Toward Humanization and Structural Change: Class-Based Analysis of a Parent Engagement Model in a Rural School District

• In Event: Transforming Schools From the Outside-In: Families and Communities as School Activists

Abstract

Using social class and classism (Liu, 2012) as a theoretical frameworks along with a community based participatory research design (McAlister, 2013), this paper examines the social processes and outcomes associated with implementing a social class and classism conscious (Lui, 2012) parent engagement strategy in an environment where teachers, administrators and other school personnel hold normative ideas about economic status which allow for prejudice and discrimination against White parents of low socio-economic status (SES) in a rural school setting. The findings show: 1) Strengthening the Family-School Partnership 2) Creating a Supportive Parent Community, 3. Taking Lessons Home.

Authors

• Denise G. Yull, Binghamton University - SUNY

• Marguerite A. Wilson, Binghamton University - SUNY

• Ada Robinson-Perez, Binghamton University - SUNY