Immigrant Punjabi Sikh Mothers’ Engagement in Their Children’s Schooling

• In Event: Exploring South Asian Experiences in North America: Negotiating Multiple Identities Across Educational Spaces

Abstract

In this study, I focus on the Punjabi Sikh population in California, which is the oldest and largest South Asian group in the United States (La Brack, 1988). The main research questions that guide this study are: (1) what are immigrant Punjabi Sikh mothers’ lived experiences in California around gender/familial dynamics, race relations, class consciousness, and occupational opportunities across three-major waves of contemporary South Asian immigration (1965-1983; 1984-1994; 1995-2000); (2) how do these experiences influence their attitudes and beliefs towards education; and (3) in what ways do these perceptions influence immigrant Punjabi Sikh mothers’ child socialization practices around schooling.

The paper draws from the perspectives of women’s agency, Sikh’s experiences in education, immigrant parental engagement, and immigration patterns in the United
States (Bhachu’s 1986, 1988, 1991 & 1995; Barton et al., 2004; Gibson, 1998; Hall, 2001; López, 2001; and Suárez-Orozco et. al, 2008). Bhachu’s work on immigrant Punjabi Sikh women in Great Britain highlights their different agentic practices that challenge notions of immigrant women’s “victimhood” and “dependency”. I would like to highlight how these agentic practices influence immigrant Punjabi Sikh women’s engagement in their children’s schooling in California. A particular focus will be given to practices that challenge traditional notions of parental engagement (Lopez, 2001). As children of immigrants become the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population it is imperative to understand immigrant mothers’ socialization practices around the importance of schooling.

This qualitative study draws on eighteen ethnographic interviews of immigrant Punjabi Sikh mothers and their children living in California across class and educational levels. Data sources include transcribed interviews and field notes of each interview. The information was coded around the themes of agency, parental engagement, and value of education. Coded information was then analyzed using a constant-comparative method to create a grounded theory (Erickson, 1998 & LeCompte, 1999).

The results from the study highlighted three major themes: 1) attainment of higher education is a familial goal and not an individual achievement. A child’s educational achievements determine the “success” of parental migration; 2) immigrant Punjabi Sikh mother’s display of agency to overcome life obstacles from, for example, language use, domestic violence, and job-search, become lessons and sources of motivation for their children to attain a higher education; and 3) mothers’ believe that a formal education is another tool in their child’s toolkit for managing their life journey in social, spiritual, and economic terms. It is through this journey that one becomes a “well-educated” individual.

The scholarly significance of this study is that other research projects have addressed immigrant Punjabi Sikh families’ engagement in their children’s schooling (Gibson, 1988 & Hall, 2002), but none have focused on the specific relationship between immigrant mothers and their children. It is important to understand the dynamics of the mother-child relationship to understand how educational socialization occurs within maternal caretaking. Through this knowledge schools and community-based organizations can better understand how to address South Asian educational concerns.

Author

• Ravneet Kaur Tiwana, First 5 Santa Clara County