Hearing the Voices of Four African American Grandmothers Raising Their Academically Successful Grandchildren

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine and interpret the lived experiences and parenting practices of four African American grandmothers raising grandchildren in one urban school district. A disproportionate number of custodial grandmothers raising grandchildren are African American. There is a void where the voices of African American grandmothers raising academically successful grandchildren are limited. Specifically, regarding their personal attributes, acts of grandmothering, and their perceptions about grandmothering to support academic achievement. Although each grandmother faced obstacles and made sacrifices, findings from this study reveals that African American grandmothers believe they can raise academically successful grandchildren to become productive members of society despite the negative life events precipitating their new living arrangements. Participants acknowledged a strong parental and spiritual influence in their own lives played a major roles in how they parented their grandchildren. The grandmothers expressed the importance of limiting or eliminating the interactions their grandchildren had with their absent parent while they carried out their role of parent. The thoughts, voices, expressions, and actions conveyed by the grandmothers provide a clear commitment to the needs of their grandchildren over all else. This research recommends further study regarding African American grandmothers raising academically successful grandchildren to provide insight to educators, policy makers, and other grandmothers raising grandchildren.