This review is focused on literature documenting the experiences of nondominant and minoritized parents who challenge injustice and inequity in the public schools attended by their children. It interrogates hegemonic approaches to parent involvement favoring dominant groups and silencing efforts of nondominant parents to confront discriminatory assumptions and unequal opportunities. Research studies generally published between 1995 and 2016 reflecting grassroots parent activism encountering conflict and tension and exposing racism, classism, and discrimination in public school practices and policies were selected. Using the lens of critical race and social justice theories, the review is structured on three major public school hypocrisies: (1) hegemonic traditional school-controlled parent involvement that privileges dominant groups and devalues contributions of nondominant groups, (2) false claims of equity in schools characterized by stratified and differential opportunities, and (3) discriminatory market-based choice and privatization schemes. Ultimately the review calls on researchers to acknowledge ethical issues that arise when their work “confirms” nondominant parent and child inferiority. Further, it calls for observer–activist–participant research paradigms that acknowledge school-based resistance to critical nondominant parent activism and respectfully document the continuing struggle of nondominant parents for equal educational opportunities.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AbramsL. S.GibbsJ. T. (2002). Disrupting the logic of home-school relations: Parent involvement strategies and practices of inclusion and exclusion. Urban Education, 37, 384–407.
American Educational Research Association. (2011). AERA code of ethics. Educational Researcher, 40, 145–156.
4.
Andre-BechelyA. (2013). Could it be otherwise? Parents and the inequalities of school choice. New York, NY: Routledge.
5.
ArriazaG. (2004). Making changes that stay made: School reform and community involvement. High School Journal, 87(4), 10–24.
6.
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.
7.
BackA. (2003). Exposing the “whole segregation myth”: The Harlem Nine and New York City’s school desegregation battles. In TheoharisJ. F.WoodardK. (Eds.), Freedom north: Black freedom struggles outside the south 1940–1980 (pp. 65–91). Gordonsville, VA: Palgrave Macmillan.
8.
BakhtinM. M. (1993). Toward a philosophy of the act. Austin, TX: Austin University Press.
9.
Baquedano-LopezP.AlexanderR. A.HernandezS. (2013). Equity issues in parental and community involvement in schools: What teacher educators need to know. Review of Research in Education, 37, 149–182.
10.
BillinghamC. M.HuntM. O. (2016). School racial composition and parental choice: New evidence on the preferences of White parents in the United States. Sociology of Education, 89(2), 99–117.
11.
BlumenreichM.Jaffe-WalterR. (2015). Social media illuminates: Some truths about school reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 97, 25–28.
12.
BourdieuP. (1991). Language and symbolic power. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
13.
BrantlingerE. (2003). How the middle class negotiates and rationalizes school advantage. New York, NY: Routledge.
14.
ChaseM. M.DowdA. C.PazichL. B.BensimonE. (2014). Transfer equity for “minoritized” students: A critical policy analysis of seven states. Educational Policy, 28, 669–717.
ComerJ. P.HaynesN. M. (1991). Parent involvement in schools: An ecological approach. Elementary School Journal, 91, 271–277.
17.
CooperC. W. (2005). School choice and the standpoint of African American mothers: Considering the power of positionality. Journal of Negro Education, 74, 174–189.
18.
CooperC. W. (2009). Parent involvement, African American mothers, and the politics of educational care. Equity & Excellence in Education, 42, 379–394.
19.
de ForestJ. (2008). The 1958 Harlem school boycott: Parental activism and the struggle for educational equity in New York City. Urban Review, 40, 21–41. doi:10.1007/s11256-007-0075-5
20.
Delgado-GaitanC. (1991). Involving parents in the schools: A process of empowerment. American Journal of Education, 100, 20–46.
21.
DeLucaS.RosenblattP. (2010). Does moving to better neighborhoods lead to better schooling opportunities? Parental school choice in an experimental housing voucher program. Teachers College Record, 112, 1443–1491.
22.
DeresiewiczW. (2015). Excellent sheep: The miseducation of the American elite and the way to a meaningful life. New York, NY: Free Press.
23.
DrynessA. (2011). Cultural exclusion and critique in the era of good intentions: Using participatory research to transform parent roles in urban school reform. Social Justice, 36(4), 36–53.
24.
DuchH. (2005). Redefining parent involvement in Head Start: A two generation approach. Early Childhood Development and Care, 175, 23–35.
25.
EdmondsR. (1979). Effective schools for the urban poor. Educational Leadership, 31, 15–23.
26.
