Chasing the Dream: How Black Middle Class Parents Make Educational Decisions for Their Children Público
Welcher, Adria Nikhole (2013)
Published
Abstract
The black middle class in many ways occupy an in-between position. Economically, they are employed in solidly middle class occupations, yet they lack the intergenerational transmission of wealth that secures white middle class status. Socially and professionally, they must navigate their racial identity in the white world within which they often work and sometimes live. Black middle class families face additional dilemmas as they both understand the importance of a strong educational foundation, but are also aware of various obstacles their children are likely to confront in school. So while black middle-class families are strategic in advocating for their children in the same ways as other middle-class families, they operate within potentially quite different constraints. Parents, regardless of race, draw on a range of information about school quality when making educational decisions for their children. Yet, Black parents must often pay attention to a whole set of additional factors when considering their children's futures.
My dissertation explores the dilemmas middle class black families face when making decisions about their children's education. Through in depth interviews with 59 black middle class parents, a total of 76 respondents, across metropolitan Atlanta, I show that black middle class parents are aware of the constraints that their racial position presents while utilizing many of the resources granted by their class position. A close examination of the processes black middle class parents use when determining how to best educate their children reveals specific strategies used by various members of the black middle class.
Racial socialization, school choice, and class reproduction all motivate black middle class parents' educational decisions for their children. Black middle class parents desire to reproduce their class status for their children so they incorporate linked fate, racial uplift, and politics of respectability ideologies to explain why and how they distance themselves from lower and working class blacks in their residential choices or other social interactions. They look for schools with strong academic reputations and high levels of parental involvement. Finally, these parents use assimilationist, racial barriers, and self-development racial socialization strategies to teach their children about being black.
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: Literature Review
Chapter Three: Methodology
Chapter Four: Residential Preferences
Chapter Five: School Choice Strategies
Chapter Six: Racial Socialization Strategies
Chapter Seven: Conclusion
About this Dissertation
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