Raising Mixed Kids in the 'Burbs: Mixed-Race Families Navigating Race, Identity, and Discrimination in Suburban Schools (Poster 6)

• In Event: AERA Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

"This qualitative dissertation explores the intersection of familial and school-based racial-ethnic socialization (RES) of mixed-race children in suburban schools. Suburban schools now educate most youth in the United States and are home to a growing number of mixed-race families. The dissertation explores how parents prepare children to navigate racialized school experiences and the impact of these decisions on the racial knowledge development of multiracial youth, who now comprise the fastest-growing racial demographic under age 18.

Critical Multiracial Theory (MultiCrit) guides the dissertation, which presents findings through storytelling, allegories, and narrated dialogue. The study uncovers parents strategically choosing where to live and, consequently, which schools their children attend, and sheds light on varying parental efforts in cultivating awareness of race, influenced by the racial backgrounds and appearances of their children. Parents grapple with addressing issues of racism, racial stratification, and discrimination, often shaped by their perception of residing in a ""good community"" with ""good schools."" Paradoxically, while young people downplay the significance of racism in their lives, they acknowledge the subtle impact of systemic racism on their school experiences.

The dissertation reveals structural barriers, such as academic tracking and school zoning, as those that constrain access to peers from minoritized heritage groups, critical for fostering positive racial-ethnic identities at school. Findings also suggest that the seeming inability of youth to identify structural elements of everyday racism may be linked to the absence of multiracial representation and the neglect of structural and systemic racism in formal curricula."

Author

• Jackie Matise Peng, WestEd