Wingman Project: An exploratory study of school-based communication with grandparents

Involvement of parents and family, school personnel, and community members is important because studies from early childhood, elementary, middle, and high schools have shown that students are more successful when their families are actively involved (Gonzalez-Dehass, Willems, & Holbein, 2005). One challenge facing K-12 public schools is the development and implementation of systematic and sustainable communication that encourages parents and family members to engage with their students' schools. The purpose of this study was to explore the outcomes of regular written communication between schools and grandparents of enrolled students. This study was conducted at Oklahoma public schools of varying sizes and types and data sources will include teachers, staff, parents, grandparents, in loco grandparents and other involved adults over the age of 18.This research study of The Wingman at three schools sites resulted in the following findings. First, school-grandparent communication was influenced by creating primarily a one-way communication method between the school and the grandparents. Implementation of The Wingman created an avenue of communication between the schools and the grandparents regarding the grandchildren's education. The Wingman influenced conversations between the grandparent and the grandchildren and how the grandparent may contribute to, or participate in, the grandchild's schooling. It is demonstrated that the greatest impact of The Wingman seems to have been this interchange of information. Because the school prioritized communicating in a regular and systematic way with grandparents, information was often interchanged between grandparents and grandchildren and sometimes exchanged between the school and the grandparents. Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler's (2005) description of motivational beliefs were fully established in Wingman participants. Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (2005) identified role construction and self-efficacy as two of the factors that impact motivation and thus impact involvement, and I have discovered that these same factors impact motivation and involvement of Wingman participants. The Wingman enhanced the role construction of grandparents, the ability of grandparents to support the educational experiences, and grandparent knowledge developed their self-efficacy. Each of these factors supports the notion that recipients of The Wingman are likely motivated to be involved in their grandchildren's education experiences