message-received

message received 73 Black single female parents can inform the outreach approaches taken by col- leges and universities to increase parental involvement in their children’s college preparation and college-choice process. This paper describes the findings of a study that used a qualitative approach to explore how three Black single parents experienced involvement from their own parents during their K–12 years. The study is guided by the following questions: “What were the messages that these low-SES Black women received about the value of education?” and “How were these women encouraged and to what end?” Methodology This study of three urban working-class Black single mothers emerged from a larger ethnographic study of how 12 urban Black mothers of college-bound teenaged daughters experienced the college-choice process. The three single mothers chosen for this study were themselves raised by low-SES, minimally educated parents who moved to California or encouraged their children to move to California as a way to escape a life of poverty in the South, Northeast, or Midwest. The three single mothers, all of whom have been assigned pseu- donyms, may alternately be referred to as “the Three” for the remainder of this chapter when referring to the collective group. Data Collection The Three were asked to reflect back on their childhood to recount (a) their parent’s level of education; (b) why they or their families migrated to California; (c) how their neighborhood and schools were chosen; (d) the mes- sages they received from their parents about the core value and utility of edu- cation; (e) the frequency of their interaction with college degree holders; and (f ) their opinions, doubts, and fears about college education and those who were college educated (the interview protocol is located in Appendix 5A). After the interviews were completed they were transcribed, analyzed using grounded theory, and verified by sharing with each the transcriptions of their interviews (Glaser & Strauss, 1999; Strauss & Corbin, 1998). “The Three”: Profiles of Three African American, Urban, Single Mothers Lena, Kim, and Kathy are three African American single parents whose daugh- ters were in their junior year of high school. What follows is a brief synopsis of my conversations with them during the data collection time of this study.