University finds FAST way to put dads in the picture: [1 All-round Country Edition]
Stapleton, John. The Australian [Canberra, A.C.T] 26 Apr 2004: 16.
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THE pictures all tell a story. Young dads, old dads, hairy dads. Even ones with a few teeth missing. It's all part of DadPics, coming under the umbrella of FAST -- the Fathers and Schools Together project, which is aimed at primary schools.
[Tranter] says the response has been fantastic. She says a flyer sent out to the Mayfield East dads had 47 respond.
"The teachers are confident that the literacy workshops will give dads the skills and confidence to really get involved in the classroom," Tranter says.
A program on trial in the NSW Hunter Valley has achieved great success by bringing fathers into the classroom, writes John Stapleton
THE pictures all tell a story. Young dads, old dads, hairy dads. Even ones with a few teeth missing. It's all part of DadPics, coming under the umbrella of FAST -- the Fathers and Schools Together project, which is aimed at primary schools.
FAST, trials of which began last May, is in turn part of the Engaging Fathers Project, from the Family Action Centre at the University of Newcastle.
FAST has now operated in seven schools in the NSW Hunter valley, both state and Catholic.
The scheme is being closely monitored, with the aim of creating a resource manual to encourage fathers into the school lives of their children.
It also aims to provide individual schools around Australia with the resources to mount similar projects.
DadPics has now been trialled in three schools in the Hunter: Seaham, Belmont North and Mayfield East public schools.
Earlier this month Belmont North held an exhibition of students' work -- photographs of their fathers.
The children were asked to provide their work under three categories: something I do with my dad; something I would like to do with my dad; and something that makes my dad happy.
Organisers found that while making dad happy provided a lot of entertaining pictures, the most powerful messages came from the "what I would like to do with my dad" category.
The work is done as part of the art and literacy teaching segments of the curriculum.
One example in the recent exhibition at Belmont North was from a child whose father travels constantly for his work.
The student did a picture of his luggage, attaching the message that they would like to join dad on the trip.
"It is these sorts of messages that the fathers have responded to," Engaging Fathers Project officer Stephanie
Tranter says.
Tranter says the Engaging Fathers Project began with early work from the university by a leader in men's health research, Richard Fletcher, who is now actively involved in reviewing gender equity programs in NSW schools.
His early work found that while it was easy to get fathers involved in outdoor school activities, such as sports and school working bees, it was not so easy to get them involved in the classroom.
Many fathers felt out of place because they regarded schools and education as primarily the role of the mother, particularly in primary schools, which largely have female teachers and actively involved mothers.
"Previous research has found that men want to be involved in the education of their children when they are given opportunities to do so," Tranter says.
"What we are trying to do is create those opportunities.
"The role of the father is changing and the schools are not providing these opportunities.
"Schools are still largely a feminised area. Many of the projects that the schools were conducting to encourage parents into schools were organised and run by women and were therefore largely attended by women.
"It was nobody's fault, but that was what was happening.
"We are finding that even though they are often still organised and run by women, when they actively target fathers or make an effort to be friendly towards them, the fathers respond very positively.
"All the response we have had from mothers has also been very positive.
"Teachers are completely supportive, we have not had one negative comment."
Each school takes on different projects.
Some have organised school-based workshops for dads and children to experience active literacy activities that are fun and easily transferable to the home environment.
Others have included dads' breakfasts, conveying the message that schools are father-friendly with games and breakfast and learning activities in theclassroom.
The last one of these had about 115 dads attend. In the nature of these things it was an extraordinary roll-up.
Yet another project has involved having the theme of fathers as part of a classroom unit of work.
It was centred around an open morning for dads to see what their children had created, from art to stories to power-point presentations, all around the theme of fathers.
Another school set out to involve fathers in students' homework.
One teacher originally had only one father regularly involved in his child's homework. After his efforts all but one father was regularly involved.
Fathers and Schools Together has been one of the most successful of the schemes to emerge out of the Engaging Fathers Project.
Mayfield East Public School has had to run extra literacy workshops for dads because they had too many to fit into one classroom.
Tranter says the response has been fantastic. She says a flyer sent out to the Mayfield East dads had 47 respond.
"The school has to find more teachers for the sessions and we have had to ask the dads of older children to come to next week's session," she says.
"Last year only 11 dads came along to these workshops, so word seems to be spreading."
The dads play word games with their children.
By solving puzzles using the language and learning procedures in classroom literacy teaching, the fathers learn how best to help at home and at school.
"The teachers are confident that the literacy workshops will give dads the skills and confidence to really get involved in the classroom," Tranter says.
"It is a big shift from seeing dads as only good for mowing the lawn and on working bees to help build equipment."
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