Parent Sensemaking and School Choices Amidst Educational Controversies

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 5:25 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Toward Family Engagement: Reimagining Parental Involvement (Table 6)

Abstract

National media outlets have highlighted major education controversies, particularly related to the teaching of race and gender/sexuality in K-12 schools. School choice advocates have argued that parents should flee public schools that are overreaching in their teaching of these controversial issues. In this study, we recognize parents of K-12 children in school choice contexts as policy actors who must respond to new policies and information as they determine where to enroll their children in school. Through a longitudinal, multisite interview study with 35 parents, we apply sensemaking theory to explain how the political discourse and events in K-12 education were understood by parents and informed their identities and actions in relation to their children’s schools in particular sociocultural contexts.

Authors

• Sarah Winchell Lenhoff, Wayne State University

• Kate Marilu Meza Fernandez, Montclair State University

• Whitney Miller, Wayne State University

• Julie A. Marsh, University of Southern California

• Dwuana Bradley, University of Southern California