If you attended parent-teacher conferences at a west side school this past fall, you may have been handed a small comic book about School Community Councils (SCC). That comic—and the parent leaders who handed them out—are part of a community-based research project working to increase the family voice in school decision making.
The Family-School Collaboration Design Research Project is a partnership between the University of Utah College of Education, Salt Lake City School District, University Neighborhood Partners (UNP) and the Community Advocate Network, an intergenerational group of west side resident leaders. Over the past few years, we held a series of “design circles” that brought west side parents and educators together in the same room to design new approaches to collaborations between families and schools.
A comic booklet families can use to recruit other families to join School Community Councils.
One product the group designed is a comic booklet families can use to recruit other families to join School Community Councils. The comic—designed by parents and drawn by former UNP staff member Sarah Morton Taggart—informs families about SCCs and their rights to have their voices heard. It is being piloted at three schools this year. Ten parent-researchers are using the comic to engage families, invite them to join their schools’ SCCs and then support them once they are at the meetings.
We asked some of the parent-researchers to reflect back on their experience in the design circles.