"It's Easy to Fall into a Trap": Black Mothers' Narratives of Alternative High School Transfer

Background

The processes through which Black mothers exercise situated agency in the public education system remains under examined. Particularly how Black mothers exercise agency to prevent or stop carceral practices, most saliently school pushout. We used visual and textual qualitative data from a narrative study to answer the questions: “How did Black mothers describe their families’ experience of alternative high school transfer?” and “Where and how did Black mothers exercise situated agency in the transfer process?”

Method

Findings derive from 12 narrative interviews with 6 Black mothers raising Black children and 2 narrative interviews with a 1 white mother raising a white-Latino son. Mothers participated in a “storybook method,” which consisted of creating a visual-written storybook using the temporal structure of “before,” “during,” and “after” alternative school transfer. We analyzed the storybooks and associated transcripts using narrative thematic analysis. We began analysis by coding within stories for important scenes, relationships, and settings. After analyzing within participant stories, we analyzed across narratives to interpret where and how mothers’ exercised situated agency. Through this interpretative work, we traced how racialized and gendered administrative burdens structured and constrained Black mothers’ situated agency. We used the interviews with the white mother as a negative case to challenge our emerging interpretation of situated agency and racialized gendered administrative burdens.

Findings

Black mothers began their familial stories of alternative school transfer in elementary school, describing how their family was a target of racialized, gendered, and classist stereotypes. As mothers navigated the school system, their concerns regarding their child’s wellbeing were dismissed as problems. This constrained mothers’ ability to effectively advocate for resources and services that could have prevented alternative high school transfer. During the transfer process mothers experienced misinformation and a lack of communication from school administrators. Mothers were forced to take on administrative burdens that had racialized-gendered implications. These included missing work hours, psychological stress of being perceived as a “bad mom”, and the restructuring of family life. Mothers described their child being “forced out” and “coerced out” of mainstream schools as well as “neglected” until alternative high school transfer became their child’s only option. After experiencing alternative school transfer as a form of pushout, mothers expressed feeling respected and valued at the alternative school. Throughout their stories, Black mothers exercised situated agency through relationships, either through familial relationships or through relationships with educators. Though their situated agency did not change the outcome of transfer, it did create a meaningful counter narrative that strengthened family bonds and prevented them from situating blame for alternative high school transfer within themselves, rather than the school system.

Implications

The analysis has salience beyond the interpersonal dynamics of families transferring from mainstream schools to alternative schools. First, we add to existing knowledge of the school transfer process by framing transfer to alternative schools as a form of school pushout. Second, we extend theory on school pushout by considering push out as a consequential experience for caregivers and families. Third, we provide insight into relationships as avenues for situated agency.