Building Strong Families and Early Childhood Education Systems with the Washington State Parent Ambassadors

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Thursday 4:15pm
  In Poster Session: The Parent Power and Leadership Project: Transforming Families Through Community Organizing

Abstract

1. Objectives or purposes

This paper presents findings from case study research with Washington State Parent Ambassadors, a parent leadership and organizing group focused on early childhood education and other issues that impact families, on how participation in Parent Ambassadors shapes parenting, parent-child relationships, and children’s civic attitudes and engagement.

2. Perspective(s) or theoretical framework

Collective parent action to challenge inequalities constraining opportunity for families of color and low-income families is an important strategy for social change(Mediratta et al., 2009; Warren & Mapp, 2011). When collective parent action efforts attend to individual needs and create networks of support and solidarity across lines of difference, they can also catalyze personal transformation in parents’ skills, confidence, and civic self-efficacy (Geller, et. al, 2019). We know less about how parents’ transformations via collective parent action influence their family dynamics and their children’s civic development.

3. Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry

This study employed portraiture (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Hoffman Davis, 1997) to create thick case studies of families where one or more parents had been a member of a Parent Ambassadors cohort and was active in PA alumni activities as well as leadership roles in other advocacy organizations. Families were selected in collaboration with Parent Ambassadors and with an eye to racial, gender, linguistic, and geographic diversity.

4. Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials

We conducted structured interviews with four “lead parents” (PA alumni) in three families, as well as interviews and focus groups with nine children in these families, ranging in age from 13 to 44. Case study data collection was supplemented with a focus group of recent PA cohort members (N=12), staff interviews (N=2), and observations of PA events in which lead parents played leadership or supporting roles.

5. Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view

PA alumni attributed changes in their parenting approaches and their relationships with minor and adult children to their experiences in PA and subsequent leadership and advocacy roles. They described the ways their PA cohorts - intentionally selected for racial and geographic diversity - supported them in developing skills for listening across difference and productively managing disagreement, which prepared them to take on leadership roles in advocacy organizations and public agency boards. These dispositions also translated into shifts in their parenting: they parent with more patience, consider their children’s point of view, and handle conflict through discussion. PA alumni articulate a sense of “somebodiness” as civic and political actors who expect and demand to be treated fairly. Several parents reflected that opportunities for their children to see their parents advocating on their behalf, engaging in civic action and interacting with public officials fostered among their children a sense of civic efficacy and commitment to working to address the problems they see.

6. Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work

This paper contributes to our understanding of collective parent action that prioritizes cross-racial solidarity and preparing parents for public leadership roles influences whole families and contributes to children’s civic development.

Author

• Sara McAlister, New York University