EpsteinJ. L. (1992). School and family partnerships. In AlkinM. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of educational research (pp. 1139–1151), New York, NY: Macmillan.
27.
EpsteinJ. L. (1995). School/family/community partnerships: Caring for the children we share. Phi Delta Kappan, 76, 701–712.
28.
EpsteinJ. L. (2005) Attainable goals? The spirit and letter of the No Child Left Behind Act on parental involvement. Sociology of Education, 78, 179–182.
29.
FennimoreB. S. (1996). Equity is not an option in public education. Educational Leadership, 54, 53–55.
30.
FennimoreB. S. (1997). When mediation and equity are at odds: Potential lessons in democracy. Theory Into Practice, 1, 59–64.
31.
FennimoreB. S. (2000). Talk matters: Refocusing the language of public schooling. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
32.
FennimoreB. S. (2005). Brown and the failure of civic responsibility. Teachers College Record, 107, 1905–1932.
33.
FennimoreB. S. (2016). A social justice approach to families. In CouseL. J.RecchiaS. L. (Eds.), Handbook of early childhood teacher education (pp. 304–316). New York, NY: Routledge.
34.
FineM. (1993). [Ap]parent Involvement: Reflections on parents, power, and urban public schools and responses. Teachers College Record, 94, 682–729.
35.
FineM. (1994). Dis-stance and other stances: Negotiations of power inside feminist research. In GitlinA. (Ed.), Power and method: Political activism and educational research (pp. 13–35). London, England: Routledge.
36.
GenishiC.DysonA. H. (2009). Children, language, and diversity: Diverse learners in diverse times. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
37.
GillB. P.TimpaneP. M.RossK.BrewerD. J. (2001). Rhetoric versus reality: What we know and what we need to know about vouchers and charter schools. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation.
38.
GrauE. (2005). Theorizing and describing preservice teachers’ images of families and schooling. Teachers College Record, 907, 157–185.
39.
GreeneS. (2013). Mapping low-income African American Parents’ roles in their children’s education in a changing political economy. Teachers College Record, 15(10), 1–33.
40.
GreeneS.Abt-PerkinsD. (2003). How can literacy research contribute to racial understanding. In GreeneS.Abt-PerkinsD. (Eds.), Making race visible: Literacy research for cultural understanding (pp. 1–31). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
41.
HankinsK. B. (2005). Practicing citizenship in new spaces: Rights and realities of charter school activism. Space and Polity, 9, 41–60.
42.
HarryB.KlingnerJ. K.HartJ. (2005). African American families under fire. Remedial and Special Education, 26, 101–112.
43.
HeadN. (2008). Critical theory and its practices: Habermas, Kosovo, and international relations. Politics, 23, 150–159.
44.
Hoover-DempseyK. V.SandlerH. M. (1995). Parental involvement in children’s education: Why does it make a difference?Teachers College Record, 97, 310–331.
45.
HowardT. C. (2008). Who really cares? The disenfranchisement of African American males in PreK-12 schools: A critical race theory perspective. Teachers College Record, 110, 954–985.
46.
HowardT. C.ReynoldsR. (2008). Examining parent involvement in reversing underachievement of African American Students in middle class schools. Educational Foundations, 22, 79–88.
47.
HummelD. (2012). Principles over prejudice: Social dominance theory and the mosques’ controversy in American cities. Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 32, 32–46.
48.
HuntJ. M. (1968). Environment, development and scholastic achievement. In DeutschM.KatzI.JensenA. R. (Eds.), Social class, race, and psychological development (pp. 293–336). New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
49.
IrizarryJ. G.BrownT. M. (2014). Humanizing research in dehumanizing spaces: The challenges and opportunities of conducting research with youth in schools. In ParisD.WinnM. T. (Eds.), Humanizing research: Decolonizing qualitative inquiry with youth and communities (pp. 63–80). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
50.
IshimaruA. M. (2014a). Rewriting the rules of engagement: Elaborating a model of district-community collaboration. Harvard Educational Review, 84, 188–216.
51.
IshimaruA. M. (2014b). When new relationships meet old narratives: The journey towards improving parent-school relations in a district-community organizing collaboration. Teachers College Record, 116(2). Retrieved from http://www.tcrecord.org/library/abstract.asp?contentid=17350
52.
JasisP. (2013). Latino families challenging exclusion in a middle school: A story from the trenches. School Community Journal, 23, 111–130.
53.
JasisP. M.Ordonea-JasisR. (2012) Latino parent involvement: Examining commitment and empowerment in schools. Urban Education, 47, 65–89.
54.
