Mapping and Accounting for the Contradictions in the School Engagement of Progressive White Parents

• In Event: Cartographic Engagements: Mapping and Inquiry

Abstract

Drawing from a critical race theory case study, this paper highlights contradictions in the school engagement of middle- and upper-middle-class progressive white parents in race- and class-diverse schools. For example, a white parent supported school equity so long as their child benefitted from their property rights in whiteness. Because of the ways white supremacy persists through liberal norms of education and family-school partnerships, the author calls on educators and policymakers to take responsibility for creating school communities oriented around a commitment to collective educational justice.

Author

• Jennifer McCarthy Foubert, North Central College