Parental involvement of Eastern European immigrant parents in Canada: whose involvement has capital?

Abstract

This study focuses on the parental involvement among Eastern European immigrant parents of elementary school students in Canada. Interviewed parents (N?+?19) were educated in several Eastern European countries and had children attending elementary schools in the province of Ontario at the time of the study. The analysis was informed by the concepts of social and cultural capital developed by Pierre Bourdieu. It was found that Eastern European immigrant parents see their role supporting children mainly in the home by emphasizing academic achievement and extracurricular activities. Despite high levels of cultural capital there was a variation in the amount of social capital available to immigrant parents. Those who managed to recreate rich social networks in the new country communicated with teachers more successfully and were satisfied with school.     

Parent involvement: perceptions of recent immigrant parents in a suburban school district,Minnesota

The study aimed to examine the perceptions of immigrant parents regarding their school’s efforts to encourage three types of parent involvement: Parenting, Communicating, and Learning at Home. The sample includes 106 immigrant parents with children who were enrolled in English Language Learners programmes at 10 schools in a suburban school district in Minnesota, USA. The results showed that depending on their ethnicities, the children’s school levels and the father’s educational level, the perceptions of the parents were significantly different in terms of the “Parenting” and “Learning at Home” involvement types. Mother’s educational level was significantly correlated to the languages used at home and to their children’s academic achievement in English. Results indicated that schools should consider ethnic backgrounds and educational levels of parents, and languages used at home to instil as collaborations between immigrant parents and schools.     

Teachers’ cultural differences: case studies of geography teachers in Brisbane,Changchun and Hong Kong

The primary purpose of this exploratory study is to identify variations in the ways in which individual teachers in different educational contexts interpret their curriculum and plan their lessons and in particular to explore the possibility that cultural differences as identified by Hofstede (1991) may be a contributing factor to understanding how teachers understand their work. “Educational reform” has become a catchphrase in the Anglo-American world, including the United States, Canada, Australia, and England and Wales, as well as in the Confucian Heritage Areas such as Mainland China, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Across the world, the educational reform measures being implemented are surprisingly similar. This paper describes a study of how geography teachers in Queensland, Australia, Hong Kong, and Changchun, China, plan their lessons and curriculum. From classroom observations and interviews with the teachers involved, we confirmed marked differences in each location regarding their cultural traits of power distance, individualist and collectivist preference and uncertainty tolerance, and that these traits appear to be highly influential in their curriculum planning. Despite the small scale of this study, we contend that there are good reasons for caution before national education systems import policies and curriculum reform initiatives from other countries for unthinking adoption.     

Making it work for their children: white middle-class parents and working-class schools

The white middle-class parents who chose to send their children to urban comprehensives largely rejected engaging in the usual competitiveness for educational success. Nevertheless the parents in our study still found themselves wittingly or otherwise captured by that same discourse. Their children are high achievers and are regarded as a valuable resource for their comprehensive schools generating high volume capital. However, in spite of this, the parents do not leave such success to chance. Drawing on an ESRC-funded research project (Educational Choices and the White Urban Middle-Classes RES-148-25-0023) we analyse how middle-class parental involvement is part of the age old process of social reproduction and the transmission of parents’ middle-class privilege to their children, almost regardless of their intentions. Not only are the parents interventionist in their children’s schooling, they draw on and dispose their own privileged capitals to prepare and position their children for educational success.     

Culture, food, and language: Perspectives from immigrant mothers in school science

The article explores the role of immigrant parents in middle school science as both teachers and learners as part of an urban middle school curriculum, the Linking in Food and the Environment (LiFE) program. The curriculum engaged parents as partners with science teachers to teach science through food. Over a 2-year period, parents attended a series of bilingual workshops, collaborated with classroom teachers, managed activities, guided student inquiry, and assisted in classroom management. The following study analyzes the role of culture, language, and identity as four mothers navigated their position as ‘insiders’ in a science classroom.

Primary and secondary effects in the explanation of disadvantage in education: the children of immigrant families in France

This paper explores the prospective transition of immigrant and native students in France from lower to upper secondary school. Because they are more likely to be tracked to less prestigious (vocational) tracks, immigrant and immigrant‐origin students are significantly disadvantaged at this key academic stage in comparison with the children of native families. Primary and secondary sources of educational disadvantage are explored to explain this phenomenon. Primary effects appear to account for the entire initial disadvantage, while secondary effects could have a positive impact for immigrant‐origin students. Nonetheless, immigrant families appear to be more conservative than native families and may need stronger evidence that their children will succeed in upper secondary school.     

