This article looks at the way language subtly shapes and constrains the way we perceive reality. It examines one term—parental involvement. This apparently simple and democratic term serves as a portfolio of meanings that separate and divide. It illustrates two of these meanings, which take the form of a conjoined metaphor of “full/empty,” or “lacking/having.” The article shows the way these two metaphors place parents in a binary of those who give and those who receive. Finally, it argues that such understandings are unconscious and persistent, making it imperative for urban educators to carefully examine the language they use if they are not to remain enmeshed in a discourse of deficit.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Biklen, S. K. (1993). Mothers’ gaze from teachers’ eyes. In S. K. Biklin (Ed.), Gender and education: Ninety second yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education (pp. 155-173). Chicago: National Society for the Study of Education.
2.
Bloch, M., & Tabachnick, B. R. (1993). Improving parent involvement as school reform: Rhetoric or reality. In N. P. Greenman (Ed.), Changing schools: Recapturing the past or inventing the future? Albany: State University of New York Press.
3.
Cornell, C. (1995, winter). Reducing failure of LEP students in the mainstream classroom and why it is important. Journal of Educational Issues of Language Minority Students, 15, 123-146.
4.
Cushman, P. (1995). Constructing the self, constructing America: A cultural history of psychotherapy. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.
Fine, M. (1992). The “public” in public schools: The social construction/constriction of moral communities. In Schooling and the silenced “others”: Race and class in schools (Special Studies in Teaching and Teacher Education, no. 7). Papers prepared for the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Buffalo, State University of New York.
7.
Foucault, M. (1970). The order of things. New York: Random House.
8.
Goldie, T. (1995). Fear and temptation: The image of the indigene in Australian, New Zealand and Canadian literature. In B. Ashcroft, G. Griffith, & H. Tiffen (Eds.), The postcolonial studies reader. London: Routledge.
9.
Kuntz, K. (1998). A lost legacy: Head Start’s origins in community action. In J. Ellsworth and L. Ames (Eds.), Critical perspectives on Head Start: Revisioning the hope and challenge. Albany: State University of New York Press.
10.
Lareau, A. (1987, April). Social class differences in family-school relationships: The importance of cultural capital. Sociology of Education, 60, 73-85.
11.
Lareau, A. (1992). It’s more covert today: The importance of race in shaping parents’views of the school. In Schooling and the silenced “others”: Race and class in schools (Special Studies in Teaching and Teacher Education, no. 7). Papers prepared for the annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Buffalo, State University of New York.
12.
Lemert, C. (1997). Postmodernism is not what you think. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
13.
Ochoa, A., & Mardirosian, V. (1996, summer). Investing in the future of youth: Parent training. Journal of Educational Issues of Language Minority Students, 16.
14.
Orellana, M. F. (1996, summer). Aquí vivimos. Voices of Central American and Mexican participants in a family literacy project. Journal of Educational Issues of Language Minority Students, 16, 115-130.
15.
Popkewitz, T. (1992). A political/sociological critique of teacher education reforms: Evaluation of the relation of power and knowledge. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the Second National Research Symposium on Limited English Proficient Student Issues, Washington, DC.
16.
Said, E. (1993). Culture and imperialism. New York: Vintage Books.
17.
Shklovsky, V. (1998).Art as technique. In J. R. Rivkin & M. Ryan (Eds.), Literary theory: An anthology. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
18.
Zigler, E., & Anderson, K. (1979). An idea whose time had come: The intellectual and political climate for Head Start. In E. Zigler & K. Valentine (Eds.), Project Head Start: A legacy of the war on poverty. New York: Free Press.
