ABSTRACT
As is apparent in the previous chapters, the parents in the Morrison County program were not viewed by the staff as having a variety of strengths, talents, and capabilities that could benefit their children, themselves, the program, and their community. Instead, they were seen as having various deficits, and were talked about and treated differently depending on their gender, race, and class. And, while the staff in its entirety did not view parents in a negative way, all realized that the resources needed to support their programmatic efforts to involve parents were largely missing. As a result, they were negative about parent involvement as an activity. Based on these realities, parents collectively could be collectively viewed as a separate “class” within the Head Start structure — one that had little status, and was further marginalized by little power, few resources, and few powerful advocates.
