Black Parents: Dropouts or Pushouts From School Participation

• NCJ Number: 108678
• Author(s): S P Stern
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 23 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Presented at annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association, November 1987, Chicago.

Annotation

Although black parents try to participate meaningfully in their children's schooling, they are often prevented from doing so because they raise questions about the deleterious educational conditions that help produce white economic and social dominance in the society at large.

Abstract

When black parents seek improvements in educational conditions, they are met with forms of school-based resistance that push them away from influencing school practice and policy and reinforce existing patterns. The school's hidden curriculum attempts to socialize black parents to internalize attitudes of deference, passivity, subservience, and inferiority, thus discouraging participation. Despite the schools' efforts, many black parents continue to try to achieve positive and equitable educations for their children. While black children are being prepared to take low paying, low prestige jobs, black parents who resist the hidden agenda are struggling to ensure that hard won gains are maintained and that they are not reprogrammed to keep their places 'in the back of the bus.' 47 references.