Portrayals of parental involvement: descriptions of family and school relationships in a low-income African American community

ABSTRACT

This sociocultural research investigated parent involvement in young children’s schooling in a low-income African American community.  The study adopted an emic approach, using semistructured interviews to examine 14 caregivers’ involvement practices from their perspectives.  Analyses were based on verbatim transcriptions of the interviews.  Qualitative and frequency analyses based on each caregivers’ portrayal revealed these families were intimately involved in their children’s schooling and worked to offset potential involvement barriers.  More research examining parent involvement from caregiver and community perspectives is needed to better understand the relationship between their involvement and their goals and values for their children’s development and education.

Acknowledgments

The research reported in this article was presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Denver, CO, 2010. We thank Tony Perone, Shary Rubin, Ronald Whitmore, and Allison Tingwall for their help in various aspects of this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. All participant names are pseudonyms.