The reform effort was located in the Australian Commonwealth Governments’ Family – School Partnerships Framework for parent engagement, based on Epstein et al.’s (2002) categories of parent engagement. This provided a useful guide for considering the multiple dimensions of family school partnerships and student learning. These dimensions included: communicating; connecting learning at school and learning at home; building community and identity; recognising the role of the family; consultative decision-making; collaborating beyond the school; and participating. Based on data collected from nine case study schools, this chapter discusses school and system level impacts on improved links between parent participation and student learning.