Despite current research evidence connecting family involvement to students' academic learning, non-mainstream families' funds of knowledge are insufficiently valued as relevant to public schools' curricula and academic genres, a practice that limits diverse families' inclusion as equal partners in their children's education. This two-year-long ethnography (2005-2007), grounded in sociocultural and sociohistorical theories, investigated the struggles and possibilities that two elementary teachers and their students' non-mainstream families faced while trying to reach common understandings about working collaboratively to develop home-classroom partnerships at a time of a national educational reform under the politics of high stakes accountability of the NCLB Law of 2001 and a state local policy of English-only education in Western Massachusetts. Focusing on a third grade teacher and her English Language Learners (ELL) Latino students and on a regular kindergarten teacher with half of the students of Latino origin, the study explored the evolution of participants' assumptions about non-mainstream students and their families, the participants' co-construction of social and literacy practices, and the dialogical practices conducive to partnerships for fostering home-school partnerships and improving diverse students' literacy development. Findings suggest that: (1) some specific social and literacy practices co-constructed through dialogical interactions between urban school teachers and Latino families positively influenced home-classroom partnerships that worked for nonmainstream families; and (2) the participant teachers' critical reflections on their own assumptions and ideologies brought them new understandings about Latino families' funds of knowledge and child socialization practices, helping them to know the whole child and to better provide academic support for ELL students. Implications for practitioners point at the importance of gaining an in-depth understanding of building relationships with non-mainstream families in urban schools to implement home-school partnerships that work for all families. Implications for state agencies, stakeholders, and administrators are: (1) a need to redefine the field of family involvement for a comprehensive action plan for involving non-mainstream families as equal partners in their children's education; and (2) the need for serious commitment towards supporting urban teachers by allocating time and funds for professional development.

The purpose of this qualitative case study describes and analyzes the perspectives of five elementary classroom teachers using the application of movement in their classrooms and the learning through movement perspective of two children from each classroom. The study looked at the relationship between teachers' abilities to construct movement-based active learning experiences for their students, and how students responded to this method of learning. The research design involved in-depth interviews with five teachers and ten children beginning September 28, 2007 and ending in November 2007. The interviews were structured and unstructured, audio-recorded, transcribed and then coded. Three observations of each classroom were also audio-recorded, transcribed and additional reflections were notated in field notes. Each teacher and their selected students were treated as a case study in and of itself. Once each study was analyzed as a case, a cross-case analysis was used to develop a more sophisticated description. To increase trustworthiness and to minimize common threats to validity, triangulation, member checking, and peer debriefing were used by the researcher. The researcher discussed the findings as they related to the three research questions that guided the study's purpose: (1) To what extent do the selected teachers use movement to engage students in the active learning process? (2) To what extent can the selected teachers assess when the children derive meaning of classroom concepts using a movement-based active learning process? (3) To what extent do selected teachers change their teaching based on movement-based active learning? The data revealed that students were motivated to learn and were engaged when teachers provided movement-based active learning in a safe environment that embraced problem solving and allowed students to make choices. The data also revealed that the teachers were more aware of student's success or need for remediation when watching their movement, listening to their interactions, and asking facilitating questions. Finally, the teachers changed the way they taught when they have the desire, comfort, and understanding of the new teaching process. Each teacher in this study wanted to continue the use of movement-based active learning and find additional ways to use it in other curriculum areas.

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