Event

Social Class or Social Context? The Case of Mexican Immigrant Parenting in the United States

12-1 pm

PSTC Seminar Room 205

David Enrique Rangel, Assistant Professor, Brown University

Numerous studies have pointed to social class as the primary driver of parents' educational practices (Lareau 2003; Calarco 2018). However, this focus on social class may delimit our understanding of contextual influences on parenting. Drawing on interview data from working-class and poor Mexican-immigrant parents with elementary-aged children in San Antonio, Texas, and Phoenix, Arizona, this paper examines the relative salience of social class on parenting practices and beliefs.  Interview data highlightings how contextual factors such as legal status, hostile social contexts, and language (in)accessibility shape parents' interactions with schools, teachers, and their children, above and beyond other factors such as social class.

Dr. Rangel joined Brown University and the PSTC in 2016. Broadly, he uses sociological perspectives to understand processes that generate social inequality, with emphasis on the Latino experience in the United States. His current work uses social capital theory and mixed methods research to study how school-based parental social relationships develop in the school community and the effects of these relationships on children’s early educational outcomes.

His research has been funded by fellowships from Ford Foundation and by training grants from the National Institutes for Health and the Institute of Education Sciences.