Principal Leadership for Parent Engagement in Disadvantaged Schools

Chapter 1 Parent engagement-the imperative!.- Chapter 2 Reviewing the literature on principal leadership for parent engagement.- Chapter 3 Describing the research design and methods and introducing the school sites and principal participants.- Chapter 4 Presenting key player findings.- Chapter 5 Presenting school learning findings.- Chapter 6 Presenting school culture findings.- Chapter 7 Responding to the provocation: What gives some principals the edge on parent engagement. 

Dr Linda-Dianne (Linda) Willis is Program Director, Bachelor of Education, and Senior Lecturer, in the School of Education and Professional Studies at Griffith University in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. She is an experienced classroom and tertiary teacher, having taught extensively in the primary and middle years in schools and primary, middle years and senior secondary courses in universities. Linda has held leadership roles in government and independent schools and was the Program Director of the Master of Teaching (Primary) program at The University of Queensland for four years (2014-2018). Linda completed her PhD on parent-teacher engagement in 2013 and has since led significant research projects across Queensland in Catholic and state schools which examine parent engagement in inquiry curriculum using social media and the role of principals in leading parent engagement. She uses dialogic approaches throughout the design and implementation of her research projects as she worksalongside students, parents, teachers, principals, preservice teachers, researchers and industry stakeholders to generate authentic partnerships for enhancing student learning and wellbeing and the success of schools. Her work focuses on how usually marginalised individuals such as parents in schools may be enabled to play more participatory roles as co-educators in their child's learning and wellbeing. Linda was the Lead Chief Investigator (2016-2020) on the project, Principal Leadership for Parent-School-Community Engagement. This research was supported by the Queensland Department of Education's Education Horizon Grant scheme in partnership with Parents and Citizens' Associations Queensland. Linda has published widely in the area of parent engagement and presented on this topic at national and international conferences. Her other research interests include literacy, preservice teacher education, inquiry curriculum, dialogic pedagogies, and Humanities and Social Sciences education.