counterstory video

LATINE PARENT INVOLVEMENT IN SCHOOLS 1

Latine Parent Involvement in Schools

Kimberly Padilla

Madeline Villatoro

Josseline Tovar-Guerrero

Carlos Rivera

Karina Pantaleon

Desteny Cisneros

California State University Dominguez Hills

TED 506-20

Dr. Nallely Arteaga

8/1/2023

Author Note (for professional papers)

First paragraph: Author ORCID iDs (if any)

Second paragraph: Changes in affiliation (if any)

Third paragraph: Disclosures and Acknowledgments

Fourth paragraph: Contact information (mailing address and email)

LATINE PARENT INVOLVEMENT IN SCHOOLS 2

❖ Abstract- Karina

❖ Intro/Purpose of Study (with Thesis and Roadmap)- Desteny

❖ Literature Review (what is the Dominant Narrative: Historical, Social, Institutional

& Individual)- Josseline

❖ Theoretical/Conceptual Framework/ (what is Counter Storytelling/

Counterstories?) – Madeline

❖ Research Methods (what type of educational research is this project? (ie:

Qualitative)Karina

❖ Data Analysis (5 interviews: who, where, what did you interview)- Karina

❖ Findings (include counterstories/counternarrative) (this can also be divided into

subheadings if there are more than one idea in this) -Carlos / Kim

❖ Conclusion/Recommendations/Resources (what are ways to address or change the

impact of the dominant narrative)- Kim

❖

Abstract

This qualitative study was conducted to provide a counternarrative to the dominant

narrative that exists about Latine parents not being as involved with their children’s schooling as

White parents. This belief is assumed to be true by many school teachers and administrators.

Sometimes this negative perception leads to mislabeling of the student and their family. For the

purpose of this study, five interviews were conducted to collect information from Latine parents

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and school teachers. As a result, the information collected reveals a counter narrative– that

Latine parents have high expectations for their children’s academic achievement and usually

want to be more involved but either they do not know how to become involved or there are

circumstances preventing them from becoming involved, such as: language barriers,

transportation issues, scheduling conflict, employment, among others.

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Introduction

Parent involvement is a huge factor in the success of children’s education, but what does

parent involvement really look like? In order to be considered an active parent in a student’s

education you have to be present at every single open house, parent workshops, and any

programming that parent involvement is encouraged. The question now becomes – who said this

is the only way to be an involved parent in K-12 education?. Unfortunately, not every family is

able to meet these standards.This idea that this is the only way of being involved and supporting

your child’s education, is what we consider a dominant narrative. A dominant narrative is

defined as stories told from groups who hold power in society, they are meant to uphold and

maintain power dynamics that are currently in place.

Expanding on the dominant narrative that was mentioned previously, we have to

determine what factors caused this dominant narrative. Since the establishment of the United

States, women were obligated to stay at home and raise their children. Although this was a

common practice, it was not the reality for all women, all “non-traditional” households. This was

only a possibility for white families who had a white male whose income was more than enough

to sustain their family. Since the women are already in the house, they are expected to attend to

every need of their children, this includes their education. For “non-traditional” families, more

often than not, People of Color, this was never an achievable goal. People of Color have always

been placed at a disadvantage, a constant threat to their human rights, advocacy to the point that

if they fail to remind others every single day about their struggle no one would listen,

disadvantages in wages, the list can go on. This is the reality they have had to face from the very

establishment of what we now know as the United States.

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The purpose of this paper is to invalidate the dominant narrative that Latine parents do

not care about their children’s education through the perspective of several Latine parents and

educators who share how they/parents were involved and cared from a distance. A way to go

against/counter this dominant narrative is by telling our counterstories. Solorzano and Yosso

define a counterstory as “a method of telling stories of those people whose experiences are not

often told.” In other words, they are the experiences that are hidden, silenced, and/or ignored.

Literature Review

Parent involvement

Over the last 3 decades, the domain of parent involvement in education has been heavily

influenced by Epstein’s (2009) framework including family-school-community partnerships. The

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framework was developed through the idealization that all components are interconnected and

impact children’s personal and educational progress (Epstein, 2009). The model includes 6 forms

of parental involvement including parent responsibilities at home, communication with school

staff, active participation in school activities, creating a learning environment in the home,

involvement with school councils, and establishing a relationship between the community and

school (Epstein, 2009). Partnerships, such as this model, often “fail to acknowledge the ways in

which parent roles in education, and the home-school relations in which they are embedded, are

a reflection of broader social inequalities that affect students” (Auerbach, 2007). Ultimately,

Epstein’s framework reflects how educators and society view parent engagement within the

realm of education.

Latine Parent Involvement

Latine parents in urban communities, among other minorities, are often placed within a

narrative in terms of child education, including the deficit narrative (Giles, 2005). In the deficit

narrative, educators view parents as holding low expectations for student education and not

offering the necessary support for students to be successful in education (Giles, 2005).

