Mexican Immigrant Parents' Perceptions of Climate at a New Language-Immersion Charter School

• In Event: Interrogating the Climate of Diverse, Multilingual Schools: Views From Students, Parents, Teachers, and Administrators

Abstract

Objectives
Ensuring that schools operate at high standards includes developing strong relationships with underrepresented and marginalized parents (Thapa et al., 2013). Unfortunately, schools desiring to improve their climate typically consider “parent involvement” as a one-way relationship (school→parents), employing deficit-driven models (Calabrese Barton, Drake, Perez, St. Louis, & George, 2004; Lareau & Horvat, 1999). We join scholars who criticize these approaches (Baquedano-López et al., 2013) and analyze the perceptions and challenges of Mexican immigrant parents whose children attended a one-way, Spanish immersion school (SIES, described above). Our research questions were: How did parents view SIES’ school climate? How did Spanish-speaking parents, in particular, navigate this climate? What were their experiences?

Theoretical Framework
We draw from Ecologies of Parental Engagement (EPE), a system-wide and culturally-affirming framework for parent engagement (Calabrese Barton, et al., 2004). Following “disruptive” methodology (Brown, Kuby, & Carducci, 2014), we merged EPE with Foucault’s concepts of power (Foucault, 2001), to provide depth and clarity to participants’ perspectives. While EPE focuses on the system-wide processes whereby parents’ networks, spaces, and capitals permit them to navigate and understand schooling, Foucault suggests an analysis of power at the institutional and individual levels, heightening how it discursively shapes day-to-day interactions.

Methods
Recognizing that a school-climate survey in 2012 did not reach all families, we worked in partnership with SIES to administer a translated survey in 2013 to 27 Spanish-speaking families. The survey included open-ended and Likert-scaled questions. We received 19 responses (75%). Our analytical approach was to “think with theory” (Jackson & Mazzei, 2012), where EPE, in conversation with Foucault, permitted us to represent the voices of participants traditionally marginalized by educators and underrepresented in research.

Results and Implications
Preliminary analyses demonstrate that respondents believed in SIES’ mission, but felt that the school lacked organizational capacity; ironically, many blamed themselves for the communication barriers that they navigated.
• 75% of parents felt welcomed by the school; nearly half of respondents most valued “that they speak various languages” at SIES.
• “For the most part, the personnel at the school does not know what they’re doing. . . .”
• Despite SIES being a school that immersed children in Spanish 80-100% from K-5, with native Spanish-speaking teachers, 20% of parents felt their English was “weak” and thereby produced a barrier between them and the school.

Utilizing Foucault’s relational power as one that influences individuals’ actions and attitudes, we found parents felt discouraged in SIES’ climate, but some blamed this on their own (lack of) language or ability to be involved. This is disheartening: how are parents to exercise their relational power when they see language as a deterrent to engagement, even in a school where the immersion language is (close to) their own? This dual language school was not bridging the gap between the (hegemonic) English society and Mexican immigrants (Valdés, 1997). Discussion will consider how to push the boundaries of school climate research and parent engagement projects at diverse, multilingual schools.

Author

• David Aguayo, University of Missouri - Columbia