DIVERSITY IN CONSULTATION: 'Recognizing and Welcoming the Standpoint of Low-Income Parents in the Public Schools'

The author focuses on ways in which the standpoint of low-income parents might be recognized and respected in the public schools. In order to counteract the prevailing state of affairs in which low-income parents are not as welcome nor as privileged in the schools as middle-class parents. There is much that can be done to include low-income parents in school partnerships and to increase the value that teachers and administrators place on such an enterprise. Educational consultants are in a particularly pivotal position to influence such change. Prescriptions for change, relevant to work with administrators, teachers, and parents, are presented as general guides. The recommended strategies are (a) replace stereotypes about low-income parents with recognition of their strengths, (b) help parents deal with obstacles to school participation, (c) expand parental roles in the school, (d) expand opportunities for informal communication, and (e) encourage leadership by those in power.