Lopez (2001) interviewed a family, the Padilla’s, and illustrates the non-traditional ways

the family was involved in their children’s education. The Padilla parents taught their children

the importance of education through means of labor. As they took their children to the fields to

work, it was an opportunity for their children to not only gain work ethic, which would later

translate in terms of academic work ethic, but it allowed them to view education as an

opportunity for social mobility. In addition, the intensive labor provided the Padilla children with

skills that could later assist them, should the academia route fail, or they choose not to take that

route. Therefore, although the Padilla family did not engage in traditionally valued parent

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involvement, they “were highly involved in shaping their children’s work ethic and positive

orientation toward school” (Lopez 2001). The Padilla family exhibits the forms of parental

engagement that mainstream ideologies often view as inauthentic or inadequate educational

support.

Community Cultural Wealth

Community Cultural Wealth is a model developed by Tara Yosso, which incorporates 6

forms of cultural capital that students of color acquire (2005). The model includes aspirational,

linguistic, familial, social, navigational, and resistance (Yosso, 2005). Aspirational capital

develops through hopes and dreams of success, regardless of the hardships an individual faces.

Linguistic capital is the cultivation of linguistic and communication abilities (Yosso, 2005).

Familial capital is the social, cultural, and personal knowledge acquired through extended

familial communities (Yosso, 2005). Social capital is the networks or the ability to network to

gain access to resources or institutions. Navigational capital is the ability to navigate social

institutions, including those that can be hostile or unsupportive. Resistance capital is instilled

through the efforts of communities of color for social justice (Yosso, 2005).

Conceptual Framework

Through this paper, we aim to reconceptualize parent involvement through counterstories

and the insightful value of Community Cultural Wealth.

Research Methods

This project looked at the stories of five individuals. [Ten-minute] through [60]-minute

interviews were conducted in [Southern California]. Interviewees were identified through

snowball sampling. This educational research is a qualitative study because we focused on

collecting data and information using questionnaires and interviews. We created a list of

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questions specifically for teachers and parents, in efforts to be able to get the most out of each

perspective. We interviewed parents and school teachers of the community, who are negatively

impacted by the dominant narrative. This allowed for us to get their individual perspectives by

allowing them to narrate personal lived experiences that relate to the dominant narrative, as well

as individual experiences that reveal a counter story.

Data Analysis (5 interviews: who, where, what did you interview)

For the purposes of this study, we interviewed two Latina mothers, one Latino father, and

two Latina school teachers. We compiled a list of different questions for parents and school

teachers, as well as added clarifying questions when needed. All the interviews were conducted

in person and were either video recorded or audio recorded.

The Latino father we interviewed was Luis Tovar, he is a 49 year old male who has three

children: one who graduated college, one who did not finish high school, and another who

finished high school. One of the Latina mothers is Miriam Pacheco, she is in her mid 50s and has

raised nine children. Out of the nine children: seven received their High School Diploma, three

went on to graduate from a community college, and one graduated from a four year university.

Our last parent interview is of Latina mom, Kimberly Padilla, she is 28 years old and has two

children: a daughter who is seven months old and a son who is six years old and is in Special

Education. It was very inspirational to listen to Ms. Padilla’s experiences with advocating and

fighting for her son, as well as the obstacles she has faced with getting the proper adequate

support for him.

As far as the teachers, we interviewed two school teachers. One of the teachers Ms.Diana

Vargas is a seventh grade English and History teacher at John H Liechty Middle School, where

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the student population is more than 90% Latino. The other teacher we interviewed is Ms.

Adrianne Guzman. She has been a High School Math teacher at Santee High School for the past

five years.

Through the interviews, we were able to collect a lot of information regarding the

parents’ perspectives on their children’s education, their school involvement, obstacles to their

school involvement and much more that allowed for us to dispel the dominant narrative.

Findings (include counterstories/counternarrative) (this can also be divided into

subheadings if there are more than one idea in this)

Through our findings we received a teacher’s perspective and parent perspective in

Latino/a involvement in school. Listening to educators respond to the interview questions was

interesting. Ms. Guzman’s teaching position is located in South LA, which considers the

demographic to be majority latino populated. According to Ms. Guzman there are many factors

that are taken into consideration for parent involvement, this could include, working late, having

two jobs, etc. Although there are parents that might not volunteer or participate in optional

meetings, parents tend to attend parent conferences, open houses, or other “important” events are

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scheduled. In addition when they cannot make physical meetings and teachers reach out to them

through phone calls the response ratio is usually high. Ms. Guzman also goes on to say parents

are eager to know what they can do to support their child be successful in the classroom. The

narrative through the teachers perspective is that Latino/a parents are actively involved in school

with their children.

Ms. Vargas was an additional teacher we interviewed who works in a predominantly

latino high school. The counter narrative with Ms Vargas is clear when she says, “”. Parent

involvement …

When interviewing the parents we focused on many mothers that are actively involved in

school, but there are also fathers who are engaged like Mr. Tovar. Mr. Tovar has been involved in

his kids academic journey by being involved in projects, sports, etc. He has given his children

cultural wealth by instilling them to become responsible, hardworking, humble, and respectful.

