Parental Imagined Community Affiliations and the Pursuit of Mandarin Chinese Language Acquisition

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Race, Class, and Colonialism in U.S. Educational Contexts

Abstract

Few studies have focused on the exclusionary private dual language immersion schools of the elite. This interview study explores the factors contributing to parents’ decisions to enroll their children in one Mandarin immersion school in the northeastern United States. By investigating parents’ personal histories, identities, and hopes and dreams for their children’s futures, this study sought to explore these parents’ actual imagined community affiliations and the value discourses put forth by Valdez et al. (2016). Parents most frequently report investing in Mandarin language acquisition as a form of global human capital (GHC) to benefit their imagined communities. Analysis centers on the access and privilege afforded to these parents and their perceived contributions to GHC. Equity implications are discussed.

Author

• Kayla Sorin, Rutgers University - New Brunswick