“Darles el lugar”: A Place for Nondominant Family Knowing in Educational Equity

Abstract

Educational researchers, leadership, and policymakers have had the privileged voices and place from which to theorize and address educational inequities. But for some exceptions, nondominant families have been relegated to participation in school-centric “parent involvement” activities. Drawing from a participatory design-based research study using standpoint and critical race theory, our findings suggest key convergences between the lived experiences and insights of nondominant parents and recent educational equity scholarship, while revealing untapped expertise, knowledge, and capacity for addressing inequity. We argue that holding a “place” for the complex understandings of nondominant families can open expansive possibilities for transforming educational systems toward racial equity.

Equity Leadership for English Learners During COVID-19: Early Lessons

“…We contend that an essential component of family engagement is the inclusion of families as leaders and that all families and especially those of marginalized groups like ELs, must be emboldened to be leaders and full partners in the development of plans for programs and services. Recent research supports the assertion that transformative possibilities emerge when we move from individualistic, deficit-based approaches to families to tapping nondominant parent, family, and community knowledge and collective capacities in the theory, policy, and practice of learning and systems change for educational equity (Barajas- López and Ishimaru, 2016).…”

Reinforcing Deficit, Journeying Toward Equity

“…Moreover, an emerging body of community-based education reform literature suggests that not only are parents and families critical stakeholders in educational transformation but also that they can provide much needed social and intellectual resources and collective political will and power to school improvement efforts (Bolivar & Chrispeels, 2011; Hong, 2011; Ishimaru, 2014; Warren, Mapp, & the Community Organizing and School Reform Project, 2011). However, efforts that move beyond passive support roles for parents are still emerging, and despite shifts away from deficit-based parent involvement discourses, the lived experience of many nondominant families continues to be shaped by disempowering school contexts (Barajas-López & Ishimaru, 2016; A. Lewis & Diamond, 2015).…”

Parent engagement in reclassification for English learner students with disabilities

“…Traditional engagement approaches are biased toward White middle-class culture of schools and dismissive of potential contributions of parents of multilingual students (Baquedano-López et al, 2013). Despite good intentions, educators have constrained and silenced parents of multilingual students by shaping conversations around their own identities, ideologies, and interests (Barajas-López & Ishimaru, 2020;Rocha-Schmid, 2010). Unfortunately, educators receive little training for critiquing their own engagement practices and facilitating reciprocal dialogue (Mapp & Kuttner, 2013;Park & Paulick, 2021).…”