Interrogating and Refusing Carcerality Within Family Engagement in Urban Schools Through Composite Counter-Storytelling

This article presents a composite counter-story that exposes how carceral logics permeated family engagement approaches within an elementary public school, and how Black and other Global Majority families challenged racialized and spatialized practices. Findings from this study note three carceral logics (confinement, surveillance, and extraction) within family leadership and urban educational spaces. In response, parents problematized carceral logics within family-school initiatives, supported their children's wellness and academic success, and brainstormed outlets for fellowship, wellness, and mobilization. Overall, this composite counter-story demonstrates the need to interrogate subtle yet harmful social relations and geographies within family engagement and across urban schools.