A study of 308 Dominican, Cambodian and Portuguese parents found a low level of parental involvement in their children's education due to several factors, including discomfort with the English language, cultural conceptions of the role of teachers and parents, and lack of familiarity with the system.
A lack of participation by immigrant parents in their children’s education should not be interpreted as lack of interest, according to a new Brown study.
Often a source of frustration for school officials, low parental involvement is more specific to parents’ discomfort with the English language, lack of familiarity with the educational system and cultural conception of the role of teachers and parents than it is to the value they place on education.
"It’s not that the parents don’t care," said Cynthia Garcia Coll, study author, professor of education, psychology and pediatrics, and the Mittleman Family Director of Brown’s Center for the Study of Human Development. "It is not a matter of having the right values. It is a matter of having the right tools and understanding you have an important role in your children’s education."
Programs designed to improve parents’ English language skills and further parents’ overall education level and therefore their familiarity with the U.S. educational system may improve school involvement, according to Garcia Coll.
The study included 308 Dominican, Cambodian, and Portuguese parents from Providence and East Providence, whose children were between the ages of 6 and 12.
The findings confirmed anecdotal complaints about parents’ lack of "interest" in their children’s education typically heard in urban school districts, she said.
Local immigrant parents overall reported a relatively low level of involvement in such a range of educational participation as conferences with teachers, setting rules about when to be home after school, and establishing a place in the house for homework.
In all instances, Cambodian parents reported less involvement with their children’s education than both Dominican and Portuguese parents, who reported similar levels of overall involvement. Cambodians also reported the fewest educational resources in the home among the three immigrant groups, including computers and designated homework areas.
Pre-immigration experiences with literacy and formal schooling, and aspects of the receiving communities all influenced the ethnic differences, said Garcia Coll.
The Portuguese have been part of the immigration wave to this part of the country since the 1800s and have a well-established community, and the Dominicans, who, although a more recent migration, was welcomed by a well-established Latino community that eased their entry and adaptation to this culture.
In comparison to the Portuguese and Dominican communities, the Cambodian community is less established economically and politically, and no one else speaks their language. Many are illiterate not only in English but also in Khmer. Cambodians reported the lowest level of maternal education — at five years — compared to 10 years for Portuguese, and 11 years for Dominicans.
The Portuguese parents studied, perhaps reflecting their longer years in the U.S., were more comfortable in their overall use of English, followed by Dominicans and Cambodians. The Portuguese parents tended to speak English their children, while Dominicans and Cambodians tended to use their native language.
Cambodian parents who were more educated and more comfortable with English tended to be more engaged in their children’s education than their less-educated and less-fluent English speaking counterparts.
Despite a low level of participation reported in the study, a majority of parents said they had high aspirations for their children’s futures and recognized the importance of education. "These are not families with impoverished family values or lack of interest in their children’s education," said Garcia Coll.
But cultural factors must be taken into account, she added. Traditional Cambodian culture believes that children’s teachers should never be questioned. The teachers are viewed as having all the control and power to make decisions on a child’s behalf.
Asking Cambodians to take an active role in the system is "asking them to do something that is completely out of their life experiences," said Garcia Coll.
In most school reform efforts, parental involvement is seen as a key issue, according to Garcia Coll. Particularly at the elementary level, parental involvement is critical.
"Bridging home and school is something we need to deal with," said Garcia Coll.
"This is a miscommunication between a system and an immigrant group."
The study was supported by MacArthur Foundation Network on Successful Pathways Through Middle Childhood, and the Mittleman Family Directorship at the Center for the Study of Human Development at Brown.
It is part of a larger five-year research project to assess children's ethnic and racial identity as well as their engagement in schools, in the context of classrooms and families. The next step will be to relate the data to the actual school achievement of the children.
Garcia Coll collaborated on the study with several other researchers in the Center for the Study of Human Development including Benjamin Bailey, John Modell, Dais Akiba, Lisa DiMartino, and Rebecca Silver, and undergraduate students Cindy Chin, Natalia Palacios, and Sheila Rodriguez.