Seven Principles of Urban Parent Empowerment and Advocacy

• In Event: Organizing Parents for Social Justice in Urban Schools: A New Urban Model of Parent Engagement

Abstract

Numerous educational research and parent advocates write about the need to involve working class parents in education (e.g. Auerbach, 2004; Epstein, 1992; Murrell, 2001; Noguera; 2001). However, few scholars have described how to successfully include urban parents within k-12 schools. This paper describes how one group of parent advocates, Parent U-Turn, developed a distinctive approach to reframe parent engagement for working class parents in urban and rural communities—an approach that has proved powerful for parents and schools. This paper documents how their experiences as parent researchers led to the development of a new set of principles for parent engagement.
Parents are often provided with basic information about the school system, but seldom empowered to be actively engaged as leaders in schools and school districts (Identifying Source, 2006). This paper builds on Joyce Epstein’s (1999) “Six Keys for Parent Involvement” as a pioneering document. However, the author challenges the State of California’s adoption of Epstein’s principles because they are limited in scope and intended for a limited audience. Through her decade long work as a parent advocate and parent researcher, author believes that these principles lack an authentic role for parents in the decision-making process at school sites. In particular, it does not provide a framework for schools located in diverse, low-income communities that often lack powerful PTA organizations and local educational foundations.

As ex-chairperson of the Los Angeles Unified School District Parent Collaborative, the author has developed seven strategies of parent engagement geared specifically to empower inner city and rural parents to make informed decisions on the education, safety and health of their children. In this paper, the author draws upon surveys and formal interviews with parent participants to discuss the learning process of the parent group and the learning conditions needed to enable parents as critical researchers and leaders in urban educational reform movements. These new parent engagement strategies provide concrete suggestions that will influence how educators, administrators, researchers, and policy makers work with parents in their schools and communities. In turn, it provides a road map of empowerment for marginalized parents and families to become critically involved in the education of their children.

The study draws on participant observation, public records, and an extensive body of interviews and focus groups meeting.

Author

• Mary Johnson, Los Angeles Unified School District 6