Title: A cord of three strands : organizing parents, schools, and communities for collective empowerment /
Authors: Hong, Soo.; Harvard University.
Year: 2009
Subjects: Community and school United States.; Community organization United States.; Home and school United States.; Education Parent participation United States
Abstract: This dissertation explores the ways that community resources can be engaged to build more effective relationships between schools and families. By exploring the strategies of one successful community organizing group in connecting families with local schools, this study seeks to address the gaps in communication, experience, and culture that exist between many urban schools and the communities they serve. Based in Chicago's northwest side, the Logan Square Neighborhood Association (LSNA) has organized parents as leaders, increasing their participation in schools. Through this participation, parents also become connected to the broader issues of community life and civic participation. Data for this project was collected over two years and is presented as a layered ethnography . With an emphasis on the multiple contexts and settings (e.g., community organization, school, parent cohorts) that shape parent engagement as well as the multiple factors that shape the dynamic research process and relationship between researcher and participants, the layered ethnography incorporates elements of ethnography and portraiture, combining research product with process and scientific rigor with aesthetics. By analyzing the acts of parent engagement as well as the process through which parents are introduced and integrated into schools, the study also explores the multiple dimensions of parent participation.