‘Confianzais where I can be myself’: Latina mothers’ constructions of community in education reform

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This paper brings together ethnographic data and testimonies from a group of Latina mother activists with critical race theories, to challenge dominant views of home-school relations and re-envision the ‘homeplace’ as a site of radical resistance (Hooks ( 1990 Hooks, B. 1990. Yearning: race, gender and cultural politics, Boston, MA: South End Press. [Google Scholar] ) Yearning: race, gender and cultural politics (Boston, MA, South End Press)). Madres Unidas (Mothers United) is a participatory research team made up of immigrant mothers who helped start a new small school for their children. Over the course of a year, Madres Unidas met weekly around a kitchen table in one of the mother's homes. This paper analyzes the educational space created by Madres Unidas in contrast to the spaces for parent participation provided by the school. For the mothers in Madres Unidas, the home became a place to restore their sense of self and a place from which to critique, engage, and take action against school practices that silenced them.

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