Families With Power: Centering Students by Engaging With Families and Community

Families with Power/Familias con Poder (FWP) is a grassroots organization of low-income students and caregivers in Northampton, MA, that shares the stories and lessons learned through more than a dozen years of student and family engagement in the community and school. The book features vignettes and interviews, inspired by Paulo Freire's educational philosophy and the radical tradition of the Highlander Folk School, and offers guidance to help teachers and school leaders connect with students' families and community in meaningful ways.

Format: Hardback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 08 April 2022
Publisher: Teachers' College Press

Winner of the Society of Professors of Education 2024 Outstanding Book Award, Families with Power/Familias con Poder (FWP) is a groundbreaking book that explores the potential of low-income families to organize activities that can help their children succeed. Inspired by Paulo Freire's educational philosophy and the radical tradition of the Highlander Folk School, a group of real families with few material resources and educators connected with each other, found common ground and built their own programs to address the needs of their children. Through vignettes and interviews, this premiere book in Sonia Nieto's Visions of Practice Series shares the stories and lessons FWP learned along the way. Readers will get an inside look at the benefits, successes, and challenges of more than a dozen years of student and family engagement in the community and school as FWP tackled issues ranging from academics, race, and class to immigration and public health. The book features the story of how the author cofounded Families with Power in cooperation with immigrant and low-income caregivers and fellow educators. It provides insight into multiple racial and ethnic perspectives as seen through a myriad of family engagement programs. It also offers a relatable collection of narratives that bring to life Freire's methods of problem posing, culture circles, and popular education, as well as the Highlander Folk School's grassroots organizing. Additionally, the book provides guidance to help today's teachers and school leaders connect with students' families and community in meaningful ways. The author's experiences as a white teacher learning to bridge cultural, racial, linguistic, and class differences are also included.

Weight: 213g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780807766392