家庭和个人教育决策和选择中的风险和不确定性

在市场经济条件下,任何教育决策和选择都具有风险和不确定性,导致个人教育决策和选择出现风险和不确定性的因素有多方面,只要采取积极措施,就能降低不良结果发生的概率,减少风险,降低损失。     

Learning and leaving: education and depopulation in an island community

This paper probes the extent to which education can be identified as a factor in rural depopulation. The study focuses on the Scottish Hebridean island of Raasay which has seen significant population loss since census records began in 1841. In this study the post-school destinations of all pupils enrolled at Raasay School 1901–2000 have been plotted. In addition, a sample of school pupils from 1941–2000 have been questioned about their decision-making in relation to post-school destinations. The study shows that a remarkable 86% of school pupils left the island during that century. Further education was the main reason respondents gave for migrating after leaving school but the data also suggest that it is lack of suitable employment that keeps them away. The study concludes that while education is implicated in island depopulation, of more significance is suitable employment, much more so than aspects of infrastructure such as transport and housing.     

社会资本与文化资本视野下的现代学校制度变革

社会阶层与教育获得之间存在着密切的联系。由于社会分层、社会流动以及家庭结构的变迁,导致人们之间社会资本与文化资本的差别日益扩大,从而使教育不平等问题愈加凸显。在某种程度上,一个好的学校制度能够降低出身的不平等或者降低家庭背景的重要性,因此,当今学校制度改革的一个重要方面就是弥补人们之间社会资本与文化资本方面的差异,即通过建立“公平教室”、创建“功能共同体”、改革考试制度等,以促进教育平等。     

家庭经济和文化资本对子女教育机会获得的影响

根据国家统计局2000年的城镇住户调查数据,运用对应分析方法,建立相关计量模型,分析经济资本和文化资本对子女高等教育和中等教育机会获得的影响程度;并在此基础上,比较不同职业阶层子女教育机会获得的差别。研究结果表明:家庭文化资本和经济资本占有量位居前列的优势社会阶层,其子女接受的教育层次主要为高等教育;而文化资本和经济资本占有量均处劣势的社会阶层的子女接受的主要是中等教育和初等教育。另外,家庭文化资本对子女高等教育机会获得的影响明显大于家庭经济资本,而家庭文化资本对子女中等教育机会获得的影响略大于家庭经济资本。     

Neoliberalism,imperialism and conservatism: tangled logics of educational inequality in the global South

ABSTRACT

Accounts of neoliberalism in education frequently evoke a universal trend, with insufficient attention to context, as well as routinely presenting the ‘pre-neoliberal’ as the ideal. This paper argues that studies of neoliberalism, concentrated in the global North, frequently ignore the distinctive forms and histories of neoliberalism in the global South, as well as its connections to other logics of power, which are illustrated using examples of schooling in Brazil. The differing weight of neoliberal politics and policies across geopolitical boundaries suggests caution in casting neoliberalism as a unique institutional setting for contemporary educational inequalities or attributing all educational conservatism to neoliberalism. A conceptual contribution is provided by proposing a multi-scalar approach to educational inequalities, in which educational sites, events and practices are considered in terms of nexus.     

Departing from the beaten path: international schools in China as a response to discrimination and academic failure in the Chinese educational system

International schools are commonly depicted in the academic literature and popular press as offering elite educational credentials to an elite, oftentimes international, student body. In this paper, I draw on a case study of a Canadian international school to argue that a new form of international school is emerging in China – one that offers a haven for domestic students from certain competitive and discriminatory features of the Chinese educational system. Fieldwork was conducted at a Canadian curriculum high school for Chinese citizens in Beijing. Most students at the school were internal migrants or children of China’s ‘new rich’ entrepreneurial class; that is, their families had economic resources but occupied precarious social positions in contemporary Chinese society. Analyses reveal that the international school offers a pathway to obtain baseline academic credentials in the absence of other opportunities for progress in the Chinese educational system. Together with evidence of dramatic growth in international schools and tracks in China, this case study suggests the emergence of a new type of international education programme that departs from a picture of international education as ‘elite’ in terms of student body, academic environment, and expected educational trajectories of graduates. The paper also develops our understanding of class and educational strategies in contemporary China.     

‘Nowhere that fits’: the dilemmas of school choice for parents of children with Statements of special educational needs (SEN) in England

Giving parents a choice with regard to their children's education has been central to the political discourse of school reform at least since the 1988 Education Reform Act (ERA). With regard to children with a Statement of special educational needs (SSEN), a plethora of policies and laws have given parents the right not only to choose a school, but also to appeal to decisions in the best interest of their children. Yet, despite the discourse of school choice, the implementation and practice of such reforms is neither assured nor simple. Participants in this study indicated that they have little choice of suitable provision and are having to compromise either the academic or the social aspects of their child's schooling. This article argues that for many parents whose children have a Statement of SEN, the choice of a school is often a dilemma, as ‘nowhere seems to fit’.     

RESEARCH SECTION: Multi‐agency working: what are the perspectives of SENCos and parents regarding its development and implementation?

