Stay or Go Back? An Exploratory Study on the Educational Decision Making of Chinese Visitant Parents

• In Event: Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Confucianism and Taoism: Learning to Read and Learning to Be

Abstract

The current study investigated Chinese visitant parents’ choices of schools for their children. Through semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis we found Chinese visitant parents had six distinct factors of parent decision making for child education: child performance (learning trajectories across cultural contexts), child characteristics, parent perception of education, parent beliefs in education, parent expectation on child, and parent working chance. Among all the factors, child performance and parent perception of education were crucial. A model of parent decision making for child education was illustrated too. The researcher identified that Chinese parents’ choices were related to traditional Chinese culture or Confucianism that education of next generation had priority over all other needs of the family.

Authors

• Haiping Hao, Texas A&M University

• Patricia J. Larke, Texas A&M University

• Song An, The University of Texas - El Paso