Abstract
In this qualitative study, the authors examined the culturally nuanced meanings of out-of-school suspensions for 30 lower income caregivers of African American children suspended from school. Caregivers were invited to describe their experiences of their children's suspensions during in-depth, individual, audiotaped interviews. Caregivers generally valued their children's school success, recognized when their children had misbehaved, and supported educators' imposition of appropriate consequences. Out-of-school suspensions, however, were rarely viewed as appropriate consequences. On the contrary, caregivers produced emotionally laden moral narratives that generally characterized their children's suspensions as unjust; harmful to children; negligent in helping children with underlying problems such as bullying; undermining parents' racial socialization; and, in general, racially problematic. Suspensions also contributed to some families' withdrawal from participation in their schools. Understanding how caregivers experience children's out-of-school suspensions provides important clues to how families and schools can work together to effectively reduce racial disparities in out-of-school suspensions.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 263-272 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Social Work (United States) |
Volume | 58 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 2013 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:and Wendy Haight, PhD, is professor and Gamble-Skogmo Chair in Child Welfare and Youth Policy, School of Social Work, University of Minnesota, 1404 Gortner Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108; e-mail: [email protected]. The research was funded by the Agriculture Experiment Station. The authors acknowledge the contributions of Evie Kalomo, Eveline Kebaya, and Mallerie Shirley, who served as research assistants.
Keywords
- African Americans, caregivers' narratives
- out-of-school suspensions
- social injustice