Latina Mother Leadership: (Trans)forming Roles, Expectations, and Perceptions

• In Event: 66.080 - Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: 66.080-5 - Family Engagement Strategies and School–Community Partnerships That Support Latina/o Students and Families

Abstract

This study explores how the Latina mothers participating in parent group in the state of Utah define, enact, and embody leadership. In the past three years, the mothers have contested and expanded traditional parent involvement roles by espousing a leadership role in the school; something that is typically unavailable to Latina mothers. Furthermore, this study also explores the complex and intersecting roles these Latina mothers must negotiate in their children’s education- as mothers and leaders. Guided by parent involvement, Latina mothering, and educational leadership theory scholarship, this study seeks to create a bridge between these bodies of literature and, as a result, transform the ways in which school leaders perceive and include Latina mothers in everyday school practices and policies.

Author

• Nereida Camacho Oliva, University of Utah