Life’s Experiences
Two Female Principals Use Life’s Experiences to Increase Urban African American Parent Involvement
Category: RWE Conference Presentation
Submitted by:Sharon M. Brooks, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Leadership, Technology and Human Development
Georgia Southern University
P.O. Box 8131
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Contact Information:
Telephone Number:(912) 478-0275
Fax:(912) 478-7104
E-mail:
Biographical Information: Sharon M. Brooks is an Assistant Professor at Georgia Southern University in the Department of Leadership, Technology and Human Development. She specializes in School Community Relationships, Diversity and Ethics and Instructional Supervision.
Key Words:Systemic Ideological Differences in Role Expectations, Traditional African American Schools,
Introduction
One challenge for many principals working in predominantly African American urban schools is increasing parent participation. This study suggests that this challenge is the result of differences in systemic ideological role expectations for schools and stakeholders from the culturally segregated systems in the past. These systemic ideological differences are important, because even though African American children have been in integrated schools for more than 50 years, many African American parents continue to valuethe school community relationships used in the Traditional African American Schools (TAAS)[1].
African Americans view education as the means for economic and political emancipation (Spring, 1994). It is the responsibility of the school to insure that upon graduation students will make economic and political gains. To accomplish this, everyone plays a vital role in the development of the child. In the TAAS, the principal’s roles had included school managers, superintendents, family counselors, financial advisors, community leaders, employers and politicians,” (Vivian & Curtis Morris, 2000, p. 15)and instructional leaders. The teacher’s responsibility had been to prepare future leaders by teaching academics, as well as, the social, economic, and political skills needed for success (Anderson, 1988; Siddle-Walker, 1996; Shujaa, 1996). Parents’ roles had been to support teachers and principals, and aid in discipline, but they did not teach, nor had they been expected to volunteer in school. However, parents felt free to visit unannounced to talk to principals about their personal or children’s problems. Parents had also been expected to advocate against any inequities.
When African American parents entered dominant controlled schools,they thought the stakeholders’ roles had remained the same. However, they were unaware of the systemic ideological differences in role expectations. According to Callahan (1962), instead of a place that had focused on helping most students excel beyond their social status, dominant cultured schools were more focused on saving taxpayers’ dollars by promoting efficiency and, promoting excellence for a select few. The principal’s role had to eliminate waste by monitoring student progress and teacher quality. The teacher’s role had been to train students to work in industry. These factors had precededthe quality of students’ learning. Not knowing the new protocol, many African American parents had been offended when they took time off from work to see the principals just to be told, you must make an appointment. Likewise, White principals had considered African American parents as deficient because they did not know the protocol for school interactions. Realizing such differences, two African American female principals developed practices in their schools based upon their life’s experiences in both settings.
This qualitative case study used semi-structured interviews, observations and documentations as a means for data collection. The perceptions of teachers, parents and principals were triangulated and then coded for analysis. The purpose of this qualitative case study is to learn how the selected African American female principals used their life experiences to create school climates in which all stakeholders felt valued, regardless of race. This quest led to the following research question: What strategies did the principals use to close the gap and what was the rationale behind them?
Findings
Past Experiences: Mrs. Stewart and Dr. Hubbard’s portrayed many common beliefs and background. Both Mrs. Stewart and Dr. Hubbard are African American women who grew up living in public housing. Both were mothers. Mrs. Stewart was married while her children were growing up; Dr. Hubbard was a single-parent. Both have been educators for over 30 years. Both received three college degrees. During their masters programs, both received training in guidance and counseling. Both women attest that this training helped them when working with people. Both attended Traditional African American Schools, but had their administrative and teaching experiences in dominant cultured facilities. Both women received local and national recognition for their schools’ academic improvement. Both women served in their districts’ worse schools that had over a 92% rate of white teachers to over 53% African American student population.
Continuing the TAAS policy of high expectations. Both principals expressed a commitment to high expectations for minority students and their teachers. United, they sent powerful messages to their teachers: “Children have the right to learn and they will learn. You have a duty to teach them and you will teach them.” In defense of their beliefs, both women were audacious and did not hesitate to forewarn disbelieving teachersthat anyone, who wasunable to demonstrate that the minority children in their classes made adequate progress would be removed.
Teachers were expected to push students beyond the minimum academic requirements by districts. To support teachers, the principals provided professional development for them in three areas: 1) subject mastery 2) teacher support and collaboration, and 3) increased multi-cultural sensitivity. Knowing that many urban teachers were the least qualified (King, 1991), both aggressively pushed that professional development had to be collective and school-wide. Subject mastery consisted of professional development in reading, math, technology and science, because neither leader wanted to leave student growth to chance. Along with mentoring programs for new teachers, both also pushed collaboration among staff through common planning periods on and across grade levels.
Thirdly, professional development focused on multi-cultural competence. Multi-cultural education was ongoing. In fact, Mrs. Stewart invited EPIC (Every Person Influences a Child) to be housed in her building to provide group instruction to teachers in anger management, cultural awareness and creating partnerships with parents from diverse groups. On the other hand, Dr. Hubbard recruited a guidance counselor to counsel teachers on African American culture, traditions and heritage. The above services were also ongoing for parents. Both principals established open doorpolicies to handle individual teachers’ issues regarding race, because most teachers were at different levels in their understanding.
