Teacher Participation in Equity-Focused Family Engagement

Abstract

Researchers and policymakers have long claimed that family engagement can support racial equity goals within schools. However, equity-related outcomes of family engagement have been mixed, especially for families of color. Studies suggest that teachers’ participation in these initiatives is important, but that their positive participation requires fundamental shifts in both their thinking and practices around family engagement. This study draws on the theories of Inhabited Institutionalism and Racialized Organizations to investigate how teachers make those fundamental shifts. Data come from a qualitative comparative case study of nine teachers at two schools in a district working to support teachers in implementing equity-focused family engagement. Findings include that while the district leaders conceptualized the initiative as supportive of equity, the initiative itself and the professional learning provided by the outside organization that the district had contracted with did not explicitly call on teachers to shift their practices or position family engagement as supportive of equitable experiences and outcomes. Two teachers consistently inhabited the equity myth, two inconsistently inhabited it, and five consistently inhabited the school-centric myth. School conditions also differed in ways that my conceptual framework related to teachers’ learning to make equity-focused practice shifts, including in their professional learning opportunities, workforce composition, and policies. The teachers who consistently inhabited the equity myth described coherent understandings and experiences that helped them relate their work as teachers to equity goals, while the teachers who inconsistently inhabited the equity myth and those who consistently inhabited the school-centric myth did not explicitly connect their work to equity. Finally, interactions were generally unsupportive of shifts toward equity mainly because they rarely addressed equity-focused family engagement. In a few exceptions, sensegivers who were internal to the team of teachers implementing equity-focused family engagement interacted with other teachers in ways that seemed to shift their practices toward equity. This study provides a new perspective on teachers’ participation in equity-focused family engagement by drawing attention to the role of institutionalized myths and racialized organizations in mediating teachers’ thinking and practices.institutionalized myths and racialized organizations in mediating teachers’ thinking and practices.