Having conversations with his children about education and making it an important piece of their

life encourages his kids to take education seriously. Having a rigorous work schedule there was a

constant urgency for providing them with their home and educational needs. (just writing down

what i was hearing from interview needs to be revised – kim)

Another parent we interviewed was Ms. Padilla, a second generation mother of two, one

of which is an 8-month-old baby girl and the other a seven-year-old boy with an IEP. Ms. Padilla

is actively involved in her son’s school. Her son is in special education with predominantly

Latino children as well. There have been instances when Ms. Padilla’s work or school schedule

conflicts with school hours. Regardless, Ms. Padilla schedules his IEP meetings every three

months to track his progress. She has also tried to self-advocate for her son and attain resources

to better assist him and his educational situation. However, she does feel that she needs to be the

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one who requests further information wether it be from her sons teacher or the staff at the school.

Information isn’t given to her son to relay to her which is why she has to initiate the requests.

She feels that maybe because her son has an IEP she has been more attentive to his needs with a

good education in comparison to other parents at the school. When she attends field trips as a

chaperone she initiates conversations with other parents and they never really know whats going

on in their childrens classroom. Being that she is a first generation American, she has a support

system to help her with her children while she works and completes her own education. She has

the help of her parents with transportation and child care, and therefore help resolve her conflicts

with scheduling and work.

The final interviewee is an immigrant mother of ten, who came from Honduras on her

own at the age of eighteen. She left two kids behind at the time and she birthed eight children in

the country. Her highest level of education is 5th grade level. She had many conflicts with

helping her children while they were in school. She had to work alot to be able to keep a roof

over their heads and she wasn’t always allowed to leave work on time to pick up her children.

She made sure she taught her children to respect each other and others. She struggled with

transportation and scheduling conflicts. In the sense that she couldn’t always be there to drop off

or pick them up from school and had to show her children the route home so they can walk home

together. Due to those conflicts she also wasn’t able to involve herself with her childrens

education, nor chaperone, or volunteer. When school budget cuts took place school buses were

removed from many schools, her children had to learn to take public transportation to get to their

schools and that became an extra expense they had to cover. Due to that expense and

inconvenience three of her children who were going to a school in a different city missed close to

fifty days of school and were getting in trouble for that reason. The school came to call her about

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two times that she remembers, however, she knew they didn’t call much because she was hard to

get a hold of because of work. Overall, seven of her children graduated high school, 6 of which

enrolled into college with 2 of them graduating and 1 continuing to his Masters in University.

Her biggest joy is knowing that her children are making a difference in their lives for the better,

which was something she knew she couldn’t do in her home country.

Conclusion/Recommendations/Resources (what are ways to address or change the impact

of the dominant narrative)-

Many Latino parents are involved in their student’s school. When parents are not involved, there

could be many factors. There are many solutions for the parents who do fall under the narrative.

Many parents need navigational wealth. We can fix that by providing resources and workshops

for parents to navigate the school system.

Reconceptualizing Parent Involvement

Parent involvement is multifaceted and diverse, therefore it should be reflected through

social conceptualizations. Parent involvement is more than just attending PTA meetings and

volunteering during school hours. Parental engagement should be reconstructed to demonstrate

the various aspects often overlooked, including the development of community cultural wealth.

Since there is so much diversity amongst parents, schools should learn to use this to their

advantage and see it as an asset within their programming, instead of seeing it as a deficit in a

student’s educational experience. The school can implement many strategies to involve parents,

they can send flyers and information in the different languages needed by the parents, they can

survey the parents about the best mode of communication and scheduling preferences, they can

provide parents the opportunity to involve themselves in school activities that resonate with their

own cultural practices, and much more.

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An example of how a school can use the community cultural wealth that comes from

Latine parents, is by asking them to become involved with the school’s major Latine cultural

events, like Day of the Dead. The school can ask the parents to help create the altar, provide

insights and information to the meanings of the different traditions practiced during this day, help

contribute ideas about decorations or activities, prepare cultural food like pan de muerto, and

much more. Just like students, parents come with their own bucket of cultural wealth, and

schools need to work together on how to make parent involvement more feasible and less

intimidating, so that everyone can benefit from this bucket of wealth that parents bring. This will

allow parents to not only be more involved in school, but also to be more connected to their

childs’ educational journey.

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References

Auerbach, S. (2007). From moral supporters to struggling. Urban Education, 42 (3), 250-283.

Epstein, J. L., Sanders, M. G., Simon, B. S., Salinas, K. C., Jansorn, N. R., Van Voorhis, F. L

(2002). School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action.

Second Edition. Corwin.

Giles, H. C. (2005). Three Narratives of Parent-Educator Relationships: Toward Counselor

Repertoires for Bridging the Urban Parent-School Divide. Professional School

Counseling, 8(3), 228–235. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42732463

Lopez, G. R. (2001). The value of hard work: Lessons on parent involvement from an

(im)migrant household. Harvard Educational, 71 (3), 416-437.

Yosso, T. J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of Community

Cultural Wealth. Race Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69–91.

Appendix (Summary of Video, Interview Protocols)