With a national drive in England for the development and restructuring of services encouraging interdisciplinary approaches and multi‐agency working, the question remains as to how services should be developed and why it is perceived as so important. This study by Pearl Barnes, who is an Every Child Counts Teacher Leader and a member of the Specialist Advisory Board for nasen and the Child and Family Public Education Board at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, explores the perspectives of special educational needs co‐ordinators (SENCos) and parents regarding the rationale for multi‐agency working and explores what an effective service might look like. The interviews revealed overwhelming support for multi‐agency activity. Although no single rationale was identified, the general consensus was that a multi‐agency approach can provide a child‐centred pedagogical response, tailored to the individual needs of the child. Multi‐agency working was perceived as enabling and enhancing inclusive education by providing an early and holistic assessment of individual needs through identification of all individual barriers to achievement. No specific set of protocols was identified as offering the most suitable way forward within the project region. However, there was general agreement that a multi‐agency teamwork approach, accessed directly by schools and intervening proactively within the community, was an effective way forward.     

Children’s conversion of cultural capital into educational success: the symbolic and skill-generating functions of cultural capital

Abstract

A prominent explanation of intergenerational educational inequality is Bourdieu’s cultural reproduction theory. Indeed, previous studies have frequently shown that children’s cultural capital relates to academic outcomes. However, it remains unclear how children convert their cultural capital into achievement. While Bourdieu argued that cultural capital influences academic outcomes primarily by biasing teachers’ grades, other researchers have proposed the alternative explanation that children’s cultural capital absorption directly translates into academic skills. Using survey data on 2975 fifth graders from the German National Educational Panel Study, we disentangle these two mechanisms of children’s cultural capital conversion; and argue that the main conversion mechanism depends on the cultural capital dimension examined. The results of our structural equation model suggest that both mechanisms are at work and that the main conversion mechanism depends on the dimension of cultural capital examined.     

Local community perspectives and language of education in sub-Saharan African communities

The use of local languages in formal education is a widely debated educational strategy in sub-Saharan Africa. National-level policies abound which permit mother-tongue instruction in primary grades, and yet successful implementation of those policies is not merely so common. The reasons for this are varied, but one powerful reason has to do with the perspectives and desires of stakeholders in the education process who reside in the local community: teachers, parents, community leaders, school authorities, and the children themselves. Responding to their particular historical, social and economic context, these stakeholders have developed their own perspectives on the nature and outcomes of formal education as well as beliefs about the utility and proper place of the local language.     

Consultation,negotiation and compromise: the relationship between SENCos,parents and pupils with SEN

One outcome of the UK Government's commitment to inclusive educational policies was an increase in the number of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) being taught in mainstream schools. From the perspective of SENCos, this article analyses whether parents and pupils are able and willing to influence the development of SEN provision and distribution of SEN resources, both of which aim to ensure that pupils have more meaningful experiences of mainstream education. The findings of the study cast light on the power and influence of parents when it comes to SEN provision and resources, the importance of consulting parents and the ways in which parents empower SENCos to make decisions on behalf of themselves and their children. The importance of negotiating and attempting to seek a compromise with pupils was another key issue identified in the article. Ultimately, however, the power to decide where resources go and what is done with them appears to reside with SENCos.     

Cultural capital,habitus and reading futures: middle-class adolescent students’ cultivation of reading dispositions in Singapore

Abstract

The acquisition of cultural capital can only be understood in the light of the formation of habitus, including the socialisation process, and in the context of the field in which any such capital has value. Yet, the relation between cultural capital and habitus is seldom discussed in research. Drawing on the data from focus groups with 96 students and a survey of 5,779 students from six Singapore secondary schools, we analyze how reading as a form of cultural capital is distributed among High-SES, Mid-SES and Low-SES students in Singapore. We show how middle-class practices of intensive immersion in school-valued reading practices is a form of habitus that prepare some students better than others for engaged reading. The findings highlight how reading as a form of cultural capital is operationalized through students’ familial habitus and argues that making visible familial habitus provides insights for transforming institutional habitus for students’ reading futures.     

Social class and educational decision-making in a choice-driven education system: a mixed-methods study

Social class differences in educational decision-making form an important explanation for persisting educational inequalities, particularly in choice-driven systems with early tracking. Nevertheless, little is known about the process preceding these choices, especially when school and track choice are interrelated. Building on school choice literature, this study aims to explore how parents from different social backgrounds shape their decision-making process at the transition from primary to secondary education in Flanders (Belgium). To this end, we adopt an explanatory mixed-methods design. Quantitative findings from a parent survey conducted in 36 primary schools were complemented with 32 in-depth interviews with parents. Our findings show two parental profiles regarding educational decision-making, which can be traced back to differences in social and cultural capital. Although effective navigation of the complex field of educational decision-making proved to be strongly class related, parents’ educational and immigrant biographies led to specific approaches, transcending the middle class versus working class binary.     

国际教育和职业发展之关系研究——以中国留英学生为例

国际教育在全球化时代已成为培养二十一世纪人才十分重要之途径。通过与12名接受英国高等教育的博士毕业生个人访谈,分析研究对象之定性、定量数据,发现国际教育有助于积累个人文化资本,其本身包含着明显的象征资本。得出结论：留英经历对中国学生个人事业发展和取得成功起着里程碑的作用;国际教育影响中国高层次人才之培养。