Immigrant Parent Advocacy: Toward Social Justice and Equity in the Education Policy for English Learners

• In Event: Space, Scale and System Learning and Outcomes

Proposal

Relevance: In the context of Canada’s reliance on immigration for social and economic development, an effective language policy for migrant students is essential for educational systems. However, existing language policy research puts little emphasis on parental agency, particularly immigrant parents. This study therefore explores how immigrant parents advocated for more equitable policies and practices for English Learners (ELs) in Alberta, Canada.
Theoretical Framework: This study was informed by critical language policy (CLP) theory. From CLP perspective, this study examined how and to what extent language policy responds to social pressures while also serving as “an officially mandated set of rules for language use and form within a nation-state” intended to shape citizens (Spolsky, 2012, p. 3). By definition educational policies in democratic systems are heteroglossic (Ball, 2005): mediated, interpreted and used, in highly variable and local ways by institutions and communities. The study takes policy as discursive practice and examines how policy is experienced and constructed locally by parents (Dagenais, 2013). It focuses on eight components of ELs policy: visibility, designation of responsibility, eligibility, duration, placement, programming, assessment and reporting, and funding (Kouritzin, 2013).
Parent and Community Advocacy: The capacity of ELs parents is framed in deficit-oriented narratives (Cummins, 2003). However, parental agency exists in relation to how local communities resist the premise of language policies and dominant ideologies to challenge educational inequities (Tollefson, 2013). For example, Januario (2003) documented how hundreds of Portuguese parents in Toronto mobilized in the early 1980s to form a very vocal association to advocate against the academic underachievement of their children and for the integration of their language into the school system. As a result of their advocacy, the local board of education introduced several multicultural and anti-racist policies as well as heritage language programs in a number of city schools (Dehli, 1996).
Method and Data Source: Data for this study were collected through policy documentation,
interviews with 35 immigrant parents and community members as well as two focus group discussions involving parents and policymakers. The parents came from 17 countries including China, Chile, Ethiopia, Ghana, Grenada, India, Iran, Lebanon, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippine, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, St. Kitts, Sudan, and Tanzania.
Findings: Results revealed that from the parents’ perspectives, there were systemic inequities of language policies that disadvantage ELs, including ELs funding reduction, the lack of accountability, inadequate ELs programming, and Eurocentric curricula. These inequities resulted in high dropout rates of ELs. Given the above policy inequities, many parents reported intervening on behalf of their children by adopting two important of forms of strategies to advocate for better ELs programs and curriculum, including a) organized forms of advocacy based on formal, large scale alliances and networks; b) everyday forms of advocacy constituting of more subtle, individual critiques about unjust policies and practices within the school system.
Organized forms of advocacy included knowledge building about ELs through attending workshops offered by immigrant serving organizations. The way many of these workshops combined “personal development and knowledge building” proved effective for ELs parents to learn about ELs programs and simultaneously engage in advocacy work (Warren et al., 2009, p. 2233). Along with workshops, parents also adopted role playing as another way for successful advocacy. This strategy was particularly useful in preparing parent bodies to present their concerns in an organized manner to school and government officials. Based on their shared concerns, parents were able to create a sense of “collective agency” by being immensely interactive, coordinated and synergistic in their organizing and planning (Bandura, 2001).
Another strategy that parents thought was equally effective in advocating for better ELs policies was the collaboration that many of them forged with various community organizations interested in ELs issues. Many parents were eager to voice their concerns about the EL systemic inequities. Thus, parents in collaboration with community organizations arranged protests in front of the local school board after the board reduced the EL program, and made presentations to the school board. According to the participants, such collaboration was successful in drawing attention of the Ministers and school officials to the needs and demands of ELs and parents.
Apart from the formal and macro advocacy strategies that many parents undertook, there were also several examples of individualized, agentic steps that parents exercised. Scott’s (1985) conceptualization of “everyday forms of resistance” is instrumental in this context. Scott highlighted how the small, seemingly trivial daily acts can equally undermine the oppressive power structures vis-à-vis the large-scale protest movements. Scott’s conceptualization complements other collective action theories by expanding them to include those commonplace forms of struggle that do not always require much coordination and arise out of peoples lived experiences (Maitra, 2015). In our research, one such commonplace act consisted of ‘critique’ as many parents shared how they would often take individual initiatives to express their dissatisfaction with the ELs placements, the funding system, and the reporting and assessment system to the teachers and the school authorities.
Through their advocacy, parents were effective in maintaining an assertive, visible presence in front of provincial Ministries and in facilitating dialogues between various stakeholders. They successfully lobbied the Alberta government to secure funding for Canadian-born and kindergarten ELs, and additional funding for refugee children. Like other communities (Januario, 2003), the parents have been instrumental in challenging the marginalization of ELs.
Scholarly Significance: The educational success of immigrant children is pivotal for their social and economic contributions; this success will, in turn, impact upon Canada’s future (Willms, 2010). For ELs and families– educational policies matter, shaping the resources and programs that they encounter in their everyday educational experiences. The study analyzes how parental advocacy groups informed educational change for new Canadians in public schools. The study thus brings new voices of ELs parents into the educational policy process and challenges the deficit perspective that school officials often hold against ELs parents. Results of this research will provide directions for ELs policies, programs and services, as well as new insights into the effectiveness of advocacy and capacity building of ELs parents, thus of knowledge mobilization processes (Levin, 2013).

Author

• Yan Guo, University of Calgary