PACTS: Critical Dispositions Necessary for a Culturally Responsive and Transformative School, Family, and Community Partnership for Black Pan-African Immigrant Students and Families

Authors

• Jada Phelps, Michigan State University
• John Nimmo, Portland State UniversityFollow
• Talgat Bainazarov, Michigan State University
• Zahra Abukar, African Youth and Community Organization, Portland
• Jamal Dar, African Youth and Community Organization, Portland
• Michelle Stratton, Liberation Institute, Portland
• Leslie Ann Locke
• Tianyang Xu, Michigan State University

Publication Title

International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-16-2026

Subjects

Black -- Pan-African, immigrants, School-family-community partnerships, Culturally responsive, Cultural navigators

Abstract

This study highlights a culturally responsive transformative school, family, and community partnership in the Western Region of the United States. The partnership served over 100 students and 300 parents of Black Pan-African immigrant descent responding to persistent school alienation. Using Critical Race Theory, Community Cultural Wealth, and a critical participatory action research design, we explored the structural forces shaping these experiences and the community-based responses that sought to resist them.

Data sources included professional development sessions, counterstorytelling, Theater of the Oppressed, asset mapping, and semi-structured interviews.

Findings revealed key partnership members centered five dispositions—Prophetic Activism, Asset- Based Ideology, Critical Consciousness, Trust, and Solidarity—collectively theorized as PACTS, in response to multiple forms of alienation intersecting Black Pan-African families experienced in schools. These dispositions represent a spiritually, culturally, and politically grounded praxis that disrupted systemic marginalization and help reimagine school, family and community partnerships as sites of collective care, resistance, and justice. Theoretically, we advance “spiritual wealth” as a justice-contingent extension in Community Cultural Wealth.

Methodologically, we recommend Black Indigenous approach’s centering African knowledge producers. Practically, we provide an audit tool to assess weather partnerships are transformative.

Rights

Copyright (c) 2026 The Authors

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Locate the Document

https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2026.2647226

DOI

10.1080/09518398.2026.2647226

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44639

Citation Details

Phelps, J., Nimmo, J., Bainazarov, T., Abukar, Z., Dar, J., Stratton, M., Locke, L. A., & Xu, T. (2026). PACTS: critical dispositions necessary for a culturally responsive and transformative school, family, and community partnership for Black Pan-African immigrant students and families. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 1–37.