Race and Ethnicity Education (2025)
Authors: Amanda Lockett and Janean Dilworth-Bart
Abstract: Research exploring relations between parental involvement in their children’s school experiences and their resulting performance is critical to understanding how school-level procedures and higher level academic policy can better support the involvement needs and preferences of a diverse parent population. Yet, findings in this area are limited by the lack of inclusive participant samples, specifically concerning the intersectionality of parental role and race. For this study, we conducted a secondary analysis of semi-structured interviews with 30 Black fathers of children in a Mid-Western school district. Thematic analyses revealed fathers’ active involvement in their children’s school experiences, but also the barriers and frustrations they faced that they attributed to race and gender. These results highlight the need for further assessment of parental actions using parental involvement models, informing teacher training, and supporting caregivers of color in educational settings.