Preparing teachers for parent engagement: role of teacher educators in Canada

Parent engagement has long been considered important for students' academic achievement and well-being. To ensure strength-based parent engagement, it is important for teachers to be prepared to work with parents. This study reports findings from interviews with Canadian teacher educators to better understand their role in preparing teachers for parent engagement. Teacher educators consider readiness for parent engagement a vital competence for teachers but find it difficult to secure a permanent place for parent engagement in the curriculum. Recommendations include the integrated parent engagement framework centred around a parent engagement policy and parent engagement requirements for teacher education programmes and teacher certification.