Tuesday, November 5th, 2024
12:30 pm – 2 pm, at PCN 2012
6445 University Blvd, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
Presenter: Jiin Yoo
Abstract:
Imagine moving to a new country with the hope of securing a brighter future for your children, only to face completely different, unfamiliar educational systems, policies, and schooling practices. For immigrant parents in Canada, the dream of better education often comes with the daunting reality of navigating and adapting to complex educational systems, all while dealing with other tasks such as settling in and securing employment. Schools are often the first touchpoint for immigrant parents with Canadian systems where they endeavour to learn how to support their children’s education and (re)build social networks. Yet, despite their strong desire for inclusion in Canadian education, immigrant parents, including myself, often experience isolation and a profound lack of systematic support.
Immigrant parents face numerous challenges. Language barriers and unfamiliar schooling practices, such as grading, counseling, volunteering, PTA participation, selecting courses and extracurricular activities, and college applications, are frequently reported. Additionally, there are mismatched perceptions between schools and parents regarding roles of teachers/parents and parental engagement, as well as a lack of effective communication channels with schools. Furthermore, the knowledge and cultural capital that immigrant parents bring from their home countries are largely unrecognized and devalued. On top of this, immigrant parents often encounter biases and racialized attitudes from teachers, school staff, or other parents due to their backgrounds. Despite these obstacles, they continuously strive to support their children. How do they manage? This is not well understood.
My research aims to delve into the learning journeys of immigrant parents from non-Western countries, concentrating on their strategies and efforts to support their children’s education through their enduring struggles within the Canadian context. I focus on parents with secondary school children in a critical developmental stage, where distinct parental support and engagement strategies are crucial, particularly for college and career preparation. Employing sociocultural learning theories, especially Holland and Lave’s ‘history in person’ and ‘enduring struggles,’ my research investigates how immigrants’ parenting practices for educational support are culturally, socially, economically, and historically shaped within and beyond school and home boundaries across local and transnational contexts. To that end, life history research as a methodology will help capture a deep, contextualized understanding of immigrant parents’ experiences across multiple spaces and times.
Through this research, I hope to envision systematic interventions that could promote immigrant parents’ support for their children’s education, which I believe would ultimately aid the enhanced and equitable integration of immigrant families into Canadian society.