Reckoning With Racism in Family–School Partnerships

Drawing from the lived experiences of Black parents as they engaged with their children’s K–12 schools, this book brings a critical race theory (CRT) analysis to family–school partnerships. The author examines persistent racism and white supremacy at school, Black parents’ resistance, and ways school communities can engage in more authentic partnerships with Black and Brown families. The children in this study attended schools with varying demographics and reputations. Their parents were engaged in these schools in the highly visible ways educators and policymakers traditionally say are important for children’s education, such as proactively communicating with teachers, helping with homework, and joining PTOs. The author argues that, because of the relentless racism Black families experience in schools, educators must depart from race-evasive approaches and commit to more liberatory family–school partnerships.

Book Features:

• Includes an introduction to CRT and explains how it informed this study.
• Draws from Derrick Bell’s notion of racial realism to make sense of Black parent participants advocating for high-quality education in the context of persistent anti-Black racism.
• Examines how Black parents resisted individualism and were, instead, committed to improving the education of all marginalized children.
• Shows how white supremacy operated in shared school governance despite schools having inclusive practices.
• Explores how anxiety and stress caused by the Trump presidency impacted parents’ school engagement.
• Describes three ways any school community can develop family–school partnerships for collective educational justice.

Jennifer L. McCarthy Foubert is an assistant professor of educational studies at Knox College, and a sociologist of education, critical race theorist, and teacher educator. Jennifer is a former Seattle Public Schools teacher who has worked with preservice and practicing teachers, and parents and families, for two decades across a variety of school community contexts.

“In Reckoning With Racism in Family-School Partnerships, Foubert draws on rich qualitative data that highlights the many ways that anti-Black racism shapes Black mothers’ and fathers’ experiences in schools, as well as their ongoing efforts to ensure the academic success and well-being of both their own children and other Black children and youth. One of the many strengths of the book is its centering of the insights and counternarratives of a socioeconomically diverse group of Black parents, as well as its illustration of how anti-Black racism shapes their engagement in and with schools over time. The book is a must-read for teachers, education leaders and policymakers, researchers, and parents/caregivers of school-age children. It offers many powerful insights about how to both reckon with anti-Black racism in education as well as to build more just and liberatory family-school partnerships.”
—Linn Posey-Maddox, associate professor, University of Wisconsin- Madison

Contents

Series Foreword James A. Banks ix
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xix

1. The Racial Reality of Schools for Black Families 1
"The Most Livable City" . . . For Whites Only 2
The Parent Participants 3
Black Lives Matter: The 2014–15 School Year Context 4
Critical Race Theory 7
A More Liberatory Future With CRT 12

2. Racial Realist Parent Engagement 13
"Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t, Apparently" 14
Parents’ Approaches to Teaching Children About Anti-Black Racism 20
Racial Realist Parent Engagement as a Framework for School Partnerships With Black Families 26

3. Resisting Individualism and Engaging for the Collective 29
In Everyday School Involvement 30
When Choosing Schools and Extracurriculars 33
In the Community 35
In Parent Groups 37
Engaging for Collective Educational Justice 38

4. The Persistence of White Supremacy in Shared School Governance 40
Restrictive, Still-Restrictive, and Expansive Visions of Equality 42
Parent Teacher Organizations 44
African American Empowering Parent Groups 48
The African American Parent Council 52
BOSD’s Still-Restrictive Visions of Equality 53

5. Five Years Later: The Ongoing Salience of Racial Realist Parent Engagement 55
The New Sociopolitical Context of 2019 56
Persistence of Racial Realist Parent Engagement Across Time and Space 57
Strategically Stepping Away From Shared School Governance 62
Calling on Educators to Join Black Families in Resisting 63

6. In Conclusion: Mapping More Liberatory Family–School Partnerships 64
Untethering Education Quality From Individual Parents’ Engagement 65
Reorienting Toward Collective Educational Justice 67
Expansive Equality in Shared School Governance 69
Conclusion 72

Appendix: Study Methodology 73
Recruiting Participants 74
Participant Demographics 74
Data Collection 75
Data Analysis 77
Humanizing Research 77

Notes 79
References 81
Index 85
About the Author 89