Promoting tolerance. Both worked to create tolerance in their schools. For instance, since Duncan had students from over 20 countries and a large number of students was Muslim or Jewish, the cafeteria workers prepared pork freemeals to ensure that all children could eat.During high holidays, students who needed to fast were provided a separate room so they did not have to watch their classmates eat. Parents were notified of events in their own languages through notes, or ethnic radio stations. At Mumford, teachers were required to include cultural components from each ethnic group in the school in all lesson plans. These plans were monitored for classroom implementation.
Addressing racism. Due to racism, both principals included high teacher attrition in their initial plans for change. Both eventually had an 85% attrition rate in their faculty. They aggressively solicited caring teachers to replace negative ones. Dr. Hubbard stated, “As we recruited teachers, we recruited those who really felt that the children were like their own children in the classroom.”
Addressing Conflict. They also created discipline books through the collaborative efforts of administrators, students, teachers, parents, and community leaders. These books contained procedures for teachers to follow in order to reduce confusion in the classroom. When conflicts betweenschool and parents arose,the principals addressed parents’ concerns head on. Neither principal automatically sided with teachers, especially if it was obvious that the teachers were in the wrong. Therefore, neither parent nor teacher could expect decisions in their favor, but they did expect the decisions to be fair. Once teachers gained confidence in their subject areas, both principals implemented open door classroom policies for parents. In conclusion, a key factor to building relationships was helping teachers grow professionally in subject and cultural knowledge, working collaboratively, and realizing that parents were important.
TeachingParentsSchool Protocol: One huge barrier was minority parents did not know how to act in integrated settings. Therefore, both principals met with parents prior to the school year to explain school jargon and school protocol inprocedures for filing complaints, contacting teachers, visiting classrooms, parent responsibilities in regards to school assignments, and special projects. The principals also explained their open door policies.
Welcoming Parents. The second key to building relationships was working with parents. Both Mrs. Stewart and Dr. Hubbard stood outside every day to greet parents as they dropped off and picked up their children. Part of the welcoming was letting parents know they had a right to come in. Mrs. Stewart explained her position parent involvement, “Anything that we’re doing in this building is not a secret and you have a right to know.”
Parents’Time Constraints. Both principals were sensitive to parents’ time constraints. Since Duncan was located in an area that was very cold, very few parents attended winter events. By changing all events to early fall or late spring, Mrs. Stewart found that over 70% of her parents attended. On the other hand, the time of day and the amount of notice was a constraint for many of Mumford’s working parents. Therefore, events were held at the beginning of the school day or at the end. The school also worked around inflexible work schedules by notifying parents at least four months prior to an event. As a result, parents were schedule days off for field trips.
Both principals were sensitive to minority parents’ uneasiness about volunteering in classrooms, as well as time constraints. Therefore volunteering on a regular basis was not required. The principal at Mumford developed a drop in volunteer book. Upon arrival, parents picked out an activity they felt comfortable doing.
PTA Eliminated: Both women banned the PTA and started groups in which all parents were members. A parent could be a grandparent, aunt, interested neighbor or an older sibling. Once a meeting was called, a family representative was expected to be present. Plus, meetings were held on the as needed basis when something important happened.
Every Voice Counted: All parents were included in the decision-making process even if they could not attend the meetings or participate on the decision-making committee. Those who were not present were contacted through notes, or by phone for their opinions or votes. No major decision was made until at least 90% of Mumford’s parents had given input.
The Results of Their Efforts: As a result of this multi-dimensional change effort, teachers became more polite to parents, students’ scores improved, and parent participation increased. Dr. Hubbard stated, “Gradually, parents were more relaxed, and gradually, teachers became more relaxed and saw that parents did play important roles in their children’s education.”A teacher who originally cried weekly stated, “One of the biggest benefits of working with the parents is – we’re a team. We are all here for the best interest of the kids.”
Discussion and Conclusion
Both principals used their dual experiences in the TAAS and integrated settings to create school cultures that mademinority parents and white teachers feel comfortable. In addition to teachers gaining subject and cultural competences, their roles expanded to include parenting and high expectations for students which surpassed state requirements. Parents participated in decision-making from the home and volunteering when possible. The principals’ roles changed to mediators, while their TAAS roles as instructional leaders and counselors continued. In conclusion, more research on how minority principals with dual experiences promote cultural pluralism is needed.
References:
Anderson, J.D. (1988). The education of Blacks in the South, 1860 – 1935. Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press.
Callahan, R.E. (1962). Education and the cult of efficiency. Chicago: University Press.
King, J. (1991, Spring). Dysconscious racism: Ideology, identity, and the miseducation of teachers. The Journal Of
Negro Education, 60 (2), 133 – 146.
Morris, V. G., & Morris, C. L. (2000). Caring and nurturing educational environments for African
American Children. Westport: Bergin and Garvey.
Shujaa, M. J. (1996). Beyond desegregation: The politics of quality in African American schooling.
Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press.
Siddle-Walker, V. (1996). Their highest potential: An African American school community in the segregated
south. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
Spring, Joel H. (2007). Deculturalization and the struggle for equality: A brief history of theeducation of
dominated cultures in the United States, 5th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, Higher Education.
[1] Traditional African American Schools (TAAS) were homogeneous schools that were prominent in many Midwestern and Southern states in the United States prior to the Civil Rights Acts of 1965. These schools were characterized with all African American teachers and students and the schools were located within the African American communities they served. Although these schools were a part of local school systems, they often had their own school boards and relied heavily on the African American community for their survival.