Family and Community Involvement at Awak Elementary School

By Rod Mauricio

Since the 1980s, educators from Pohnpei to Peoria have recognized the importance of family and community involvement, especially for low-performing schools with large numbers of students from lower-income families. Schools in the Pacific, however, face even greater challenges in developing this involvement than most schools in the continental U.S. Historically, Pacific island communities have viewed formal schooling as imposed from the outside – and not only as alien to local culture, but in opposition to it.

This legacy of colonization is one of the greatest challenges faced by the Pacific Communities with High-performance In Literacy Development (Pacific CHILD) project. The project is part of PREL’s five-year regional educational laboratory contract to work with staff in 10 schools across the Pacific region to develop literacy. At Awak Elementary School in Pohnpei, one of the 10 research sites involved in the project, Field-Based Reading Specialist Keti William came up with a solution to this challenge that not only involved parents in promoting literacy, but addressed another problem faced by the project: the scarcity of first-language instructional materials in the local language. Keti’s solution was to involve parents in helping create these first-language literacy materials.

At the outset, some teachers were pessimistic. They found it hard to believe that local parents would participate. However, Keti’s idea was to try and make academics more fun by involving parents and community members in defining what students should learn. The school staff agreed to try it out.

Keti and school staff organized a study group, the Parental Involvement Workshop on Poetry Development, led by Mr. Antero Latorres, Mr. Peter Primo, and Mr. Sebastian Amor. The parent leaders took what they had learned from Keti and planned and facilitated workshops with other parents. These parent teams wrote cinquains (poems with five-line stanzas) in their first language, Pohnpeian. This work marked a new beginning for parental involvement at the school. Parents were inspired at the outcome (see samples below) and they wanted more.

In his closing remarks for the workshop, Antero indicated that he was amazed by their accomplishments. The poetry produced during the workshop lay before the group’s eyes as Antero attributed their success to participation, friendship, camaraderie, fun, and bonding amongst parents, teachers, and everyone else involved in the project. He closed by saying to all participants, “Thank you so much for the work you all have done! You made my day!”

Empowering parents with the skills to develop instructional materials in Pohnpeian has made it possible for the community to participate in the development of academic reading materials that will benefit their children. This has been an important step towards making the school a part of the community.