Latinx Parents’ Literacy Practices and Concientización in Petitioning Their Local School Board Regarding Funding Priorities

ABSTRACT

A case study of a Latinx parent-school engagement program is presented illustrating how immigrant parents became collective political actors providing input into their California school district’s formulation of its Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP). The LCAP was part of newly adopted statewide Local Control Funding Formula policy providing supplemental funding to schools in support of services needed by students who were identified as low-income, English Language Learners (ELLs), and foster-care. The study investigated how Latinx parents developed a face-to-face understanding of the LCAP policy and planning process, and their rights and collective power as advocates for their children’s education. Focused attention is given to one parent group advocating for summer academic programs and how parents negotiated rhetorical and linguistic formulation of arguments in their letter petition to the local school board. In so doing, parents drew on their cultural funds of knowledge and developed sensitivity to the communicative practices of school boards, and to the need of parents to present their voice and stances persuasively and assertively indicative of their rights as community members. The study helps ground theories of political action in the face-to-face world of parent engagement programs.

Acknowledgments

We are indebted to the Padres Líderes parents, coordinating team, school and university partners, and the team of undergraduate researchers who all helped made this research possible.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zuleyma Carruba-Rogel

Zuleyma Carruba-Rogel is an expert on parent, school, and community engagement. Currently, she serves as the Family and Community Engagement (FACE) director for the Amarillo Independent School District. Her department designs, coordinates, and implements various programs to help build the capacity of families from diverse socio-cultural, economic, and linguistic backgrounds. Her research interests include parent engagement, student-teacher diversity gap, and individual’s agency in resisting, persisting, and rejecting oppression.

Richard P. Durán

Richard P. Durán is a Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His expertise and publications concern assessment, cultural psychology, critical pedagogy, and Bridging Multiple Worlds Theory applied to educational interventions serving Latinx families and youths. He was a contributor to the 2017 National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine report Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures.

Bertin Solis

Bertin Solis completed a B.A. degree in Sociology and an M.A. in Education from the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). He is currently a student in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education at UCSB working towards a Ph.D. in education with an emphasis in culture and development. His research interests include the following: higher education access and completion of historically underrepresented students, academic achievement and motivation, mentoring practices, identity development, critical pedagogy, and civic engagement.