Cuentos, Dichos, and Consejos: Latina/o Families (Re)define Parent Engagement Through Micro-Invitations

• In Event: Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: Latina/o Families and Democratic Schooling: The Role of Schools, Families, and Leaders

Abstract

Through interviews and focus groups, this paper highlights several examples of Latina/o parents in one Southern California school district employing what we are calling micro-invitations. Micro-invitations are ways in which marginalized individuals invite those in power to see the strengths of their community, strategically inviting them to partner in efforts to affect change and improve the educational experiences of their children while acknowledging power differentials and institutional barriers in building that partnership. Micro-invitations are deliberate, empowering, and agentic. They provides a strategy in which people who have been discriminated against and oppressed in schools specify and name ways to improve a problematic system while nurturing community cultural wealth.

Authors

• Veronica Nelly Velez, Western Washington University

• Kevin C. Roxas, Western Washington University