JasisP.MarriottD. (2010). All for our children: Migrant families and parent participation in an alternative education program. Journal of Latinos and Education, 9, 126–140.
55.
JensenA. R. (1969). How much can we boost IQ and scholastic achievement?Harvard Educational Review, 39, 1–123.
56.
KainzK.AikensN. L. (2007). Governing the family throughout education: A genealogy on the home-school relation. Equity & Excellence in Education, 40, 301–310. doi:10.1080/10665680701610721
57.
KretchmarK. (2014). Democracy (in) action: A critical policy analysis of New York City public school closings by teachers, students, administrators, and community members. Education and Urban Society, 46, 3–29.
58.
Ladson-BillingsG. (2004). Landing on the wrong note: The price we paid for Brown. Educational Researcher, 33(7), 3–13.
59.
Ladson-BillingsG.TateW. F. (1995). Toward a critical race theory of education. Teachers College Record, 97, 47–68.
60.
LareauA.HorvatE. M. (1999). Moments of social inclusion and exclusion: Race, class, and cultural capital in family-school relationships. Sociology of Education, 72, 37–53.
61.
LareauA.MunozV. L. (2012). “You’re not going to call the shots”: Structural conflicts between the principal and the PTO at a suburban public elementary school. Sociology of Education, 85, 201–218. doi:10.1177/00380407114435855
62.
Lectura Books. (2015). The Latino Family Literacy Project Parent Involvement and the new Every Child Succeeds Act (ESSA). Retrieved from http://www.latinoliteracy.com/12915-2/
63.
LopezG. R. (2001). The value of hard work: Lessons on parent involvement from an (im)migrant household. Harvard Educational Review, 71, 416–437.
64.
LubeckS.deVriesM. (2000). The social construction of parent involvement in Head Start. Early Education and Development, 11, 633–658.
65.
LuetK. M. (2016). Disengaging parents in urban schooling. Educational Policy. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/0895904815616481
66.
MacKinnonC. A. (1992). Only words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
67.
MarshJ. A.StrunkK. O.Bush-MecenasS. C.HuguetA. (2015). Democratic engagement in district reform: The evolving role of parents in the Los Angeles public school choice initiative. Educational Policy, 29, 51–84.
68.
Martinez-CosioM. (2010). Parents’ roles in mediating and buffering the implementation of an urban school reform. Education and Urban Society, 42, 283–306.
69.
MatthewsP.HastingsA. (2013). Middle-class political activism and middle-class advantage in relation to public services: A realist synthesis of the evidence base. Social Policy & Administration, 47, 72–92.
70.
McAlisterS.CatoneK. C. (2013). Real parent power: Relational organizing for sustainable school reform. National Civic Review, 102, 26–32.
71.
McKnightD.ChandlerP. (2012). The complicated conversation of class and race in social and curricular analysis: An examination of Pierre Bourdieu’s interpretive framework in relation to race. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 44(1), 74–97.
72.
MedeirattaK.FruchterN. (2003). From governance to accountability: Building relationships that make schools work. New York, NY: Drum Major Institute for Public Policy.
73.
NesporJ.HicksD. (2010). Wizards and witches: Parent advocates and contention in special education in the USA. Journal of Education Policy, 25, 309–334.
74.
NietoS (Ed.). (2015). Why we teach now. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
75.
NogueraP. (2004). Racial isolation, poverty, and the limits of local control in Oakland. Teachers College Record, 106, 2146–2170.
76.
OlivosE. M. (2004). Tensions, contradictions, and resistance: An activist’s reflection on the struggles of Latino parents in the public school system. High School Journal, 87(4), 25–36.
77.
OlivosE. M.MendozaM. (2009). Immigration and educational inequity: An examination of Latino immigrant parents’ inclusion in the public school context. Journal of Latino/Latin American Studies, 3(3), 38–53.
78.
OrfieldG. (2014). Tenth Brown lecture in educational research a new civil rights agenda. Educational Researcher, 43, 273–292.
79.
PappasL. N. (2012). School closings and parent engagement. Peace and Conflict, 18, 165–172.
80.
ParisD.WinnM. T. (2014). Preface: To humanize research. In ParisD.WinnM. T. (Eds.), Humanizing research: Decolonizing qualitative inquiry with youth and communities (pp. xiii-xx). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
81.
PletzJ. (2001). Huge impact and dramatic results when parents get involved in schools. Crain’s Chicago Business, 35, 0008.
82.
PollockM. (2008) Because of race: How Americans debate harm and opportunity in our schools. Princeton, NJ: University of Princeton Press.
