Chapter 8: Bridging The Gap: Examining Black Parental Activism in Low-Key Contexts

Through my masters thesis study on Black parental engagement in inner-city Toronto, I expand the existing understanding of Black working-class parental agency and address gaps in the present literature. Primarily, this chapter is a unique exploration of the ways in which a small group of working-class Black mothers navigate school contexts in advocating for their children. Particularly, the covert ways they participate in their children’s schooling to help counter the marginalization they experience. Furthermore, unlike previous research on Black parental engagement that concentrates only on the explicit ways in which Black parents confront systemic inequities, this research introduced ways in which Black parents confront systemic inequities in schools, in less obvious ways.