Love’s labor lost: emotional agency in a school worker’s story of family advocacy

Abstract

This study reports on the dilemmas of practice experienced by a parent–school facilitator, Melanie, within a large urban school district. Melanie struggled to reconcile her commitment to families in her school with the demands placed on her by an administrative ideology that viewed families as adversaries. Her attempts to manage the conflicts induced by this situation remained trapped in a polarizing discourse of families as marginalized within an insensitive school system. Using a theoretical framework that intertwines dialogism with the role of emotion in socially just education, I analyze Melanie’s narrative to uncover the ways in which she enacted her ideological commitments while constructing the position of her school administration as indefensible. I deploy such analysis to animate the links between emotional labor within challenging schooling contexts and an equally politicized stance of engagement to accomplish the ends of social justice.

Keywords:

• agency
• family–school relations
• emotions

Notes

1. I have omitted the exact title of Melanie’s position and her true name in the interest of maintaining her anonymity.

2. GED tests are a set of subject tests, passing which successfully permits those who did not complete high school the opportunity to receive a high school equivalency credential.

3. An IEP is mandated by US federal law for students who are labeled as having a disability, and details the procedures whereby they can receive an appropriate public education.