Georgia Southern University Digital Commons@Georgia Southern Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies, Jack N. Averitt College of Fall 2011 Memoir of a Black Female Social Worker: Re-Collections on Black Women Parenting and Parental Involvement in the Education of Black Children Jacquelyn Hodges Anthony Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.edu/etd Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Anthony, Jacquelyn Hodges, "Memoir of a Black Female Social Worker: Re-Collections on Black Women Parenting and Parental Involvement in the Education of Black Children" (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations.edu/etd/558 This dissertation (open access) is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies, Jack N. Averitt College of at Digital Commons@Georgia Southern.
It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@georgiasouthern. MEMOIR OF A BLACK FEMALE SOCIAL WORKER: RE-COLLECTIONS ON BLACK WOMEN PARENTING AND PARENTAL INVOVLEMENT IN THE EDUCATION OF BLACK CHILDREN by JACQUELYN HODGES ANTHONY (Under the Direction of Ming Fang He) ABSTRACT This study explores Black parental involvement by re-collecting my lived experiences as parent and social worker through memoir. Although the main characters in my stories are based on my family members and the parents and children I have assisted in various schools, I have fictionalized events, periods, and identities to protect myself and the people in my stories from the voyeuristic spectator.
Fictionalizing also provides access within the intricacies of a lived experience and allows me to highlight ways of knowing that may expand epistemological standpoints regarding Black parental involvement. Re-collecting allowed me to reflect upon my two selves as parent and social worker and reminded me of a generational othermothering that traversed Afrocentric traditions and found a new home among the decedents of African slaves in the United States (James, 1993; Collins, 1994; Walker & Snarey, 2004). Steeped within a rich tradition of parenting, othermothering counters conventional narrative that suppresses Black parents‟ involvement in their child‟s life. Exploring parent involvement through my personal and professional narratives provided an opportunity to for me to unearth those suppressed and silent hegemonic ideals to understand who I am in Black children‟s lives and how I affect their success in school.
There is a plethora of research that explores Black parental involvement as a means for 1 increasing their children‟s achievement; however, few texts unpack the intersectionality of Black parents‟ multiple social identities to examine the ways they are already involved in their children‟s schooling. By exploring the gaps in research, this study problematizes Black parental involvement as a means for interrogating the process of teaching and learning in American schools. Drawing upon the work of Critical Race Theory (e. Bell, 1995; Delgado & Stefancic, 2001; Ladson-Billings, 1999; Watkins, 2001; Parker & Lynn, 2002), I explore parenting from a Black Feminist Thought standpoint (e.
Collins, 1994; Collins, 2000; hooks, 2000; Lorde, 1984/2007) to provide a revisionist interpretation of a communal mothering that nurtures the growth and development of a child‟s physical, emotional and mental interconnected selves (e. Case, 1997; Glenn, 1993; Henry, 2006; James, 1993; Lightfoot, 1978; Walker & Snarey, 2004). I draw upon the works of memoir and fiction as my methodology to complicate narratives in the home, school, and community (e. The benefit of using this approach is that it creates a space for imaginative activity in capturing a truth, a reality, a lived experience (Morrison, 2008).
The use of memoir also freed me to write about experience thematically as opposed to chronologically. I was therefore able to present Black parents‟ lived experiences with their children‟s schooling as a school social worker or as a parent throughout this study to expose a truth silent within research. It is my hope that this study sparks an imaginative activity that reveals to policy makers, educational researchers and practitioners that there is a need for Black orientations to parental involvement in schools to redress universalization, hegemonization, and silencing of Black parents‟ engagement in their children‟s schooling; to recognize all that is suppressed and silent to gain insight of who they are and how they became who they are in the lives of Black children; to dismantle those individual, structural, and political agendas and practices that are pervasive and 2 negatively affect Black children‟s success in schools and life; and to recognize how Black parents‟ varying identities inference their perceptions and interactions with their children‟s schools. This imaginative activity helps to construct a dialogical relationship between the home, school and community that honors multiple ways of knowing about Black communal parental involvement that inspires all Black children to reach their highest potential (Walker, 1996).
A dialogical relationship would minimize barriers to Black parental involvement created by school personnel‟s hegemonic status and bureaucratic social structures. It would also foster knowledge about school functions, curricular and educational standards that Black parents seek in accessing expertise that will further their children‟s success in schools. INDEX WORDS: Parent Involvement, Othermothering, Universalization, Critical Race Theory, Black Feminist Thought, Intersectionality, Hegemony, Autobiography, Memoir 3 MEMOIR OF A BLACK FEMALE SOCIAL WORKER: RE-COLLECTIONS ON BLACK WOMEN PARENTING AND PARENTAL INVOVLEMENT IN THE EDUCATION OF BLACK CHILDREN by JACQUELYN HODGES ANTHONY B., Georgia State University, 1989 M., Clark Atlanta University, 1992 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Georgia Southern University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree DOCTOR OF EDUCATION STATESBORO, GEORGIA 2011 4 © 2011 JACQUELYN HODGES ANTHONY All Rights Reserved 5 MEMOIR OF A BLACK FEMALE SOCIAL WORKER: RE-COLLECTIONS ON BLACK WOMEN PARENTING AND PARENTAL INVOVLEMENT IN THE EDUCATION OF BLACK CHILDREN by JACQUELYN HODGES ANTHONY Major Professor: Ming Fang He Committee: John Weaver Daniel Chapman William Schubert Sonia Carlyle Electronic Version Approved: December 2011 6 DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to the one who provided me with the creative spark and to those precious to me who gave me the inspiration to move on that spark. This dissertation is the result of God‟s creative spark within me.
