Silencing bicultural parental voices through educational satisfaction: What do we need to know?

Abstract

ABSTRACT Parental satisfaction is often used “as one indicator of school success or one outcome of school effectiveness”. However, the notion that it is possible to gauge minoritized parental satisfaction in schools without first understanding their educational beliefs and values about education and their knowledge about the US school system is problematic. This article examines how the concept of “parental satisfaction” may actually silence Latinx parents’ voices (concerns, opinions, input, etc.) in US schools. Latinx parents tend to express high levels of “satisfaction” with US schools irrespective of how well they understand their educational programs or how well their children are doing in school. The dual-language immersion (DLI) setting is used as an example. The author argues that uncritically attributing high levels of educational satisfaction to Latinx parents potentially silences their concerns in school settings, particularly in educational programs that serve parental populations that are asymmetrically positioned in US society.