Diverse Parental Racial Socialization Practices of Young African American Children Attending an Urban Community School

• In Event: Racial Socialization of Black Children: Families' Sociopolitical Preparation in and out of Schools

Abstract

Young children of color in the U.S. do not learn about race and society in isolation; they are taught by those around them, especially their parents, who must constantly communicate messages infused with racial meanings. In particular, African American children’s parents must contend with a history of racialization and contemporary climate of persistent marginalization. Extending research on racial and ethnic socialization (e.g., Gadsden, 1998; Hughes, 2003; Lesane-Brown, 2006) by examining the families of young children-given that most of this literature focuses on adolescents- and eliciting the views of parents who identify other than African American, this paper draws upon semi-structured interview data from a larger study that investigates five African American first-graders’ knowledge and interpretations of sociopolitical issues in and around their lives and the multiple influences upon which they draw to make meaning through diverse literacy practices. Specifically, this paper compares and constrasts the racial socialization practices and perpsectives of the parents of Isaac, an African American boy adopted by two white, lesbian women, and Kelly, an African American girl raised by her birth parents.

The study design and data analysis are informed by a sociocultural conceptualization of literacy (Heath, 1983; Street, 1984) and Critical Race Theory (Bell, 1992; Delgado and Stefancic, 2017; Ladson-Billings and Tate, 1995). To analyze the parental interview data, I used open, inductive coding (Miles, Huberman & Saldana, 2014) and identified the salient themes and patterns within and across the interviews, with the support of Atlas.ti. Across the two interviews, three themes emerged: 1. implicit vs. explicit teaching (being child-led in socialization versus taking up a parent-led preparation for bias stance) , 2. Choice in schooling (considering what the unique affordances of the private, community school setting- with diversity, representation, and criticality at the forefront), 3. Role of other family members (examining others’ varying degrees of influence within and outside the home) The parallels and divergences are discussed in the paper. Most salient was that Issac’s white, lesbian adoptive mothers communicated their intentionalities of being race conscious while Kelly’s father stressed his commitment to being neutral in how he teaches her about race and racism.

The findings detailed in this paper expand researchers’ and practitioners’ understandings of how young African American children are being socialized about race within and outside their homes, disrupts dominant notions of who is parenting race conscious African American children, and challenges literacy educators, specifically those who value critical literacies and sociocultural approaches to education, to consider how families might contribute an understanding of what is happening in the lives of children of color. This paper’s data highlight the need to understand the complex family structures of African American children and its effects on the nature of the socialization those children receive. By analyzing varying parenting approaches to race and racism and their views on schooling choice alongside the knowledge and perspectives of the children, this research informs the way in which researchers consider the proximal, racialized circumstances influencing the lives, knowledge, and development of young African American children.

Author

• Wintre Foxworth Johnson, University of Virginia