Racialized Compensatory Cultivation: Centering Race in Parental Educational Engagement and Enrichment

Abstract

In this study, we examine the intersections and divergences of class- and race-based parenting motivations and practices as they connect to education through an exploration of the purposeful, race-conscious ways that a socioeconomically mixed sample of Black families approaches and practices academic and social enrichment and development. Drawing from focus groups and interviews with 28 African American caregivers and their middle school children, we propose the concept of racialized compensatory cultivation to describe the racialized ways Black parents across socioeconomic classes understand and engage in educationally focused enrichment practices. We add to the body of work that actively challenges the centering of White, middle-class caregiving norms and connections to schools as the dominant and most effective practices and strategies.