This article examines how parents supported their children’s education while transitioning from welfare to work. Interviews with parents, elementary school educators, and staff at a community-based organization were conducted in an urban Tennessee community. Navigating work and parenting responsibilities was particularly challenging when children had complex needs and when parent schedules offered limited flexibility. Work and training-based knowledge, experiences, and social networks informed parent involvement beliefs and practices when a parent saw parallels between a child’s education and their job or training. This study offers implications for federal welfare and education reauthorization debates and partnerships between schools and welfare assistance programs.
AhluwaliaS. K.McGroderS. M.ZaslowM. J.HairE. C. (2001, December). Symptoms of depression among welfare recipients: A concern for two generations (Research Brief). Washington, DC: Child Trends.
2.
AuerbachS. (2007). From moral supporters to struggling advocates: Reconceptualizing parent roles in education through the experience of working-class families of color. Urban Education, 42, 250-283.
3.
BartonA. C.DrakeC.PerezJ. G.St. LouisK.GeorgeM. (2004). Ecologies of parental engagement in urban education. Educational Researcher, 33(4), 3-12.
4.
BlankR. M. (2009). What we know, what we don’t know, and what we need to know about welfare reform. In ZiliakJ. P. (Ed.), Welfare reform and its long-term consequences for America’s poor. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
5.
BollingerC.GonzalezL.ZiliakJ. P. (2009). Welfare reform and the level and composition of income. In ZiliakJ. P. (Ed.), Welfare reform and its long-term consequences for America’s poor. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
6.
BootsS. W.MacomberJ.DanzigerA. (2008, July). Family security: Supporting parents’ employment and children’s development (New Safety Net Paper 3). Washington, DC: Urban Institute.
7.
BronfenbrennerU. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
8.
CaspeM.LopezM. E.WolosC. (2006/2007, Winter). Family involvement in elementary school children’s education (No. 2). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard Family Research Project.
9.
Chase-LansdaleP. L.PittmanL. D. (2002). Welfare reform and parenting: Reasonable expectations. Future of Children: Children and Welfare Reform, 12, 167-185.
10.
ClarkR. M. (1983). Family life and school achievement: Why poor black children succeed or fail. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
11.
ColemanJ. S. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94(Suppl. 95), S95-S120.
12.
DearingE.KreiderH.WeissH. B. (2008). Increased family involvement in school predicts improved child-teacher relationships and feelings about school for low-income children. Marriage & Family Review, 43, 226-254.
13.
DunifonR.KalilA.DanzigerS. K. (2003). Maternal work behavior under welfare reform: How does the transition from welfare to work affect child development?Children and Youth Services Review, 25(1-2), 55-82.
14.
EdinK.LeinL. (1997). Making ends meet: How single mothers survive welfare and low-wage work. New York, NY: Russell Sage.
15.
EpsteinJ. (1992). School and family partnerships. In AlkinM. (Vol. Ed.), Encyclopedia of Educational Research (6th ed., pp. 1139-1151). New York, NY: MacMillan.
16.
FanX.ChenM. (2001). Parental involvement and students’ academic achievement: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 13(1), 1-22.
17.
FoxW. F.CunninghamV. C.ThackerA. R.VickersB. B. (2004, July). Families First: 2003 case characteristics study. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee, Center for Business and Economic Research.
18.
FullerB.KaganS. L.LoebS. (2002). New lives for poor families? Mothers and young children move through welfare reform: The Growing Up in Poverty Wave 2 findings: California, Connecticut, & Florida (Technical Report). Berkeley: University of California, Berkeley.
19.
FurstenbergF. F.CookT. D.EcclesJ.ElderG. H.SameroffA. (1999). Managing to make it: Urban families and adolescent success. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
20.
GalinskyE. (1999). Ask the children: What America’s children really think about working parents. New York, NY: William Morrow.
21.
GoldringE. B. (1993). Principals, parents, and administrative superiors. Educational Administration Quarterly, 29(1), 93-117.
22.
GranovetterM. (1983). The strength of weak ties: A network theory revisited. Sociological Theory, 1, 201-233.
23.
HamiltonG.FreedmanS.McGroderS. M. (2000, June). Do mandatory welfare-to-work programs affect the well-being of children? A synthesis of child research conducted as part of the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies. New York, NY: MDRC and Child Trends.
24.
HendersonA. T.MappK. L. (2002). A new wave of evidence: The impact of school, family, and community connections on student achievement: Annual synthesis. Austin, TX: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, National Center for Family & Community Connections with Schools.
25.
HerrT.WagnerS. L. (1998). Moving from welfare to work as part of a group: How Pathways makes caseload connections. Chicago, IL: Erickson Institute, Project Match.
26.
HeymannJ. (2000). The widening gap: Why America’s working families are in jeopardy and what can be done about it. New York, NY: Basic Books.
27.
Hicks-BartlettS. (2000). Between a rock and a hard place: The labyrinth of working and parenting in a poor community. In DanzigerS.LinA. C. (Eds.), Coping with poverty: The social contexts of neighborhood, work, and family in the African-American community (pp. 27-51). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
28.
