Mothers on a Mission: Black Mothers Raising and Loving Brilliant Black Boys

• In Event: 35.052 - Parent Perspectives in the Education of Children of Color: Recentering the Family as Funds of Knowledge

Abstract

The role that Black women play in general in raising sons has received scant attention in the scholarly literature. Moreover, parental strategies deployed by Black women as an important knowledge base that society can learn from is almost nonexistent. The present study, therefore, highlights the parenting practices of five Black mothers raising Black boys in a major urban city in the Northeast. To understand and appreciate the richness of these mother-to-son relationships a bioecological theory of human development situated within a sociocultural theoretical framework is used. Findings reveal a no-nonsense parenting style (higher in both warmth and control than typically associated with the authoritative style of parenting) with a strong emphasis on parental academic involvement, racial socialization, and spirituality.

Authors

• Brian L. Wright, The University of Memphis

• Donna Y. Ford, Vanderbilt University

• Felicity A. Crawford, Boston University