Organizational Politics of Parental Engagement: The Intersections of School Reform, Anti-Immigration Policies, and Latinx Parent Organizing

This article presents results from community-engaged research conducted with Latinx immigrant parents advocating for their students and themselves in and around an urban school engaged in multiple reforms, in a context affected by anti-immigrant policies and sentiments. The authors analyzed the intersection of organizing narratives related to formal school programs and activities of the parent group, examining the intersections, dissonances, and their micro-political implications for authentic parental engagement. Results present elements of three distinct organizing narratives, as well as composite dialogues to demonstrate distinct narratives and the mechanisms by which parent interests are (re)positioned and/or evaded. This analysis reveals the ways in which the intersections of reform practices and local anti-immigration measures, which are disarticulated by school administrators, produce, at worst, mechanisms to marginalize immigrant parents and, at best, missed opportunities to authentically engage these parents.