Low‐Income Parents and the Public Schools

By B. Lott. 2001

113 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This article addresses the responses likely to be received by low-income parents from teachers and staff in their children’s public schools in the United States. A review of the relevant literature reveals that teachers and school administrators tend to subscribe to the dominant beliefs that low-income parents do not care about their children’s schooling, are not competent to help with homework, do not encourage achievement, and do not place a high value on education. This article presents examples of such middle-class bias in the words and actions of individual teachers, and research findings that tend to contradict these stereotypes. The barriers that exist for low-income parents in interacting with the schools are discussed, and suggestions are offered for ways in which schools can recognize and respect the standpoint and potential contributions of these parents.

Subfields: Education

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c44a8117189bb24032a8f2138c0707099ad584f3

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Education

Citations in the corpus

Privileging Class: Toward a Critical Psychology of Social Class in the Context of Education (2003, background): “Schools are often the sites in which some are deemed able to progress and worthy of success, while others are considered intellectually inferior and incapable of achievement in ways that tend to be systematically related to social class (Fine, 1991; Lott, 2001; Oakes, 1985).”
The Experience of Low-SES Students in Higher Education: Psychological Barriers to Success and Interventions to Reduce Social-Class Inequality (2017, background): “…of low-SES students lack familiarity with the dominant culture of the university system and as a result are unable to effectively transmit the “appropriate” cultural capital to their children (Calarco, 2014; for a review on the difficulties between low-SES parents and school, see Lott, 2001).”
Teacher‐Parent Relationships and School Involvement among Racially and Educationally Diverse Parents of Kindergartners (2009, background): “A host of reasons have been cited in the literature about why SES influences parent involvement; frequently cited are the time constraints, life stressors, unfamiliarity with the importance of school, and differences in values regarding education (Lott, 2001).”
Influencing Preservice Teachers’ Attitudes About Working With Low-Income and/or Ethnic Minority Families (2012, background): “…in the larger culture, low-income parents often report feeling intimidated when entering into school structures and are often disinclined to respond positively to invitations from teachers to engage in communication regarding their children’s educational experiences (Lawson, 2003; Lott, 2001).”
Broadening the Myopic Vision of Parent Involvement. (2009, background): “Parents, especially those who are from diverse cultures as compared to the dominant culture at the school, report that they do not feel welcome; consequently, they avoid coming to school and sometimes take on an adversarial stance with school faculty (Lott, 2001).”
From Barrios to Yale: The Role of Parenting Strategies in Latino Families (2004, background): “However, as Lott (2001) illustrated, many teachers and administrators maintain negative stereotypes about poor parents, portraying them as apathetic, uninvolved, and uncaring about their children’s education.”
Joining the Conversation about Educating Our Poorest Children: Emerging Leadership Roles for School Counselors in High-Poverty Schools (2007, background): “, lacking time, interest, or competence), hard to reach, and having little to offer to the education of their children (Leitch & Tangri, 1988; Lott, 2001).”