The Parent Trap: Why Parent Engagement Doesn't Promise Equal Educational Opportunity

• In Event: 68.060 - Roundtable Session 29
  In Roundtable Session: 68.060-10 - The Effect of Parental Engagement on Student Achievement and Schooling Experiences

Abstract

Combining narratives of Black parents from both studies, we examine the racial sense-making of Black parents engaged in school reform. This paper blurs the line of demarcation between public schools and charter schools in order to recalibrate our intellectual focus to racial formations that cross-cut both institutions and abrade educational justice initiatives.  We destabilize the notion of parental engagement as understood in “common sense” reform and argue that the school engagements of Black parents are obfuscated by larger dynamics of whiteness. We conclude by providing recommendations for educational administrators and policymakers

Authors

• Kevin Lawrence Henry, University of Arizona

• Jennifer L McCarthy Foubert, Knox College