Parents Advocating for an "F" School in an "A" District: Recognizing Low-Income Mothers' Equity Literacies

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Transforming Family-School Partnerships: Practices for Justice and Equity

Abstract

Drawing from a collaborative ethnography, we describe five low-income white mothers’ advocacy for their child’s diverse, “failing” school during a state takeover. They advocated using three equity literacy practices: 1. promoting the arts, character education, and exposure to diversity, 2. speaking out in protest against pressure and perpetual change, and 3. questioning, criticizing, and reframing the stigma associated with poverty. They leveraged collective agency to promote equity by reinforcing positive aspects of the school community, and resisting and reframing negative stories that get perpetuated about the school based in stigma at the intersection of race, class, and standardized educational attainment. However, their advocacy can also be understood as reifying whiteness. Findings suggest important considerations in approaching school equity and integration.

Authors

• Christy Wessel-Powell, Purdue University

• Alexandra Panos, University of South Florida