The Parentification and Infantilization of Students: An Ethnographic Examination

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 19
  In Roundtable Session: School-Based Surveillance of Children of Color

Abstract

This ethnographic study of Baker School (pseudonym) in a low-income neighborhood in Philadelphia investigates how hidden curricula of social reproduction shape students’ schooling experiences. In this presentation, I specifically focus on one of the study’s primary findings related to the ways students are simultaneously parentified and infantilized in the culture of control at the school. This research generates important learnings for scholars and practitioners about the importance of thinking about new ways to engage with students and families as well as taking a resource oriented, as opposed to a deficit view, of the local community.

Author

• Nicole Mittenfelner Carl, University of Pennsylvania