Author Description

Engaging parents in their child's education improves the child's educational attainment and ongoing engagement in school. However, a family's socioeconomic position affects how they engage with their child's school, and the values fostered by schools are not always consistent with the values that are important to Indigenous families. This resource sheet identifies the key factors behind successful school engagement programs for Indigenous parents in Australia. It reviews evaluation studies on parental educational engagement in Australia and presents case studies on several programs that directly or indirectly support Indigenous parental involvement, including: Indigenous Parent Factor (IPF), The Home Interaction Program for Parents and Youngsters (HIPPY) program, The Aboriginal Parental Engagement Program, the Irrkerlantye Unit at Bradshaw Primary School, Manyallaluk Homeland School, Motor Magic, and Families and Schools Together (FAST).