Keeping Up With School: The Parental Practices of Working-Class Fuzhounese Chinese Immigrants in a Midwest Town

• In Event: 41.084 - Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: 41.084-11 - Out-of-School and Civic Lives of Immigrant Students and Their Families

Abstract

This study drew on a three-year ethnographic study conducted in a Midwestern town in the United States and examined how socioeconomic status shaped the cultural logic of the parenting practices of working-class Fuzhounese Chinese immigrants. Analysis revealed that although Fuzhounese parents tried to emulate the conventional parenting practices the school expected of all parents, their socioeconomic class impeded not only their access to cultural capital associated with schooling in the United States but also the cultural practices in which they engaged to support their children’s educational experiences. The study reveals the complexity of Fuzhounese parents’ parenting practices to support their children’s education and also interrupts the cultural deficit model by envisioning how class-disadvantaged immigrant students might access equal educational opportunities.

Author

• Yu-Ling Hsiao, Oklahoma State University-Stillwater