Relationships between Families and Schools: Fostering Communication and Collaboration

With the changing context of education in Singapore, integration, inclusion and community practices will continue to dominate and will constitute the future landscape of education. Teaching is no longer an exclusively didactic instruction where certain information is to be given, where certain lessons are to be learned, or where certain habits are to be formed (Eisner, 2004). Rather, teaching and learning occurs within a school and in classrooms which are a form of community life. In this community, diverse abilities are appreciated and varying teaching and learning approaches and strategies are employed to engage with the curriculum as well as in students' lives. This community life is like other communities of our everyday lives in which relationships are central to our experiences within this place and the other communities in which it is embedded.