Community Context and Connections in the Development of a Parenting Support Curriculum for Low-Income African-American Families

Abstract

Grounded in my participation in the University of Minnesota Community-engaged Scholars Program, this article presents a case study of community-based ethnographic and participant-observation methods used to embed local context into the foundation of a parent education and empowerment approach to address the achievement gap by race, poverty, and place in one neighborhood in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The case study demonstrates how context-specific wisdom and expertise of parents and community members is a critical foundation for tailoring appropriate research-based curricular components.