ABSTRACT
Researchers report on how the effects of White privilege and racism by preservice teachers, as manifested via deficit thinking, influence their attitudes and behaviors toward marginalized students. By teachers making parents welcome in school and the classroom, working with parents as partners, and allowing opportunities for parental empowerment, the building of roadways to combat deficit thinking of teachers is possible. Parental involvement/engagement as a vehicle to reduce school failure of marginalized students is a force with which to be reckoned. Public schools are far from being neutral institutions, and in many instances, they are not responsive to marginalized parents. By their use of particular linguistic structures, embedded capital, curriculum, governance, and assumptions of home environments, schools “invite” certain segments of the community and discourage others to participate. M. Balarin and S. Cueto also note that the parents received little and inadequate guidance from teachers as how to provide support for their children's academic development.
