This dissertation investigates challenges to access and equity embedded within different types of parental engagement policies, including school choice policies, in Michigan. Although many policy proponents claim that policies have the potential to provide more opportunities for marginalized parents, little is known about the access and equity implications of policy language. I apply an original conceptual framework to my exploration of these issues, drawing on Diem & Young’s (2015) five critical concerns of critical policy analysis and the literature base centering on critical parental engagement studies. I call my framework critical parental engagement policy studies. This critical document analysis provides new understandings of the form and content of parental engagement policy documents and the challenges to access and equity that are embedded within policy language. I analyze data from school district parental engagement policies, Michigan’s interdistrict student transfer policies (better known in the state as schools of choice), and documents from a regional collaborative schools of choice agreement encompassing twenty districts. I find that policies sometimes widen but more often restrict educational access for marginalized parents. Moreover, parents who already hold social advantages are likely well-positioned to take advantage of new parental engagement opportunities, potentially at the expense of marginalized parents.
Read
