Families in Urban Education: Troubling Definitions of Parent Engagement in a University/School Partnership

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Family-School-University Partnerships

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe the processes and practices that engender improved parent and family involvement in ways that position urban families as authentic contributors to the school’s culture. Using data from a long-term participatory ethnography now in its sixth year, we will present a subset of data focused on family and community engagement initiatives to describe how African American and Latinx families participate in their child’s education. Drawing on recent work using Racial Realist Parent Engagement and Critical Race Parenting, we seek to move away from deficit language around Black and Brown families to re-theorize how they define their involvement.

Authors

• Joanne C. Larson, University of Rochester

• Lorna Washington, Konar Foundation

• Eleni Duret, University of Rochester