The Role of Core Values, Parent Engagement, and Community-Based Relational Trust in a Waldorf-Inspired School: Village Forest School
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Date
2024-12
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Abstract
The Village Forest School (VFS) is a Waldorf-inspired, nature-based school in rural Italy founded by families seeking refuge from the pandemic in 2020. Exponential growth (from 2 to 60 families in three years) has led to challenges with funding, governance, enrollment, and community relations. Discrepancies and a lack of clarity about school identity, mission and vision, and core values have been recurring issues for parents and staff. VFS leadership seek to develop more effective school-parent engagement strategies that the organization's core values, set clear and appropriate expectations for prospective families, engage parents as meaningful partners, and better unite the school community. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to develop a conceptual framework based on relevant theories to examine how the VFS administration and faculty can build and leverage community-based relational trust to increase social capital and more effectively engage parents (Warren et al., 2009). Positive outcomes including developing parents/guardians as civic actors, increased trust in the school community, and improved educational outcomes can be attributed to strong partnerships between schools and families (Walker et al., 2010). A mixed method approach was used which included semi-structured interviews and surveys. Qualitative surveys comprised of open-ended, Likert scale, and multiple choice questions were distributed with members of the VFS staff, administrators and parents (20 responses). Qualitative data, including open-ended survey responses and other data provided by the organization (prior survey conducted in 2023 and panel discussion transcript from 2024) were thematically coded and analyzed. The project focused on 4 questions (1) How clearly does the VFS administration currently define core values for the organization? (2) How are these core values communicated to incoming and/or prospective families? (3) How can VFS engage parents effectively as meaningful partners? (4) What strategies should VFS prioritize in building community-based relational trust? Key findings of the project include: Respondents indicated that core values is a key driver in what draws them to the school, yet these components of the organization are not reported to be clearly defined. Core values were also reported to be "somewhat clear" when communicated to incoming/prospective families, leaving room for improvement for both defining and communicating. Themes emerged around a desire for more transparency from administration and increased involvement from parents. Relationships between school and families were rated highly, indicating a strong foundation for community-based relational trust.
Description
Leadership and Learning in Organizations capstone project
Keywords
Core values, Parent engagement, Relational trust, Waldorf education, independent school