Just Schools: Building Equitable Collaborations with Families and Communities

by Ann M. Ishimaru, James A. Banks

Overview

Just Schools examines the challenges and possibilities for building more equitable forms of collaboration among nondominant families, communities, and schools. The text explores how equitable collaboration entails ongoing processes that begin with families and communities, transform power, build reciprocity and agency, and foster collective capacity through collective inquiry. These processes offer promising possibilities for improving student learning, transforming educational systems, and developing robust partnerships that build on the resources, expertise, and cultural practices of nondominant families. Based on empirical research and inquiry-driven practice, this book describes core concepts and provides multiple examples of effective practices.

Book Features:

• Broadens the dominant conception of leadership to include traditionally marginalized parents and communities as potential educational leaders.
• Explores partnerships from both a systemwide and in-school basis, with detailed portraits of what is possible.
• Translates theoretical principles at multiple scales: systemic, school, and individual practice.
• Shares studies focused on a broad range of contexts, strategies, and practices for enacting equitable collaboration with families.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807763193
Publisher:	Teachers College Press
Publication date:	12/27/2019
Series:	Multicultural Education Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Ann M. Ishimaru is an associate professor of educational policy, organizations, and leadership at the University of Washington College of Education.

Table of Contents

Series Foreword James A. Banks ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Introduction 1

Situating "What Counts" for Families in Education 2

Beyond Critique to Fostering Equitable Collaborations 4

Showing Up in the Work 5

A Few Notes on Language 7

Organization of the Book 10

Equitable Collaborations in Reaching for Transformation 13

1 Fuzzy Families, Prickly Racism: Framing the Problem Space 14

Start with Warm Fuzzies: Families Matter 15

Enter the Cold Pricklies: Racial Inequities from Parent Involvement to Family Engagement 17

Conclusions: From Involvement and Engagement Toward Equitable Collaboration 33

2 New Rules of Engagement: From Conventional Partnerships to Equitable Collaborations 35

Why Equitable Collaborations? Critical Race Theory, Community Organizing, and Sociocultural Learning 37

Toward Equitable Collaborations: Case Study of a "New Relationship" 42

A Changing Community: Traditional Approaches, Deficit Conceptions 43

"We Had to Take Action": New Roles for Parents in the Formation of the Coalition 44

A Collaboration Emerges: Shared Responsibility for Systemic Change Goals 46

Capacity- and Relationship-Building Strategies for Systems Change 47

"Navigating Insecure Ground": Change Processes at the End of the Honeymoon 49

Case Discussion: A "New Relationship" 50

Conclusions 54

3 Nondominant Families on Their Own Terms: Lived Theories of Educational Injustice 56

Introduction 56

Nondominant Family Insights as Lived Theories of Injustice 57

"They Just Want to Pass the Kids": Systemic Dynamics of Accountability Policy and Equitable Learning 58

"Are You Speaking for Yourself or for All the Parents?": Power and Engagement at the School Level 61

Listening to Respond: Inequities in the Moment at the Individual Level 66

Conclusions 71

4 Systemic Collaborations: Multiorganizational Educational Equity Initiatives 73

Cross-Sector Collaborations: New Policy Contexts for Engagement 74

New Context, Familiar Territory: Conceptualizing Education Beyond the School Walls 75

Cross-Sector "Collabetition": Reinforcing Interorganizational Inequities 77

Cultural Brokering as Bridging 82

Emerging Approaches to Equitable Cultural Brokering 85

Conclusions 94

5 Collaborating in Organizational Improvement: Data Inquiry with Families, Communities, and Educators 96

Conceptualizing Relationships Between Families and Data 99

A Model of Data Inquiry for Equitable Collaboration 106

Questioning Phase 108

Engaging Phase 111

Making Sense Phase 114

Tensions and Opportunities in Strategizing and Moving to Action 118

Conclusions 119

6 Rewriting Moment-to-Moment Interactions: Families as Co-Designers 120

Racialized Institutional Scripts in Family-Teacher Relations 121

Changing Racialized Institutional Scripts 125

Putting Principles into Practice in Participatory Design-Based Research 127

Co-Design Practices as Rewriting Racialized Institutional Scripts 135

Repositioning Racial and Cultural Differences 136

Conclusions 137

7 Co-Designing Justice and Well-Being with/in Systems and Conclusions 140

A Call to Reimagine Family and Community Engagement 141

District Leaders and Co-Design 143

My Teaching Challenge: Proleptic Politic as Pedagogy 144

Dilemmas as Systemic Tensions 146

Co-Design as "Solidarity-Dreaming" 158

On Solidarities 162

Conclusions (and New Openings) 162

Appendix A Initial Partnership Assessment Tool 165

Appendix B Final Lesson Topics and Design Principles 167

Notes 169

References 172

Index 188

About the Author 199

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Just Schools makes a bold and vital contribution to education reform by challenging educators to include parents as vital leaders in school transformation and community development. Empirically rich and theoretically sophisticated, the book is also full of practical steps that educators and administrators can and must take to build strong collaborations with families that will produce desperately needed equity-oriented changes in schools, school systems, and their surrounding communities.”
—Mark R. Warren, professor of public policy and public affairs, University of Massachusetts Boston

“Ann Ishimaru's book is the most compelling work to date on school and community engagement. The data is gripping, and not only presents multiple models of how educators can follow community-based ways of engagement, but also proves deeply useful for parents that seek to better understand and navigate schools that have struggled to serve their communities well. Deep and complex theories and histories around race, power, and privilege in school and community are articulated in powerful and accessible ways, making this a must-read for educators and scholars alike. It will be required reading for all my future classes.”
—Muhammad Khalifa, Beck Chair of Ideas in Education, University of Minnesota

“This important publication provides a way forward for educators, families, students, and community members to co-create “just schools” by honoring, validating, and celebrating one another’s knowledge, skills, power, and resources. This book underscores that systemic and sustainable transformation toward equity will only be achieved through the process of creating equitable collaborations that embrace, include, and honor all members of our communities.”
—Karen Mapp, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Editorial Reviews

Research and praxis that seek to resist and transform the growing inequity and racism in the United States are essential to transform schools into sites of justice. Ishimaru’s book provides an imaginative and inspiring approach for school communities to persist in this work.”

—Teachers College Record

From the Publisher