Activism in Urban Schooling

• In Event: Reconstructing School-Family Partnerships in Urban Schools through Culturally Sustaining Leadership

Abstract

This collaborative autoethnography chronicles the lived experiences of mother-scholars navigating urban schools as both researchers and parents. Writing through a Latina feminist lens, the authors examine how their personal experiences of advocating for their children in public schools intersect with their professional roles as equity-driven educational leaders. The writing circle served as both refuge and resistance—a space to process microaggressions, challenge systemic injustices, and produce scholarship informed by maternal knowledge. Anchored in the literature on parental engagement, critical race motherhood, and femtoring, this paper contributes a powerful narrative that reclaims the role of parents in shaping both school policy and educational research agendas.

Authors

• Tracie Trinidad, Aurora Public Schools

• Griselda Galindo-Vargas, Texas State University

• Sharon Ross, East Texas A&M University