How important is the parental involvement?

As an International student and pursuing my Master’s degree in Educational Leadership in the US, I have witnessed how cultural differences affect one’s personality; through a 5-year management experience at a private Pre-Kindergarten in Taiwan, I have learned that parents play a critical role during child’s early development. I am curious about the relationship between parental involvement and the later-on effects it could have on the child. More specifically, the post targets the group of English Language Learner students.

As of 2012, almost one in four children in America came from immigrant families with at least one foreign-born parent (Hernandez & Napierala, 2012); it is projected that this number will grow to one in every three children by 2050 (Javier, Festa, Florendo, & Mendoza, 2015). The increasing population suggests that children in immigrant families shape an essential part of American society in the future (Ee, 2017).

Three things we should know about the parental involvement...

1. In a focus-group interview study that examined 15 parents of elementary school students in a newly established Spanish–English dual immersion program in an urban area in southern California, Gerena (2011) reported that both English-dominant and Spanish-dominant parents in the study highlighted parental involvement as the most central factor for developing and sustaining the program successfully. The parents also articulated that their active involvement could boost their children’s learning motivation (Gerena, 2011). However, to what extent the parental involvement can impact their children still needs more investigation.

2. Some researchers have illustrated the immigrant families’ involvement in children’s achievement. We found that parental involvement is affected by parent’s education background and parents’ demographic features. More narrowly, we can learn from families’ special characteristics, such as parents’ English proficiency, immigrant status, and different racial/ethnic groups (Ee, 2017).

3. Immigrant parental involvement is more crucial for improving children’s education. Although the varying extent of parental involvement from diverse race or parenting style, the study shows that in general immigrant parents’ high engagement is positively related to next generation’s high performance at school. However, certain groups of parents do not consider themselves as a crucial factor in children’s education. Immigrant parents have encountered many obstacles that discourage their involvement, including parents’ English proficiency, educational attainment, socioeconomic status (SES), school environment, length of stay in the United States, time availability, and family issues (e.g., Crosnoe, 2001; Lareau, 2000).

References:

Crosnoe, R. (2001). Academic orientation and parental involvement in education during high school. Sociology of Education, 74, 210–230. doi:10.2307/2673275

Ee, J. (2017). Two dimensions of parental involvement: What affects parental involvement in dual language immersion? Bilingual Research Journal, 40(2), 131-153. doi:10.1080/15235882.2017.1306598

Gerena, L. (2011). Parental voice and involvement in cultural context: Understanding rationales, values, and motivational constructs in a dual immersion setting. Urban Education, 46(3), 342–370. doi:10.1177/0042085910377512

Hernández, D. J., & Napierala, J. S. (2012). Children in immigrant families: Essential to America’s future. Foundation for Child Development: Child and Youth Well-Being Index Policy Brief. Retrieved from http://fcd-us.org/sites/ default/files/FINAL%20Children%20in%20Immigrant%20Families%20(2) _0.pdf

Javier, J. R., Festa, N., Florendo, E., & Mendoza, F. S. (2015). Children in immigrant families: The foundation for America’s future. Advances in Pediatrics, 62(1), 105–136. doi: 10.1016/j.yapd.2015.04.013

Lareau, A. (2000). Home advantage: Social class and parental intervention in elementary education (2nd ed.). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.