Toward Social Justice and Equity in Education Policy for Immigrant Children: Immigrant Parent Mobilization

• In Event: Integration and migration

Proposal

Relevance: The number of English Language Learners (ELL) students in Canadian schools is growing rapidly. In Alberta, for example, there were 79,981 ELL students in 2018, representing over 25% of the student population. In this new demographic and cultural reality, effective ELL policies for educationally supportive services and programs are imperative.
This paper, based on our current Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funded research, explores how immigrant parents mobilize their knowledge and deploy different strategies to advocate for higher quality and more equitable ELL policies and practices in a Western city in Canada. The originality of this study lies in the proposed design which encompasses the critical dimensions of language policy from the immigrant parents’ point of view. Our focus on immigrant parents is important in light of the knowledge gaps in the literature of language policy research that puts little emphasis on parental agency. The capacity of ELL parents is framed in deficit-oriented narratives (Cummins, 2003). They are silenced and excluded from school decision-making processes whereas white, middle-class parents are usually more strategic in intervening in their children’s schools (Lareau, 2003). This paper contributes to one of the four pillars of sustainability: inclusive social development.

Theory: Traditional research on language-in-education policy emphasizes technical aspects of linguistic corpus and status as they relate to school programs and interventions. It treats policy as static texts and implementation as a linear instantiation of authorial intentions. In contrast, this study, based on a critical policy sociology approach (Ball, 1997), takes policy as discursive practice and examines how policy is experienced and constructed locally by parents (Dagenais, 2013). Furthermore, the paper employs the conceptual framework of feminist agency, to explore how parents’ negotiation with policy initiatives can take different agentic forms such as critique or alliance (Maitra, 2015). The analysis focuses on eight components of ELL policy: visibility, designation of responsibility, eligibility, duration, placement, programming, assessment and reporting, and funding (Kouritzin, 2013).

Methods/Data source: The findings in this paper are based on individual interviews with 25 parents from 17 countries including China, Chile, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, India, Iran, Lebanon, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippine, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, St. Kitts, Sudan, and Tanzania. Parents discussed their perceptions of their children’s experiences of ELL education and how they strategize and mobilize to influence ELL policies and practices. Two focus groups were also conducted with parents and policy makers at the school board level where they were invited to share their knowledge, advocacy strategies as well as policy recommendations. In addition, policy documentation were collected from government websites, departments, school districts, and media. Of particular interest were new ELL policy documents, minutes from school board meetings, implementation guidelines, types of programs, and media articles.

Results: Results reveal that from the parents’ perspectives, there are systemic inequities, including ELL funding reduction, the lack of accountability, the replacement of qualified ELL teachers with assistants, and inadequate ELL programming. These inequities result in high dropout rates of ELL students and the creation of a permanent underclass.
Parents utilized a range of strategies to influence policy. First, they formed coalitions and collaborated with community organizations. Many parents felt that community organizations needed to connect more to ELL parents to organize them so that together they can raise awareness about the perceived inadequacies of ELL policies and services in the city along with the demeaning treatment of their children. This strategy was seen by parents as also an effective way of breaking the stereotypical assumptions that exist within the school system about how ELL parents are disengaged from their children’s education and lack interest in participating in the school system. Second, parents, in partnership with community organizations prepared workshops to develop leadership and create awareness among those parents who were new to the country or did not have English language proficiency. These public education forums were useful in making newcomer parents understand how the ELL programs (there are many different ELL programs in the city) work in schools and how parents can participate into their children’s school system. Third, on an individual level, many parents took initiatives to understand the ELL programs, went and met teachers and administrators to raise concerns about the programs, encouraged each other to advocate for equitable ELL policies, and accompanied each other to meetings and other community forums to mobilize advocacy.

Contribution: The study brings new voices of ELL parents into the educational policy process. Results of this research will provide directions for ELL policies, programs and services, as well as new insights into the effectiveness of advocacy and capacity building of ELL parents.

Authors

• Xiaoli Liu, University of Calgary

• Yan Guo, University of Calgary

• Shibao Guo, University of Calgary