Mothers Can Be Black: Parental Involvement and the Expectations of Mothering

• In Event: Theorizing From the Intersections: Understanding Education Policies and Practices Through Critical Feminist Theories

Abstract

The second panelist addresses the issue of parental involvement in U.S. schools in relation to gender and race. Those most frequently recognized in parenting are mothers (e.g. Boehme, Goetz, & Preckel 2017) and those viewed as models of “good” parenting are white women (Littlefield 2007). Black mothers in parenting are either ignored or viewed as inferior. However, an analysis of Black mothering shows positive and powerful ways for engaging with children in their education.
Many of the second panelists’ actions with children (through work as a teacher and time with friends’ children) fit within conceptions of normative mothering: caring for children, supporting learning, and even just being a white woman. This is because there are specific expectations for who a mother can be and how she must act within motherhood, synonymous with white motherhood. The ideals of (white) motherhood allow a white woman, who is not a mother, to be accepted and welcomed into spaces for children’s education, while some Black mothers are not.
The initial responsibility of growth and development for children is placed on parents (e.g. Maloney, Ramirez, Gunderson, Levine, & Beilock 2015), but frequently studies make “parent” a proxy for mother in how mothers are impacting their children’s learning (e.g. Barshay, 2019). Often, the policy and representation of mothering in media “has reinforced the dominant ideologies of the good mother, promoting, in the process, a particular view of appropriate women’s roles” (Arendell 2000: 1200). In this ideology, mothers are expected to raise children and be involved in their education in very particular ways that may not be desirable or even possible across all types of families. Often it is the Black mother whose methods and existence in mothering are brought into question, viewed as outside the normal parenting expectations (e.g. Chapell 2019). Such expectations of who is and should be involved in schooling considers only mother figures and frames Black mothers as unacceptable school liaisons.
This paper analyzes the seminal and review literature on the expectations of motherhood and the framing in particular of Black mothering. The context of traditional or “normal” mothering is frequently synonymous with white, middle-class women (e.g. Dillaway & Paré 2008). Black women are often placed in direct contrast to white women in terms of mothering, where Black women are automatically viewed as poor mothers (Hill Collins 2000). A Black feminist perspective allows the expectations of motherhood to be reframed, as it seeks to critically reflect on oppressive systems as a means to create a perspective that instead values and honors the experience of Black women (e.g. Hill Collins 2000; Salazar Pérez & Williams 2014). This framing provides the basis for recognizing and honoring how mothering is perceived in Black communities, the struggle that current restrictive definitions of motherhood create for mothers in different contexts, and what motherhood means and can mean more broadly. By expanding notions of motherhood, educational practices can include wider conceptions of parent involvement that are not limited to the actions of white mothers.

Author

• Sam Prough, University of Delaware