Involved in Our Children's Education: Counterstories of Black Parent Activists in Urban Schools

• In Event: Power and Trust in Cultivating Family, School, and Community Partnerships

Abstract

Close inspection of the research on African American parent involvement reveals two competing conceptualizations of what it means to be an “active parent.”  Consistent with Epstein’s framework, most researchers characterize active parents as 1) performing school-sanctioned activities; and 2) seeking improvements at the level of the classroom/school.  In contrast, a small group of scholars depict parent activists as 1) engaged in activities that are not endorsed by the school; and 2) seeking change at the district-level.  These divergent conceptualizations have implications for building and sustaining family-school partnerships.  The purpose of this paper is to complicate popular notions of what it means to be an active parent by exploring the counterstories of members of a predominantly African American parent empowerment group.

Authors

• Kristine Lewis Grant, Drexel University

• Stephanie Smith Budhai, Neumann University

• Quibila Divine, Educational Advocates Reaching Today’s Hardworking Students, Inc