Engaging Families from Micronesia: "Angang Chok Aramas"

Imua Literacy: Moving Hawaiʻi forward with local solutions.

We have 50 years of research that proves family engagement is an important strategy to improve students literacy and overall learning - so why is it still so hard to achieve? This month, we explore the what, why, and how of family engagement in Hawai‘i, particularly how to best serve our families from the islands of Micronesia. Our guest, Dr. Kathy Ratliffe, a professor in the Educational Psychology department at the University of Hawai‘i, discusses how expanding our definition of engagement and rethinking our assumptions can lead to stronger and thriving partnerships. By the end, we hope you can come away with some ideas on how to build this bridge from school to home in a way that is relevant for the world that families live in today.
“Angang chok aramas” is a Chuukese proverb roughly translated as, "It's only through people that the work can be done." We couldn't agree more!

Your Hosts

• Dr. Esmeralda Carini
• Erin D’Amelio

Links for You!

• The Hawai‘i Statewide Family Engagement Center has lots of resources that are grounded in the state's community.
• We love the work of Waipahu High School to reach all its learners. The Multilingual Marauders site has tons of resources. Our favorite is the collaboration with Bess Press on the bilingual readers for Chuukese and Marshallese (found towards the bottom of the page).
• Here is the AFFECT professional development modules on family and community engagement developed by Kathy and other UH team members.
• The Hawaiʻi State Literacy Plan is designed in partnership with the Executive Office on Early Learning, the Hawai‘i State Department of Education, the University of Hawai‘i System and numerous community organizations. You can find it here.

Episode 5 Music

• Intro/Outro: “Together We Can” by hedkandi
• "Daily Beetle" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• “Easy Lemon” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
• "Life of Riley" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• "Carefree" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/