The Wingman Project: An Exploratory Study of School-Based Communication with Grandparents

In this paper, I explain the design and implementation of an e-newsletter created to engage grandparents with public schools. A brief literature review, the process for creating the enewsletter, and my data collection methods are explained. The conclusions and implementations offered provide insight into how public schools can engage grandparents as important members of their school communities. Introduction to the The Wingman Project According to Reynolds, Wright, and Beale (2003) the structure of American families is changing and “children are growing up in blended families, families with both parents working, single parent families, multigenerational families, and families headed by grandparents” (Discussion section, para. 3). Grandparents in all types of family structures have been found to have a positive influence on grandchild well-being (Sear & Coall, 2011; Tanskanen & Danielsbacka, 2012; Yorgason, Padilla-Walker, & Jackson, 2011). In addition to grandparents’ roles within the family structure, their engagement with schools has been documented as influential. Grandparents’ roles as tutors in schools has influenced students to have more positive attitudes and ideas about older generations (Reynolds et al., 2003; Strom & Strom, 1995; Spudich & Spudich, 2010). These findings related to grandparents’ positive influence in the schools echo the substantial and comprehensive findings of the similar positive influence of parental involvement. Mutch and Collins (2012) state, “The better the engagement between parents, families, and schools, the greater the positive impact on student learning” (p. 168). Although there is a strong emphasis on parental involvement in both the literature and in practice, the issue of deliberately involving grandparents in the schools remains a relatively