83.
Posey-MaddoxL. (2013). Professionalizing the PTO: Race, class, and shifting norms of parental engagement in a city public school. American Journal of Education, 119, 235–260.
84.
Posey-MaddoxL.McDonoughS.CucchiaraM. (2014). Middle class parents and urban public schools: Current research and future directions. Sociology Compass, 8, 446–456.
85.
PrattoF.StewartA. L. (2012). Group dominance and the half-blindness of privilege. Journal of Social Issues, 68, 28–45.
86.
QuinD. B.HanE. J. (2014). Tiger parents or sheep parents: Struggles of Parental involvement in working-class Chinese immigrant families. Teachers College Record, 116(8), 1–32.
87.
RawlsJ. (1971). A theory of justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
88.
RawlsJ. (2001). Justice as fairness: A restatement. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
89.
ReissmanF. (1962). The culturally deprived child. New York, NY: Harper.
90.
RhodaA.WellsA. S. (2013). School choice policies and racial segregation: Where White parents’ good intentions, anxiety, and privilege collide. American Journal of Education, 119, 261–293.
91.
RothsteinR. (2004). Class and schools: Using social, economic, and education reform to close the black-white achievement gap. New York, NY: Economic Policy Institute and Teachers College.
92.
SchofieldJ. (1991). School desegregation and intergroup relations: A review of the literature. Review of Research in Education, 17, 335–409.
93.
Siddle WalkerV. (2000). Their highest potential: An African American school community in the segregated south. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
94.
Song-Ha LeeS (2014). Building a Latino civil rights movement: Puerto Ricans, African Americans, and the pursuit of racial justice in New York City. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
95.
Souto-ManningM.SwickK. J. (2006). Teachers’ beliefs about parent and family involvement: Rethinking our family involvement paradigm. Early Childhood Education Journal, 34, 187–193.
96.
StanleyS. L. G. (2015). The advocacy efforts of African American mothers of children with disabilities in rural special education: Considerations for school professionals. Rural Special Education Quarterly, 34(4), 3–17.
97.
StrumP. (2010). Mendez v. Westminster: School desegregation and Mexican American rights. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.
98.
TeskeP.SchneiderM. (2001). What research can tell policymakers about school choice. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 20, 609–631.
99.
TrainorA. A. (2010). Diverse approaches to parent advocacy during special education home-school interactions: Identification and use of cultural and social capital. Remedial and Special Education, 31, 34–47.
100.
TrentS. C. (1992). School choice for African-American children who live in poverty: A commitment to equity or more of the same?Urban Education, 27, 291–307.
101.
ValdesG. (1996). Con Respecto: Bridging the distances between culturally diverse families and schools. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
102.
WallaceM. (2013). High school teachers and African American parents: A (not so) collaborative effort to increase student success. High School Journal, 96, 195–208.
103.
WarrenM. R.HongS.RubinC. L.UyP. S. (2009). Beyond the bake sale: A community-based relational approach to parent engagement in schools. Teachers College Record, 111, 2209–2254.
104.
WassellB.HawrylakM. F.ScantleburyK. (2015). Barriers, resources, frustrations, and empathy: Teachers’ expectations for family involvement for Latino/a ELL students in urban STEM classrooms. Urban Education. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/0042085915602539
105.
WatsonT. L.BogotchI. (2015). Reframing parent involvement: What should urban school leaders do differently?Leadership and Policy in Schools, 14, 257–258.
106.
WellsA. S. (1993). Time to choose: America at the crossroads of school choice policy (New Frontiers of Education). East Rutherford, NJ: Putnam.
107.
WellsA. S.OakesJ. (1996). Potential pitfalls of systems reform: Early lessons from research on detracking. Sociology of Education, 69, 135–143.
108.
WellsA. S.SernaI. (1996). The politics of culture: Understanding local political resistance to detracking in racially mixed schools. Harvard Educational Review, 66, 93–118.
109.
Wesby-GibsonD. (1969). The disadvantaged child. In BarclayD. L. (Ed.), Art education for the disadvantaged child (pp. 6–9)? Washington, DC: National Art Education Foundation.
110.
YoderJ. R.LopezA. (2013). Parent’s perceptions of involvement in children’s education: Findings from a qualitative study of public housing residents. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 30, 415–433.
111.
YossoT. J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race Ethnicity and Education, 8, 69–91.
112.
ZieglerE.MuenchowS. (1992). Head Start: The inside story of America’s most successful educational experiment. New York, NY: Basic Books.
