Institutional Pressures and their Effects on Three High School Immigrant Girls’ Success in Mathematics

• In Event: Investigating institutions: immigrants, experiences, and “cultural diversity”

Proposal

Objectives

Immigrant students are faced with various challenges and equipped with unique strengths when enrolled in a new school. This study explores how three female immigrant students achieved mathematically compared to expectations for success. The study identifies some indicators for future success (i.e.: SES, language proficiency, educational background, familial support) and evaluates each student’s propensity for success. For the purposes of this study, the author, through observations in high school mathematics classrooms, identifies indicators of future success. Current research has not explored the relationship between these factors for immigrant students in this way. Then, through an analysis of each girl’s situation, certain factors are shown to be more influential on student success in mathematics. More specifically, this study raises awareness that traditional ways of identifying success for non-dominant students, like immigrants, may be less accurate when certain institutional factors are considered. Some institutional factors that impact some immigrant students are family separation and reunification, parental misunderstanding of the new educational system and expectations, and financial difficulties.


Theoretical Framework and Research Background

Two large studies explored immigrants’ educational attainment. Regardless of the racial/ethnic background of immigrants, parental expectations and father’s education are strongly correlated to post-secondary education. Additionally, immigration status has an effect on and coming from Hispanic countries has a negative effect on educational attainment (Vernez & Abrahamse, 1996). Immigrants “have lower levels of educational attainment than the U.S. population as a whole and that traditional-age immigrants are less likely to be enrolled in college than their native-born peers” (Erisman & Looney, 2007, p. 38). While both reports highlight many of the challenges immigrants face in obtaining higher education, it does not speak closely about the experiences of high school immigrants, specifically in mathematics classes. Both studies call for more research on how to better prepare high school aged immigrant students for higher levels of educational attainment.
This case study uses a sociocultural perspective to understand why three female immigrant students are, or are not, successful in high school mathematics courses as it relates to their home life and institutional structures and supports. By understanding the familial experiences students bring to the classroom, we can see how their progress is affected, if at all. The purpose of this case study is to identify how female immigrant indicators of success influence student performance and motivation in high school mathematics classrooms. This study specifically addresses the following questions:
• How do “indicators of success” relate to mathematics success for these female immigrant students?
• In what ways do indicators influence mathematics success for these three students?
• How do social and institutional factors contribute to or hinder mathematics success for immigrant students?


Methods

This study used a qualitative research design to investigate the research questions by conducting a series of interviews to capture a rich description of students’ educational experiences. The interviews began with participants answering questions related to their prior experiences in school (both in their home countries and in middle school, if applicable) as well as their experiences in their mathematics class. Questions centered on classroom interactions, understanding the math content, and external factors that influence success in mathematics. Participants were asked to detail the schools and personal experiences in their home countries. Participants then described their familial structure in the U.S. and discussed challenges with focusing on mathematics. The researcher audio recorded, transcribed, and coded each interview with a colleague.


Results

Analysis was initially done to evaluate indicators of academic success for each participant. Participants were scored across the aforementioned indicators and scores were then calculated to identify potential for academic success. Then participants’ responses about how “good” they are at mathematics as well as their overall performance (i.e.: did they fail a math class, confidence in mathematics, personal motivation for educational attainment) was compared to their indicator score. For these students, indicators of success were not directly related to mathematical success. This led to an analysis of the social and institutional factors that affect each of these students. The student with the fewest institutional effects as an immigrant had the most success academically, even though she had the least confidence in her abilities. The student who was affected most by family separation and reunification, as well as financial pressures at home, unfortunately, was unable to finish high school. The third participant had shifting familial stability and her academic success increased as her home situation stabilized. These results show that traditional indicators of success do not show the complete picture of how immigrant students will perform in school. This study is highly contextual and at this stage is not generalizable to large populations of immigrant students. It does, however, bring up issues of creating equity within mathematics classrooms for all students, regardless of their learning environment.


Significance

The results are significant because they confirm the complexity of immigrant students’ experiences. It also highlights how difficult it is to anticipate how certain students from varying backgrounds will perform in the mathematics classroom. The results, however, do begin to indicate additional motivators for mathematical success for students who might initially been pegged for academic failure. This study has identified areas for future research across large-scale mathematics assessments to see in what ways indicators of success are related to immigrant student performance.

Author

• Amanda E. Lowry, Rutgers University