From Moral Supporters to Struggling Advocates

Abstract

How do marginalized parents construct their role in promoting their children's access to educational opportunity? What lessons might their experience have for our understanding of parent involvement beyond the parameters of traditional models? This qualitative case study examined the beliefs, goals, and practices of 16 working-class African American and Latino parents whose children were in a college access program at a diverse metropolitan high school. It offers an alternative typology of parent roles, which reflects parents' contrasting social and cultural locations, biographies, and perceptions of-as well as relations with-their children and the school. With its highlighting of marginalized parents' voices at a critical juncture in student careers, this article contributes to a more inclusive discourse on families, schooling, and equity.

Factors Favouring the Educational Involvement of Immigrant Families with Children in Primary Education // Factores que favorecen la implicación educativa de las familias inmigrantes con hijos en Educación Primaria

“…The involvement of immigrant families in the home focuses, above all, on the motivational support and the transmission of values. Their involvement with respect to direct academic support is less, as has been shown in other research work (Auerbach, 2007;López, 2001).…”

“…En el ámbito del hogar se centra, sobre todo, en el apoyo motivacional, y también en la educación en valores. Es más baja su implicación respecto al apoyo directo académico, confirmando lo sugerido por otras investigaciones (Auerbach, 2007;López, 2001).…”

“…Research about educational involvement of this population has been developed especially in countries with major immigration intake. Auerbach (2007) and Márquez (2010), in their studies on Latin American families resident in the United States, conceive parental educational involvement in the wider context of educational support. Significant is the fact that Latin American immigrant families apply educational practices linked more to values: educating for the consideration of others, respect for elderly persons, sense of authority, co-operation (DelgadoGaitán, 2004), as well as instilling respect for teachers, encouraging good behaviour in school by their child, and the socialising the child to their family responsibilities (Chrispeels & Rivero, 2001).…”

La percepción de los tutores sobre la implicación educativa de las familias inmigrantes en la Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco=Classroom teachers' perceptions on the educational involvement of inmigrant families in the autonomous community of the Basque

“…Se viene a decir que el profesorado tiende a equiparar la ausencia de las familias inmigrantes en la escuela con la escasa valoración que le conceden a la educación de sus hijos/as (Dantas y Manyak, 2009;Rodríguez-Brown, 2009;Terrén y Carrasco, 2007). Por el contrario, otras investigaciones han evidenciado el alto interés de las familias inmigrantes sobre la educación de sus hijos (Archer-Banks y Behar-Horenstein, 2008;Bakker, Denessen y Brus-Laeven, 2007). García-Bacete (2006) en la investigación realizada con 100 profesores de 32 centros descubre que éstos apuntan que es responsabilidad de la familia adaptarse al centro escolar y entrar en procesos de cambio tales como aumentar su relación con la escuela, una mayor implicación con los hijos, y mayor colaboración escuela-profesorado.…”

African American father influences on the career development of emerging adults

“…Empirical studies seem to make similar conclusions about the positive impact of fathers' involvement on children's academic achievement. Sarkadi et al (2008) A similar study examined the role of parents in education in a sample of African Americans, Latino immigrants, and U.S-born Chicanas (Auerbach, 2007). Researchers interviewed parents using semi-structured interviews.…”