Perspectives, beliefs, and attitudes on parent engagement at a public middle school two decades after a civil rights lawsuit
Burgener, Joel Ryan
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/124547
Description
Title
Perspectives, beliefs, and attitudes on parent engagement at a public middle school two decades after a civil rights lawsuit
Author(s)
Burgener, Joel Ryan
Issue Date
2024-04-22
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Roegman, Rachel
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Roegman, Rachel
Committee Member(s)
Pak, Yoon
Flores, Osly
Goodnight, Melissa
Department of Study
Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp
Discipline
Educ Policy, Orgzn & Leadrshp
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ed.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Parent Involvement
Parent Engagement
Black Parents
Abstract
This action research project was conducted in the community of Wooddale at Elmwood Middle School, a diverse urban school with over 700 students in grades six through eight. Wooddale is a community with a history of racial discrimination, including a federal civil rights lawsuit.
Relying on a combination of Critical Race Theory in Education and Mapp and Kuttner’s Dual Capacity Building Framework, this study utilized semi-structured interviews of both parents of Black students at Elmwood as well as teachers. The qualitative analysis undertaken was done using an iterative approach, coding interview transcripts first by developing initial codes that corresponded with ideas being expressed by participants, then later organized into more meaningful themes that emerged from those earlier ideas. Semi-structured interviews with Elmwood teachers affirmed the perspectives of families and enriched the analysis.
Four main themes emerged from the interviews with families. They were that parents felt the need to communicate that education is important and valued, the transition to middle school is experienced as a barrier, experiences with the school have been inconsistent with race being a factor, and that the school should be doing better by its students. All of these ideas were supported by experiences of teachers at Elmwood as well as the literature.
The findings from this research, when put in context with Mapp and Kuttner’s Dual Capacity Building Framework, serve as a foundation for taking meaningful action at Elmwood, leveraging two existing structures at Elmwood, the School Improvement Leadership Team and the school’s professional development calendar.
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