Partnership in Multigrade Teaching: Chapter 6

Benefits of Partnership

• Partnership can provide additional benefits to students, their families, and the community beyond enhancing student learning.
• Skilled community members can serve as teacher assistants or resource persons.
• The school can depend on the community's support in events such as fundraising activities, school construction, and maintenance.
• The learning environment can be strengthened by community support.

Partnership with Families and Community

• The foundation of a well-organized partnership program is the creation of an action team composed of teachers, administrators, parents, and community partners.
• The action team prepares a yearly plan for family and community involvement, implements and evaluates programs, and integrates activities into a holistic partnership program.

Characteristics of Effective Partnership

• Partnership must be learner-centered.
• Partnership reaches decisions through mutual agreement.
• Its primary focus is on educational objectives.
• It holds a high regard for school, family, and community.
• It values respect in communicating with partners.
• It develops strategies to resolve conflict.

Importance of Partnership

• Partnership helps to improve program quality, make better use of resources, and align goals and curricula.
• Partnership is of great importance, especially in multigrade schools with insufficient resources.

Epstein's Framework of Six Types of Involvement

• 1. Parenting: Assist all families in creating home conditions that promote students' academic success.
• 2. Communicating: Create effective home-to-school and school-to-home communications about the educational experiences of the student.
• 3. Volunteering: Organize and recruit parent assists and report.
• 4. Learning at home: Provide information with families and ideas on how to assist students at home.
• 5. Decision making: Involve parents in decision making by nurturing parent leaders and representatives.
• 6. Collaborating with the community: Determine and incorporate resources and services from the community to support school activities and family practices.

Partnership with Government Agencies

• Government funding is necessary for greater recognition of multigrade classes.
• The Department of Education receives the majority of government financing and is in charge of appropriating funds through grants and other forms of help.
• Government agencies provide support to schools in varied forms, including:
  • Attending to the needs of schools in remote areas.
  • Upgrading and assisting teachers in the use of ICT.
  • Developing a national policy for both monograde and multigrade classes.
  • Ensuring coordination with relevant institutions for teacher training.
  • Providing levels of control by providing adequately trained staff and integrating relevant methodologies into conventional teacher education programs.
  • Including the teaching of multigrade classes in the preservice teacher education programs.
  • Paying careful attention to the professional development of multigrade teachers within the context of effective inservice teacher education programs.

Partnership with International Agencies

• A memorandum of agreement (MoA) between the Department of Education (DepEd), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the Southeast Asian Minister of Education Organization (SEAMEO INNOTECH) was developed in 2017 to address the shared post-2015 agenda for educational growth and action.
• The tripartite partnership aims to undertake knowledge exchange and collaboration over the next six years on education services for marginalized learning groups in the Philippines.