Engaging Families and Communities Webinar

Hosted on October 23, 2024, Engaging Families and Communities featured a lively conversation between Maile Hadley (First 5 FUNdamentals) and Dr. Gigliana Melzi (New York University) where they discussed ways to conceptualize and promote family engagement in early math education from a racial justice perspective.

Engaging Families and Communities

2024 RJEM Webinar Series

Drawing from their extensive experience with antiracist research and praxis, Maile and Gigliana offered counternarratives to disrupt dominant notions that position some families, particularly Black, Indigenous, Latine, Pan-Asian, and immigrant families as less engaged in the education of their children. They also discussed how everyday family practices allow for deep math learning and offered suggestions to educators, administrators, and researchers. A short list of resources shared by speakers is available below.

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Maile Hadley

Maile Hadley connects all of her work to equity of access and high-quality educational opportunities for minoritized youth, families, and communities. In January 2024, she became the Executive Director of First 5 FUNdamentals. In this role, Maile strives to make sure that the voices of the communities reached by First 5 FUNdamentals are heard and amplified. Promoting racial justice in all programs of the organization is also a central effort in her practice. Maile has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington and coursework towards a master’s in Pastoral Studies from Seattle University.

Dr. Gigliana Melzi

Dr. Gigliana Melzi is Professor of Applied Psychology and Affiliated Faculty of Latinx Studies and of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at New York University. Her research describes culturally and linguistically grounded family practices that support Latine children’s early literacy and STEM learning, and how the educational system can leverage these practices to support children’s school-based learning. Dr. Melzi adopts a collaborative research stance, working in partnership with Latine communities and educational centers serving Latine families. Her research has been funded by National Institute of Child Health & Development (NICHD), National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, The Spencer Foundation, Brooke Astor Foundation, Brady Education Foundation, and the Heising-Simons Foundation.

Resources

Parents and teachers collaborating to disrupt asymmetrical power positions in mathematics education by Beatriz Quintos, Erin Turner, and Marta Civil (Article, ZDM, 2024)

Validation of a culture-contextualized measure of family engagement in the early learning of low-income Latino children by Christine M. McWayne and Gigliana Melzi (Article, Journal of Family Psychology, 2014).

Zeno’s Five Practices (Framework, Zeno’s website)

White Dominant Culture & Something Different: A Worksheet (an adaptation by Partners for Collaborative Change based on “White Supremacy Culture” By Tema Okun and Kenneth Jones)

Ways with words: Language, Life and Work in Communities and Classrooms by Shirley Brice Heath (Book, 1983)

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Engaging Families and Communities Webinar

Engaging Families and Communities Webinar