Chapter 4: Parent Empowerment through Organizing for Collective Action

Advocates for parent involvement in education are often divided between those who see the goal as greater effort on the part of individual parents to improve their child’s education outcomes, and those who campaign through collective action in the community organizing tradition of Saul Alinsky (1946, 1971) for system changes that can benefit all students. While all parent involvement advocates understand the importance of education and want to help children do well in school, those who approach the topic from a social justice perspective take a broader view of school reform. They seek to redress inequities long acknowledged to be deeply rooted in the education system (Apple, 1996; Giroux & Shannon, 1997), such as the racial and social class achievement gaps that reflect the larger social and economic structure (Anyon, 1997, 2005; Ayers, Hunt & Quinn, 1998; P. Finn, 2009; Noguera, 2005; Rothstein, 2004).