title: Caregivers' moral narratives of their African American children's out-of-school suspensions: implications for effective family-school collaborations.
abstract: In this qualitative study, the authors examined the culturally nuanced meanings of out-of-school suspensions for 30 lower income caregivers of African American children suspended from school. Caregivers were invited to describe their experiences of their children's suspensions during in-depth, individual, audiotaped interviews. Caregivers generally valued their children's school success, recognized when their children had misbehaved, and supported educators' imposition of appropriate consequences. Out-of-school suspensions, however, were rarely viewed as appropriate consequences. On the contrary, caregivers produced emotionally laden moral narratives that generally characterized their children's suspensions as unjust; harmful to children; negligent in helping children with underlying problems such as bullying; undermining parents' racial socialization; and, in general, racially problematic. Suspensions also contributed to some families' withdrawal from participation in their schools. Understanding how caregivers experience children's out-of-school suspensions provides important clues to how families and schools can work together to effectively reduce racial disparities in out-of-school suspensions.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Work, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, USA. pgibson@umn.edu
authors.forename: Priscilla A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Gibson
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Haight
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D017028:Caregivers; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D033262:Narration; D010290:Parents; D011203:Poverty; D036301:Qualitative Research; D063505:Racism; D012574:Schools; D013334:Students; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult