“They Don’t Know How to Complain”: How American Schools Have Forgotten Immigrant Parents

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Levin, Isabel
- Affiliation: Institute of African American Research, Moore Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (MURAP)

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Existing scholarship underscores the nuanced ways in which public education in the United States perpetuates social inequality. This inequality is further evidenced in the ways immigrant populations access and thrive in educational settings, especially given that the stark increase in Latinx immigration and concerns over the ‘achievement gap’ converge in this demographic. Through an analysis of interviews with school administrators and content analyses of school board documents and online resources, I present a discussion of how North Carolina public schools aim to integrate and address the needs of Latinx families while also considering challenges to these efforts. The data reveal that 1.) efforts to support Latinx families implicitly blame parents for educational inequalities, 2.) school structures disproportionately welcome the voices and privilege the needs of white, middle class families, and 3.) efforts of inclusion often overlook the precarious legal status of many immigrants in the United States. This study urges the reconsideration of educational practices, particularly by embracing counter deficit thinking and deemphasizing white-centric forms of knowledge production in order to engage all families fairly and equitably.

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Silva, Kumarini
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Communication

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