Bicultural Parent Engagement

This book examines how commonly applied approaches to parent involvement in schools do not easily transfer to bilingual and bicultural families. The authors—respected scholars in the field of educational equity—challenge commonly accepted boundaries of bicultural parent involvement. They provide real-life examples, practical strategies, discussion questions, and suggestions for ensuring that schools welcome and value bicultural families. This timely resource is a hopeful vision of what authentic and democratic parent engagement can become, and how parents can be transformative change agents for their children and their schools.

Edward M. Olivos is an associate professor in the Department of Education Studies at the University of Oregon. Oscar Jiménez-Castellanos is an assistant professor at Arizona State University in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. Alberto M. Ochoa is professor emeritus in the Department of Policy Studies in Language and Cross Cultural Education in the College of Education at San Diego State University.

“This well-conceived and timely volume incisively challenges mainstream, middle-class portrayals of parent involvement, noting the harsh double bind in which parents of bilingual learners are frequently found. Praise and kudos to all of the volume contributors for this much-needed, state-of-the-art examination.” —Angela Valenzuela, professor, University of Texas at Austin, and author of Subtractive Schooling and Leaving Children Behind

“In spite of the countless reforms we have seen in education during the past half century, this edited book demonstrates that Latinos and other English learners still traverse asymmetrical power relations in the public school system. The authors take us on a tour of classrooms, schools, and communities where we come face to face with the daily lives of students, parents, teachers, and administrators on different sides of the power struggles.” —Concha Delgado Gaitan, educational researcher and writer

“A major contribution to the literature about the engagement of not only bicultural parents, but of all families who are marginalized by narrow notions of their role in school transformation and community revitalization.”
—Karen L. Mapp, program director, Education, Policy and Management Masters Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education

2012 AESA Critics’ Choice Award