FACEing-Black Family Engagement

• In Event: Showcasing Black Brilliance: Presenting Scholars of Color Integrating Antiracist Agendas in Education Research

Abstract

Objectives
Parent engagement research overwhelmingly reflects deficit-based perspectives framing Black parents as problems that must be fixed or mitigated before they can positively contribute to their children’s education. Consequently, parent engagement research and frameworks ignore the perspectives of Black parents and the assets they use to participate effectively in their children’s education. This study sought to understand how a group of Black families organized themselves to define, conceptualize, and implement parent engagement, and their expressed concerns and advocacy for their children’s education in ways that may be unacknowledged by schools and educational researchers.


Theoretical Framework/Perspectives
I apply Ladson-Billings and Tate’s 1995 Critical Race Theory of Education perspective, and Black Feminist Theory’s (de)construction of motherhood and “motherwork” for Black women and the importance of the relationships Black women build with one another and how they leverage personal relationships and social roles, in their activism and resistance efforts. The conceptual framework for this study considers the ways in which race, class, gender, and family formation and structures intersect in U.S. society to shape the social, economic, and political experiences of Black families. Additionally, this study sought to understand how these social identities intersected to affect participants' engagement in their children’s education.

Methods/Data
This case study examined the experiences of a group of 25 Black parents that organized themselves outside of their local school system to take an active role in their children’s educational experiences. I draw on data from individual and focus group interviews, documents, and observations collected in a large urban county where most of the residents (59%) identify as Black.

Results/Findings
The research participants formed a community whose members acted as equitable partners in the creation and maintenance of the group’s norms and values at the heart of which was an effort to engage in collective activism in the form of parental engagement. The organization, functioning, and purpose of the resulting FACE group had a direct impact on the FACE families’ engagement and their impact on the children’s education and social well-being. Shared leadership and power and a parent-centered approach to parent engagement, both contributed to the FACE members’ development or acquisition of additional parent engagement strategies.

Conference Connections/Significance
This study is directly aligned to the conference title of Dismantling Racial Injustice and Constructing Educational Possibilities by sharing the resulting family-centered school engagement framework that reimagines collaborative equitable relationships between school personnel and Black families. This study provides a counter-narrative to the deficit views of Black families propagated by educational researchers, policymakers, and practitioners. Furthermore, it aims to provide insight into how school personnel can work more effectively, collaboratively, and equitably with Black families.

Author

• Tamyka Morant, District of Columbia Public Schools