In my quest to bring something new and imaginative to research, I found a writing that I didn‟t think I was capable of. To my children Xavier, Jacqueline, and Jasmine- thanks for putting up with me; you were right there with me experiencing my fall into the rabbit hole and my subsequent rebirth as I emerged from this disruptive experience a better scholar. To my grandmother Florence Henry- your wisdom and love has been a generational blessing, and even though you are no longer with us, I still benefit from all that you have given. To my parents Clifford and Pauline Hodges- you always made me feel I could do anything and for that I will be eternally grateful.
Thanks for continuously asking me, “When are you going to be finished with that paper? You about ready to graduate yet?” In your minds, it was never a question of how is she going to do this…but when. To my sister Evelyn Hodges- thanks for keeping me among the living. Your tenacity in keeping me socially active has provided balance in my life. To all of you- you have been the inspiration behind the narrative shared in this study.
I know that the inspiration you provided me will become a transformative work. 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you, bless you, I appreciate you; these words do not begin to express the depth of my gratitude for the people who have contributed to the fruition of this work. Ming Fang He, I thank you for agreeing to become my major professor. You have othermothered me into God‟s creative spark and helped me to conceive of a work that I initially thought was inconceivable in qualitative research.
You provided an equilibrium that allowed me to see this work to its completion. You were patient as I slowly processed the relationship between theory and practice and demanding when there was a hint of me being idle. You were available for consultation when I was unsure of my writing while conversely affording me the autonomy to develop my work. Your knowledge and contributions to the field of Curriculum Studies and Narrative Inquiry helped to nurture my writing of life stories.
I am better because of your commitment to exposing your students to the complexity and diversity of research, theory, and practice within Curriculum Studies. I also want to thank my committee members Dr. Sonia Carlyle, Dr. Daniel Chapman, Dr.
William Schubert, and Dr. John Weaver for your constructive critiques and recommendations regarding my work. I am thankful for the opportunity to dialogue with you about the intricacies of Black parental involvement. Your knowledge and insight have been extremely valuable to the development of my writing.
Each of you brings to curriculum scholarship an expertise that has expanded my thinking and enriched my life. For the years of attention you have devoted to the pursuit of knowledge and advocacy for social change, I will be eternally grateful. Thanks to Gerri Williams, Kashera Robinson, Melvin Ratcliff, and Kim Davison for our lifetime membership in the A. For the countless hours we have spent bending each other‟s ear and for the years of laughter, camaraderie, and shared truths I will always be grateful.
8 Melvin, I am especially grateful to you for calling me and waking me up at 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning to ensure that I was putting some time into the writing; your opinions and feedback have been invaluable. Gerri, there are not enough words to express how appreciative I am of your othermothering of my children. To the offspring of Sam and Florence Henry, thank you for paving the way for all of us. I have learned much from the examples you have set.
Patricia Hill Collins, bell hooks, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker, thank you for contributing to the works of countless Black female writers. Your dedication to the craft has created space for fledgling writers like me. It is because of you that I had the courage to share my thoughts, dreams, and experiences on paper. I can only hope that one day this work will make a difference in someone‟s life the way your works have made a difference in mine.
9 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS …………………………………………………………………….12 A Black Mother‟s Work: Biology vs.12 Passing Knowledge from Mother to Daughter………………………………………….16 A Black Mother‟s Work: Biology vs. 20 Reading the Dissertation……………………………………………………………….26 CHAPTER 1 SCHOOL-BASED INVOLVEMENT VS.28 Not That Kind of Volunteer…………………………. 28 Why Black Parent Involvement……………….39 They Don‟t Have to Volunteer………………………………………….41 Key Research Issues……………………………………………………………. 47 2 BLACK PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN THE EDUCATION OF BLACK CHILDREN: MY MEMOIR.……52 The Same Stories My Parents Told Me about School……………………….…52 Afrocentric Standpoint on Mothering, Re-Collection, and Universalization….57 Black Parental Involvement.59 Ideological Conflict over the Educating of Students ……………………62 Black Parents‟ Multiple Forms of Involvement ……………………….
66 Black Parental Involvement in the Education of Blacks in the South….70 10 Parenting among Black Women……………………………………….86 Hegemony, Race, Gender and Class, and Black Motherhood…………. 86 Black Women‟s Labor and Othermothering………….88 Parent Involvement within Curriculum Studies Literature……. 95 3 COMPOSING MEMOIR: BIG MAMA………………………………………….106 Big Mama‟s House Shoes: A Curriculum for Educators………….110 Black Women Writing About Their Lives…………………………………….114 Theoretical Framework…………………………………………………………122 Traditions……………………………………………………………….133 Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Critical Race Theory……….134 Connection of Critical Race Theory to Dissertation………………….138 Re-collecting Stories……………….140 Challenges of the Study…………………………………………….141 Significance of the Study…………………………………………………….…142 4 BARRIERS TO BLACK PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT: MY MEMOIR………. 144 Parent Involvement and the Hidden Curriculum ………………………………148 By Whose Standards? .156 5 REFLECTIONS: LOOKING BACK- LOOKING FORWARD.…………187 11 PROLOGUE A Black Mother’s Work: Biology vs.
Charlie It‟s late August and my child is failing 9th grade biology. Well…he‟s not actually failing. He has a “C” average, but in our home, anything less than an 80 is failing. After going online and reviewing his grades, I discovered three zero‟s in the place where grades should be marked for homework and class work.
“Charlie, where is your binder for biology?” “Why?” “Just give me the binder.