Examining the Cultural Capital in the Parental Involvement of African American Parents of Disabled High School Students

This chapter explores the value of cultural capital in the parental involvement of African American parents of disabled high school students. The traditional approach of parental involvement is widely implemented across public education. The framework for parental involvement is outdated and racially one-sided, which causes the contributions of African American parents to be devalued by their child's school. This chapter focuses on a qualitative study of five African American mothers of disabled high school students and how they engage with their children's public education. The participants provide narrative examples of their cultural capital and they have used it to help benefit their child's education. This implies the need to revise the image of parental involvement to one that is a more diverse inclusionary model, which will help schools better support the academic achievement of students from culturally and linguistically diverse families.