Parent Involvement, African American Mothers, and the Politics of Educational Care

Parental involvement to parental engagement: a continuum

“…It is important to state at the outset that engagement with children's learning may not equate to -and should not be judged on the basis of -engagement with the school. Many parents, particularly those from ethnic minorities or those facing economic challenge, find engagement with schools difficult, but still have a strong desire to be involved in their children's learning and educations (Cooper 2009;Crozier 2001;Crozier and Davies 2007;Kim 2009;Turney andKao 2009). Further, Smith (2000), Hughes at al (1994) andVincent (1996) have highlighted the concern that a lack of consideration for the needs of families, such as times of meetings and facilities available, is a significant barrier to the active engagement of some parents.…”

A Mamá No la Vas a Llevar en la Maleta: Undocumented Mothers Crossing and Contesting Borders for Their Children’s Education

“…I use the term bordermothering to highlight the specific ways in which border crossing is an act of parent involvement—one that entails negotiation of not just national borders but multiple complexes of borders—citizenship, race, language, class, gender, and sexuality—as these attain meaning in the everyday lives of families. Derived from “othermothering,” which Cooper () uses to describe ways African American extended families and friendship networks participate in processes of “mothering,” bordermothering also disrupts commonsense understandings of what it means to be a “good mother.” Both concepts are rooted in the exigencies of structurally induced poverty, racialized power structures, and the creative survival work of communities. My construction of the term here is derived from the stories of Angelica and Lupe, undocumented Mexican and Salvadoran mothers, but it is a term that begs continual redefinition.…”

“…presence in the same place—classroom, school, house, state or country) between mothers and children and mothers and school officials. This constrained imagination of motherhood has been critiqued broadly for its inattentiveness to the power dynamics that shape school–family relationships (Posey ; Villenas and Deyhle ), failure to account for culturally diverse practices of mothering and educating (Burton et al ; Cooper ; Moll and Ruiz ), and exclusion of poor and working mothers who face serious constraints in being a part of school‐based activities (Newman and Chin ; Williams and Sanchez ). Undocumented mothers are often lumped with other categories of mother—poor, Latina, migrant—in these critiques.…”

Parent and Family Engagement in Higher Education

“…Some have reviewed how parents have been managed or restrained by school administrators, which clearly limited parents’ involvement in schools (Horvat, Curci, & Partlow, ). Among African American mothers, Cooper () describes the biases and deficit perspectives of teachers that led participants to feel betrayed, discriminated against, judged, and marginalized. Chapman and Bhopal () found, within two countries, that teacher biases and perspectives led to racist policies and actions parents had to then counteract and oppose.…”