“THE PARENT ENGAGEMENT POLICY SPEAKS OF PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AS THE CRITICAL ASPECT OF STUDENT OUTCOMES. YET, THERE IS MUCH RESEARCH THAT ADDRESSES THE WAYS IN WHICH SYSTEMIC RACISM PERCOLATES INTO LIVES OF STUDENTS AND FAMILIES AND IMPACTS EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES.”
come to see and name as my blended stand- point. This is a conscious space in which the mother and teacher stand side-by-side and look at the educational landscape in which our work unfolds alongside those seen and unseen others in the lives of the children/ students in our care.
PARENTAL ENGAGEMENT OR MOTHERING WORK
Ontario’s Parental Engagement Policy states that when “parents are engaged and involved, everyone – students, parents and families, teachers, schools and communities – ben- efits, and our schools become increasingly rich and positive places to teach, learn and grow.” These words reappear in all K-12 cur- riculum documents where the expectation of parental engagement changes depending on the age of the child. These documents also as- sign the responsibility of engaging parents to teachers. This becomes an inextricable aspect of our work irrespective of the demands on the families with whom we are partnered for the educational outcomes of their children. Conversations around parents’ experi-
ences in schools are dependent on the ways in which they are welcomed and respect- fully acknowledged as contributors to their children’s educational outcomes. Teachers’ work unfolds in a landscape where issues of everyday racism and sexism can co-exist alongside good intentions: this is an oft- invisibilized understanding to which we need to pay close attention. Research shows that the work of parenting,
though portrayed as gender-neutral labour, is largely done by women in the homes of our students. Mothering Work, a term coined by Canadian sociologists Alison Griffith and Dorothy Smith, draws attention to the in- visibilized work of women done in families that is tacitly required by formal schooling. It is well known in scholarly literature and everyday observations that the lived realities of families are not identical, but due to the uniformity of educational standards, the ex- pectation that all parents need to match up to a standard that is set by society is one that informs everyday work. It is also well docu- mented in research that in spaces where the demands of time and material resources are reduced, teachers step up and do this work, taking on the role that is expected to be ful- filled in the home. That there is no time and additional funding nor acknowledgement for this supplementary work comes to light in an important report called The School Context Model published in 2014. The role that teach-
24 ETFO VOICE | SUMMER 2021
ers play is also highlighted here. Professor Nina Bascia, Chair of the Lead-
ership, Higher and Adult Education depart- ment at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toron- to, writes that teacher communities have a strong and positive impact on students’ out- comes when teachers participate in profes- sional learning communities alongside their colleagues as this allows them to broaden their pedagogical repertoires.
THE GAP IN EDUCATIONAL WORK
The Parent Engagement Policy speaks of parental involvement as the critical aspect of
student outcomes. Yet, there is much
research that addresses the ways in which systemic racism percolates into lives of stu- dents and families and impacts educational opportunities. People for Education’s 2014 report Applied or Academic: High Impact Decisions for Ontario Students speaks of how teachers’ professional judgement is cited as a key determinant for students’ high school course selection instead of the Individual Pathways Plan being used to inform these decisions. The 2017 report, Towards Race Equity in Education, highlights ways in which Black students are nudged into low- yield pathways. Streaming continues to be a concern in Ontario and the conversations around this critical aspect of distribution of opportunities is one that needs to begin in Kindergarten as pathways germinate early in the education policy arena. Although we observe, experience, read
about and speak of how the work in homes is labelled in a gender-neutral, race-class neutral manner without much notice paid to linguistic privilege, it is important that many education workers lead the way to inform so- cial change. We can begin by acknowledging that in the Western world, including Canada, as well as in the global educational landscape, the notion of ideal parental engagement is pervasive and powerful. Much research highlights the ways in
which every day hallway conversations frame students and families and create a story that guides the perception about them in educa- tional work sites such as schools. The Stan- dard North American Family, says Smith, is an ideological code that informs the biases by which we see particular families as deficient because the ideal of SNAF is a two-parent, heterosexual family where the father’s work allows the mother to attend to the children’s schooling and educational outcomes. It is also important to notice that race is a critical
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