Immigrant Parents’ Learning in Multi-Ethnic Settings: A Network Approach

• In Event: Learning "In-Between" Cultural Worlds: An Immigrant Perspective on Education

Abstract

This paper examines how the learning of immigrant parents is reflected both in the nature of their networks as well as in their movements through the multiple cultural worlds they find themselves in. Instead of looking how well migrant adapt or incorporate western values, based on notions of globalization (Appadurai, 1996) and the idea of the contact zone (Pratt, 1991), I have examined, how migrant parents redefine their culturally informed practices, focussing both on processes of continuity and change. There is a growing body of evidence that shows how immigrant parents use multiple cultural heritages to reshape their educational practices and to cope with their new environment (Bacallao & Smokowski, 2007; Perreira, Chapman & Stein, 2006; Reese, 2002; Roer-Strier et al., 2005) while they continuously negotiate multiple cultural values and eventually create new ones (Erel, 2010). In addition, there is evidence that the nature of their social networks play a crucial role in how they reshape their practices. Using Putnam’s notion of bonding and bridging capital, this study examines if and how bonding and bridging networks are able to recreate their practices in different ways.

Author

• Marije Koeman, Utrecht University