A Typology of School Engagement: How Low-Paid Mothers of Minoritized Children Navigate School and Work (Poster 41)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Saturday 9:50 a.m.
  In Poster Session: Division L Section 8 Social Policy and Education: Poster Session

Abstract

Endemic structural discrimination within and beyond schools has resulted in persistent gaps in student achievement along axes of race, class, and ability. Parental involvement in children’s educational experience represents a malleable support that can promote educational success. Yet patterns of structural discrimination affect parents and their children when interacting with schools that center White, middle- and upper-class values. The current paper identifies a typology of school engagement used by low-paid working mothers who navigate involvement in their children’s school along with economic precarity, racism, and sexism. Using this typology will help understand how some marginalized families interact with schools and will inform school practices to improve home-school partnerships, one mechanism by which school administrators and policymakers can address achievement gaps.

Authors

• Kess Ballentine, Wayne State University

• Kathryn M. Wright, Wayne State University