Parent Engagement From Advocacy to Activism: A Radically Inclusive Antiracist Model of Parent Engagement

• In Event: Families at the Center of Learning

Abstract

The objective of this community-based participatory action research (Swantz, 2008) study is to
understand and inform policy and practice to interrupt racialized disciplinary practices in
schools, specifically through the means of parent engagement. A radically inclusive, anti-racist,
and holistic understanding of family engagement begins from the rich cultural frameworks that
families of color bring to the education of their children. This ethnographic study takes place in
the urban school district of Rivertown, where well-documented disproportionate disciplining of
students of color and hostility toward families of color persists despite the advocacy efforts of
community-based organizations (Authors, 2020). Our research is based in theoretical frameworks of CRT counterstorytelling (Solorzano & Yosso, 2002) and community cultural wealth (Gonzalez et al., 2005; Yosso, 2005).

Authors

• Denise Gray Yull, State University of New York

• Hajra Aziz, CARES for families

• Marguerite A. Wilson, Binghamton University - SUNY