Still-restrictive equality in shared school governance: Black parents’ engagement experiences and the persistence of white supremacy in a liberal public school district

Abstract

This paper draws from a critical race multicase study of Black parents’ school engagement experiences in a liberal U.S. public school district, focusing here on 12 mothers and fathers who participated in Parent Teacher Organizations (PTOs) and/or African American parent groups. I apply Critical Race Theory, particularly Crenshaw’s notions of restrictive and expansive views of antidiscrimination law, as a theoretical lens to evaluate the school district’s vision of racial equality in school governance. My analysis indicates that regardless of inclusive practices that welcomed Black parents into parent groups, the district still had restrictive views of equality because Black parents’ ideas and desires were only taken up if they converged with the interests of white parents, and school and district leaders. I offer the theorization of still-restrictive to point to a way white supremacy may still operate in liberal and inclusive-seeming spaces.

Keywords:

• Black parents
• PTOs
• family-school partnership
• school governance
• critical race
• theory

Acknowledgements

The author thanks Laura Chávez-Moreno and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this manuscript. I also appreciate contributions from Manali Sheth, Shameka Powell, and Jason Salisbury in the development of this article. This manuscript was developed with support from the Dan K. Logan Peace and Justice Studies Endowment at Knox College.

Notes

1 All names are changed. Participants chose their own and their family members’ pseudonyms.

2 “Empowering Parent’ is a pseudonym, yet it is similar to the actual group name, which also includes the term “empower” in reference to the function of the group.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jennifer L. McCarthy Foubert

Jennifer McCarthy Foubert is an Assistant Professor of Educational Studies at Knox College, where she studies how white supremacy operates through U.S. school communities. Her scholarship currently focuses on family-school partnerships.