School Comes Home and Home Goes to School: Motherscholars and the &@#%*$ of Public Education

• In Event: 47.067 - On Tiptoe and Tightrope: Motherscholars Recalibrating Evidence of Truth and Reimaging Hope in Educational Research

Abstract

In this paper, we offer a reflection on how our conversations as motherscholars inside, outside, about, and around public schools are shaped by our personal and professional identities. We are deeply implicated in our work on many levels--we are teachers, we teach teachers, we hang out in schools for research, and we hang out in schools as parents of children in school. Furthermore, as critical scholars and critical parents of mixed race children, our interactions with and around the scholarly work we do and the social “work” we do as we engage in real-world, offline and online everyday conversations with fellow parents about public education always feel weighty, complex, and potentially self-indicting.
We see the challenges and complexities of public education both from the parental and scholarly points of view. What is a “good” or “high achieving” school in the public imaginary, and how do these definitions converge with and diverge from our scholarly and personal frameworks? How can we bring conversations about public education that usually happen behind closed doors in academia to the public, and how can we ethically and responsibly reflect the realities of everyday people working to provide their children with future life chances through education?
We will share a conceptual model that illustrates these intersections and overlapping identities and inactions, including spaces of homes, schools, virtual communities, other communities (e.g., religious), the university, and teacher education. We explore both the public discourse around schools, for example, as evidenced in online spaces such as greatschools, insideschools, mommy blogs and Facebook pages, and even on school ratings available for each house on various real estate sites, as well as academic and other community conversations about these labels of value put upon schools.
Through our paper, we will share various take-aways that speak to the myriad ways we have engaged in these conversations so far. This includes sharing questions for future research especially interdisciplinary and PAR projects within diverse communities. We also consider action items to create or implement. This includes safe online space for caregivers and educators (blogs, Facebook pages), resources for caregivers, educators, and teacher-educators, and spaces for academic and community parenting to come together in dialogue and action.

Authors

• Fabienne Doucet, William T. Grant Foundation

• Heather Homonoff Woodley, New York University