You Don’t Know My Story : Engaging Black Parents with Culturally Responsive School Practices

Black parents have reported feeling alienated from their children’s schooling experiences, citing weak school communications, challenges with trust, and teachers’ misperceived values of parents (Brandon, Higgins, Pierce, Tandy, & Sileo, 2010). Drawing from the tenets of critical race theory of education (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995) and culturally responsive teaching (Ladson-Billings, 1994; Villegas & Lucas, 2002), the purpose of this study was to better understand the qualities within schools that parents experience as welcoming their participation and influencing their motivation to maintain involvement. By privileging the voices of nine Black parents using one-time, semi-structured interviews, this study began to define what culturally responsive school practices mean for Black parents. Parents reported three overarching ways schools affirm them and engage their cultural ways of being: 1) schools that have diverse leaders and teachers; 2) schools that integrate Black culture in their curricula and school culture; and, 3) schools that value parent voices in decision making. Recommendations are offered for school leaders and teachers for sustainable and culturally-responsive strategies for Black parent engagement

Black and Latino Fathers of Students With Autism: Culturally Responsive Support

Perspectives from five Black and Latino fathers of students with autism are shared from this qualitative pilot study. The fathers were asked to describe the most helpful forms of support from school counselors. One-time, semi-structured interviews were conducted and interpreted with the thematic analysis method. Results suggest support from other parents, and specifically from other fathers, with shared experiences is most helpful. Recommendations for school counseling practice and research are shared