Abstract
This study uses a phenomenological approach to analyze interviews of minoritized parents about their perceptions of “respectful” and “disrespectful” experiences with school personnel. Holistic content analysis of the parental interviews revealed several themes that indicated a pervasive “deficit discourse” within public school communities serving minoritized youth. This list includes the heritage language or cultural practices of English language learners (ELLs), immigrants, and people of color. As parents recounted their experiences with school personnel, it appeared that—even when queried about their personal associations with the school—many parents calibrated their relationship based on their perception of the treatment their children were receiving from school personnel. Findings suggest that culturally affirming learning environments are not necessarily universal and that many educators lack the disposition or training to provide culturally efficacious pedagogy.
TopLiterature Review
The Qualities of Care
Researchers adopt, test, and propose theories to explain or predict behavior (Thompson, 2011). In the present study, Care Theory (Noddings, 2018) appears to have explanatory power for the events described in the parents’ narratives. Noddings (2018) advances that in a caring relationship, one individual is expected to attend to the well-being, provide support, protection, or counsel to the beneficiary. In such relationships, the care-giver (e.g., nurse, teacher, counselor) is endowed with knowledge, skills, and other expertise that they are obligated by law or vocation to offer the beneficiary (e.g., patient, student, client). The latter, by their positionality in the relationship, is expected to require and receive appropriate care. With this theoretical lens, the present study asks the question “How do parents judge a caring (or uncaring) relationship with their child’s classroom teacher?” Delia and Krasny (2018) explain the importance:
We should preserve and nurture the concrete relations which we have with specific persons; exercise special care for those with whom we are concretely related, attending to their own needs, values, etc. and responding positively to these needs, etc., especially of those most vulnerable (p. 14).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy: A theoretical perspective formulated by Django Paris (2012) that seeks to preserve and advance (i.e., “to sustain”) linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of equitable education (e.g., required reading lists with culturally diverse authors; historicity studies from the perspective of a colonized group, class/school speakers who are members from a marginalized-community).
Parent-Teacher Collaboration: Activities or events that are accomplished through a partnership with parents and educators from a school (e.g., planning class party, “ make up work”, parent-teacher conference).
Language: Mode of oral and written communication used by the child’s family and community (L1) and by the school (L2). Linguistic capital that enables minoritized students to use agency in schools (e.g., African American Vernacular English, “Chicano” English, Gujarathi, Vietnamese).
Cultural Preservation: The effort put forth by parents, educators, and students from diverse cultures to protect their heritage practices from disappearing because of lack of use, curricular exclusion, or devaluation by the broader society.
Teacher Behaviors: There are two main parts to this term (a) actions or activities carried out by the teacher to support learning (e.g., use of “morning routines,” small group work) and (b) the disposition or “orientation” of the educator as it relates to the task and the learner (e.g., personal biases, lack of self-confidence).
Teacher Neglect: When educators fail to address the curricular, social, cultural, linguistic, and or emotional needs of the student. This may be done with intentionality or incidentally - the effect is the same: it engenders a sense of exclusion, marginalization, and devaluation in the student and parent (e.g., forgetting a “meatless option” at class gatherings with vegetarians, failure to acknowledge important commemorations from a child’s community, questioning, belittling or fettering a child’s religious practices).
Parent-School Communication: The use of media or oral discourse (e.g., conferences, email, flyers, notes, phone calls) that convey messages related to matters of the child and the school.