ABSTRACT
Building on my own personal experience as a disadvantaged learner growing up in China and my research on underprivileged minoritized learners in Canada and the U.S., in this chapter, I illustrate the power and limits of parents’ prolepsis, or their imagined future identity for their children, in shaping learners’ educational trajectories. I highlight the dissonance between school and family prolepsis for minoritized children and the possible impact on children’s opportunities to learn in school and at home contexts and the paths toward their social futures. I conclude by discussing the significance of seeing family prolepsis as an asset for minority children and presenting ways that teachers, schools, and community organizations can discover and capitalize on these hidden assets in school.
