Preface

Father care, father presence, unemployment and joblessness, systemic barriers, cooperative parenting, role transitions, and intergenerational learning: These are the topics of the Core Learnings of the National Center on Fathers and Families (NCOFF). The seven Core Learnings are at the heart of NCOFF's agenda for research, practice, and policy and a framework for the field. They represent the knowledge and experience of practitioners who confront complex problems facing fathers and families and are consistent with research across multiple disciplines. They offer an important lens through which policymakers might learn more about the implications and impact of legislation and policy decisions on the lives of large numbers of fathers, mothers, children, and families. Within them are captured salient issues experienced and felt deeply by a range of fathers and families--from those who are financially secure to those who are the most vulnerable to poverty and hardship.

The Core Learnings were identified immediately prior to NCOFF's inception by frontline practitioners in a series of survey and focus group activities conducted by the Philadelphia Children'` Network and NCOFF. Formulated first as seven hypotheses drawn from practitioners' experience' in programs serving fathers and families, each hypothesis was tested against existing published research and policy studies. As each hypothesis was borne out in the literature, it became a Core Learning. A library of information was developed for each. The resultant seven libraries now constitute the NCOFF FatherLit Research Database and include over 7,000 citations, annotations, and abstracts of research, available in written, diskette, CD, and electronic form (forthcoming).

The Core Learnings were formulated, shortly after NCOFF's establishment, first as seven hypotheses drawn from information supplied through a survey of focus groups with practitioners throughout the country. Each hypothesis was then tested against existing research and published reports. As each hypothesis was borne out in the literature, it became a Core Learning, and a library was developed for each. The resultant seven libraries now constitute the NCOFF FatherLit Research Database and include over 7,000 annotations and abstracts of research.

Our assumptions from the outset were that the Core Learnings would be amended over time and that NCOFF's periodic surveys of practice would produce new or additional Learnings. In this report, we summarize what we have learned from revisiting some of the practitioners who helped to formulate the original Core Learnings and from meeting with others who are now part of the growing network of family specialists. Held in six sites throughout the country, the focus group meetings were intended to explore how practice and programs have changed in the past two years, what practitioners have learned from their work that coheres with or differs from their previous [earnings and experiences with fathers and families, and how research and policy can support the development of effective approaches for the field.

It was our sense from meetings and conversations with practitioners who participate regularly in NCOFF activities that while the terrain of effort, called family studies, has not shifted considerably, the landscape has changed substantially. Programs serving fathers now have a deeper commitment to and focus on issues such as poverty, ethnic minority status, education and literacy, and community development, while continuing to promote fathers' involvement in the development of their children and support of their families. In particular, welfare reform and policy initiatives at both the federal and state level have resulted in increased public awareness of the problems facing mothers and children and in heightened public sensitivity to the need to involve fathers in families in meaningful, supportive, and nonadversarial ways.

The information about the focus groups described in this report is being used by NCOFF to inform two follow-up activities: (1) a national survey of programs, to be conducted in the Summer and Fall of 1997, and (2) an ethnography of practitioners, practice, and communities. Like the focus groups, these activities are intended to shed light on the issues, problems, and possibilities embedded in the Core Learnings and to add new Learnings.

The process of reviewing the Core Learnings is ongoing and progressive. The Core Learnings continue to deepen and expand NCOFF's understanding of the practice, knowledge, and policy issues related to fathers and families. They provide both content for innovative, technology-based dissemination efforts to interested practitioners, policymakers, and researchers and the knowledge base needed to create research-initiated, practice-relevant uses of technology. They form a knowledge base for policy recommendations that are rooted in the best information available from research and practice. In addition, they point to areas of knowledge regarding fathers and families that are not well-developed and in which targeted expenditures of research funds can make a substantial impact on practice, policy implementation, and stated knowledge.

We believe that the Core Learnings continue to be a source of information that can promote efforts for, increase knowledge about, and strengthen commitment to families and the field. As a framework, the Core Learnings offer a strong base upon which to build rigorous research and bridges between research and practice. Most importantly, they invite us as researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and vested citizens and community members to interrupt the expected course of events, engage in a more critical discussion, and construct and implement responsive action agendas that reduce the hardship and vulnerability that threaten the well-being of our children and families.

Vivian L. Gadsden
Director

To order the complete document "The Fathers and Families Core Learnings: An Update from the Field," contact the National Center on Fathers and Families at mailbox@ncoff.gse.upenn.edu

Acknowledgements

This document was developed by the staff at the National Center on Fathers and Families (Vivian Gadsden, Keisha Armorer, Bill Cranford, and Danielle Kane) in collaboration with Leila Feister, Elizabeth Steif, and Amy Hightower of Policy Studies Associates, which was contracted to record the activities of each roundtable and compile the report. We would like to express our gratitude to the roundtable participants -- researchers, practitioners, policymakers, social commentators, and funders -- who unselfishly shared their knowledge, insights, and suggestions about the roundtables and the Center's work.

We are deeply appreciative to the Ford Foundation for its support to the roundtable meetings, the Annie E. Casey Foundation for its support to the roundtable documentation which led to this report and for its core support to NCOFF, and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation for its support to dissemination activities. The views expressed in this report are not necessarily those of our funding sources.