HochschildA. R. (1989). The second shift. New York, NY: Avon Books.
29.
HochschildA. R. (1997). The time bind: When work becomes home and home becomes work. New York, NY: Henry Holt, LLC.
30.
Hoover-DempseyK. V.SandlerH. M. (1997). Why do parents become involved in their children’s education?Review of Educational Research, 67(1), 3-42.
31.
Hoover-DempseyK. V.WalkerJ. M. T.SandlerH. M.WhetselD.GreenC. L.WilkinsA. S.ClossonK. (2005). Why do parents become involved? Research findings and implications. Elementary School Journal, 106(2), 105-130.
32.
HustonA. C. (2002). Reforms and child development. Future of Children: Children and Welfare Reform, 12(1), 59-77.
33.
JeynesW. H. (2005). A meta-analysis of the relation of parental involvement to urban elementary school student academic achievement. Urban Education, 40, 237-269.
34.
JohnsonJ. (2002). Getting by on the minimum: The lives of working-class women. New York, NY: Routledge.
35.
KalilA.SchweingruberH.Daniel-EcholsM.BreenA. (2000). Mother, worker, welfare recipient: Welfare reform and the multiple roles of low-income women. In DanzigerS.LinA. C. (Eds.), Coping with poverty: The social context of neighborhood, work, and family in the African American community (pp. 201-223). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
36.
LareauA. (2003). Unequal childhoods: Class, race, and family life. Berkeley: University of California Press.
37.
LareauA. (1989). Home advantage: Social class and parental intervention in elementary education. Philadelphia, PA: Falmer Press.
38.
LareauA.HorvatE. M. (1999). Moments of social inclusion and exclusion race, class, and cultural capital in family-school relationships. Sociology of Education, 72(1), 37-53.
39.
MerriamS. B. (2001). Qualitative research and case study applications in education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
40.
MooreK. A.ZaslowM. J. (2004, December). How welfare reform might affect children: Updating the conceptual model (Research Brief No. 2004-30). Washington, DC: Child Trends.
41.
MorrisP.GennetianL. A.DuncanG. J.HustonA. C. (2009). How welfare policies affect child and adolescent school performance: Investigating pathways of influence with experimental data. In ZiliakJ. P. (Ed.), Welfare reform and its long-term consequences for America’s poor (pp. 255-289). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
42.
NewmanK. S. (1999). No shame in my game: The working poor in the inner city. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
PomerantzE. M.MoormanE. A.LitwackS. D. (2007). The how, whom, and why of parents’ involvement in children’s academic lives: More is not always better. Review of Educational Research, 77, 373-410.
45.
PutnamR. D. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
46.
QuaneJ. M.JoshiP.DordickG.HenriciJ. (2002, August). Neighborhood organizations and the people who use them: A spatial consideration of welfare reform. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Chicago, IL.
47.
QuaneJ. M.RankinB. H.JoshiP. (2009). “It’s kind of hard at times:” The effects of multiple family stressors and welfare or work transitions on low-income adolescents. (Three-City Study Working Paper No. 09-05.) Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University.
48.
SeccombeK.JamesD.WaltersK. B. (1998). “They think you ain’t much of nothing”: The social construction of the welfare mother. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 60, 849-865.
49.
SheldonS. B. (2002). Parents’ social networks and beliefs as predictors of parent involvement. Elementary School Journal, 102, 301-316.
50.
SmrekarC. (1996). The impact of school choice and community: In the interest of families and schools. Albany: State University of New York Press.
51.
SteinS. (2001, July). Equipped for the Future content standards: What adults need to know and be able to do in the 21st century. Washington, DC: National Institute for Literacy.
U.S. Department of Education. (2004). Parental involvement: Title I, Part A non-regulatory guidance. Washington, DC: Author.
55.
U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Workforce Investment Act, Final Rule, 20.C.F.R. § 652 (2000).
56.
WeissH. B.KreiderH.LopezM. E.Chatman-NelsonC. (2010b). Preparing educators to engage families: Case studies using an ecological systems framework (2nd ed). Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.
57.
WeissH. B.LopezM. E.RosenbergH. (2010a, December). Beyond random acts: Family, school, and community engagement as an integral part of education reform. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Family Research Project.
58.
WeissH. B.MayerE.KreiderH.VaughanM.DearingE.HenckeR.PintoK. (2003). Making it work: Low-income working mothers’ involvement in their children’s education. American Educational Research Journal, 40, 879-901.
59.
WertheimerR.MooreK. A.BurkhauserM. (2008, September). The well-being of children in working poor and other families: 1997 and 2004 (Research Brief No. 2008-33). Washington, DC: Child Trends.
60.
WilsonW. J. (1996). When work disappears: The world of the new urban poor. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
61.
YinR. K. (1994). Case study research: Design and methods (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
62.
ZaslowM. J.BrooksJ. L.MooreK. A.MorrisP.ToutK.ReddZ. (2001). Impacts on children in experimental studies of welfare-to-work programs. Washington, DC: Child Trends.
63.
ZedlewskiS. R. (2002). Family economic resources in the post-reform era. Future of Children: Children and Welfare Reform, 12(1), 121-145.
