Working with Russian speaking parents: guidelines for best practice

Abstract

Home-to-school collaboration is crucial for student academic success, but for culturally diverse individuals, like Russian-speaking parents, cultural and linguistic barriers make effective collaboration between school personnel and families challenging. Decades of research indicate that effective home-to-school collaboration positively influences student academic, behavioral, and social-emotional outcomes (Epstein, 2001; Smith et al., 2011); however, there are limited resources on fostering home-to-school collaboration with Russian-speaking families. In the Sacramento region, Russian is the second most common language spoken by English language learners (California Department of Education, 2020). Therefore, it is essential for educators to learn and apply culturally responsive practices that foster parent involvement with Russian-speaking parents. This project will explore barriers that Russian-speaking families face and utilize Epstein’s (2001) model of parent engagement to provide educators with guidelines for how to foster school engagement and collaboration with Russian parents and their children. The information was used to develop a one-hour workshop for educators focused on reviewing barriers families and educators face, Epstein’s (2001) model of parental involvement, and strategies to effectively increase home-to-school collaboration when working with Russian-speaking parents.