Communicating with families across cultures: An investigation of teacher perceptions and practices. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association

Increasing diversity in the student population intensifies the need for and the difficulties of establishing culturally sensitive and meaningful commu-nication between teachers and parents. This study examined the practices of early childhood and elementary teachers concerning culturally sensitive home-school communication. As a second phase of a multi-phase research design, focus group discussions were conducted with 21 participants. Discussions cen-tered on the teachers ’ understanding of familial influences on learning and their actual communication patterns with parents. Seven themes were identified re-lated to such issues as: defining culture; exploring the relationship between culture, class, and child-rearing; recognizing one’s own biases; and reaching out to parents in a culturally sensitive manner. Implications for educators working with families from diverse cultures are discussed. Key Words: home-school communication, culturally responsive teaching, fo-cus groups, teacher-parent relationshi