Read on Twitter
*NEW research out today in @asr_journal*
"Avoiding Us versus Them: How Schools’ Dependence on Privileged “Helicopter” Parents Influences Enforcement of Rules"
In this thread, I'll summarize key findings and link to an ungated version and a policy brief https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003122420905793
"Avoiding Us versus Them: How Schools’ Dependence on Privileged “Helicopter” Parents Influences Enforcement of Rules"
In this thread, I'll summarize key findings and link to an ungated version and a policy brief https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003122420905793
1. Inadequate, unequal funding leads public schools to rely on privileged "helicopter" parents for financial/logistical support. To avoid conflict with those parents, teachers exempt them and their kids from rules. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003122420905793
2. Teachers want to enforce rules, but they worry that privileged “helicopter” parents will make trouble for them with higher-ups in the school. And they worry about jeopardizing the support they rely on to provide “high-quality” amenities for students. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003122420905793
3. In the case of homework, high-SES white kids with “helicopter” parents rarely face consequences for forgetting or even cheating on homework. Meanwhile, lower-SES kids are held tightly accountable to homework rules and regularly lose points or recesses. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003122420905793
4. Teachers justify those inequalities by: 1) ignoring challenges lower-SES families face in helping with homework, and 2) problematically treating homework completion and “helicopter” parenting as evidence of "responsibility" and “prioritizing” school. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003122420905793
5. Ultimately, schools’ privilege-dependence creates a vicious cycle. It leads schools to capitulate to privileged “helicopter” parents in order to protect the resources schools need to offer the “high-quality” amenities that attract those parents. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003122420905793
6. Changing the behaviors of individual parents, teachers, and schools likely won’t be enough to reduce these inequalities. Privilege dependence (and privilege-dependence-induced capitulation) is a structural problem that requires structural solutions. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003122420905793
7. Reducing these inequalities requires a drastic reduction of the power of privilege in schools and in society as a whole. That means providing adequate and equitably distributed school funding that isn’t tied to local tax dollars or donations. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003122420905793
8. Adequate and equitably distributed school funding would allow all schools to provide “high-quality” opportunities for students without the need to capitulate to privileged “helicopter” parents by exempting them and their children from rules. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003122420905793
9. Parents, teachers, and schools can advocate for policies that provide adequate and equitably distributed resources for all public schools. They can also eliminate practices like homework that might contribute to inequalities within their school. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003122420905793
10. If you can't access the paywalled version of "Avoiding Us versus Them: How Schools’ Dependence on Privileged “Helicopter” Parents Influences Enforcement of Rules," you can find an ungated version on @socarxiv here: https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/vk8bt
11. You can also check out this policy brief I wrote for @CCF_Families, with an overview of how privilege dependence leads schools to inconsistently and unequally enforce rules.
Thanks to @StephanieCoontz and @virginiarutter for their help with the brief!
https://contemporaryfamilies.org/when-helicopters-go-to-school/
Thanks to @StephanieCoontz and @virginiarutter for their help with the brief!
https://contemporaryfamilies.org/when-helicopters-go-to-school/
