Race, Power, and Parental Involvement: Naming the Limits and Drafting the Future of Contemporary Discourse and Practice

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 8

Session Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

Strong family-school relations are a powerful resource in supporting the achievement of all children, yet schools struggle to engage racially-minoritized families. This session challenges the field to think more deliberately about race, power, and parental involvement and its implications for Black and Brown educational opportunity. In examining this intersection, this panel includes scholars and community organizers who seek to document: 1) how race has been invoked in the study and practice of parental involvement; 2) the limitations and possibilities of these invocations; and 2) what future work (in the academy and on the ground) is warranted if we want to engage race more robustly and in ways that directly confront the racial injustices and inequalities that riddle US schools.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Research Focus on Black Education

Chair

• Carla D. O'Connor, University of Michigan

Papers

• Recentering the Stance and Perspective of Black and Brown Parents in Studying Educational Involvement - Alaina Neal-Jackson, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor; Carla D. O'Connor, University of Michigan

• Spiriting Urban Educational Justice: The Leadership of African American Mothers Organizing for Increased Equity and Local Control - Camille M. Wilson, University of Michigan; Dana Gabrielle Nickson, University of Washington - Seattle; Kimberly Charis Ransom, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Unlearning Involvement: Interrogating the Trappings of the Parental Involvement Discourse - Gerardo R. López, Michigan State University

• Parents as Partners for Racial Equity: What's Possible? - Amanda E. Lewis, University of Illinois at Chicago