Poster #85 - Parental Engagement in Children’s Kindergarten Transition

• In Event: 1-005 - Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Section - Education, Schooling

Integrative Statement

The official relationship between teachers and parents begins as children transition into kindergarten. Much of the research on parental engagement focuses on “school-centric” activities such as parent-teacher meetings, open houses, and attendance at school events. However, parental engagement also takes place outside the school walls. An extended “parent-centric” understanding proposes that parents create invisible and informal learning opportunities for their children out of school (Kong, 2016). Therefore, the aim of the current study is to investigate how parents understand and describe their engagement in their children’s transition into kindergarten.

This study was conducted in the Lehigh Valley area in Pennsylvania. The Lehigh Valley is home to a growing immigrant population that poses some challenges for local area school districts (Scott, 2016). The Asian and Latino populations rose 15% between 2010 and 2015 (US Census Bureau, 2015). Most immigrant families are often non-English speakers, which creates linguistic and cultural barriers to parental engagement in their children’s schooling (Turney & Kao, 2009). To achieve an in-depth understanding of parental engagement, we conducted a qualitative study including multiple forms of data: document analysis related to parental engagement policies and procedures, participant observation at school and community events to observe interactions between parents and school and community members, and in-depth interviews with parents, teachers, and community members.

The major component of the study was interviews with parents. We conducted in-depth interviews with 31 parents about kindergarten transition for their children. Parents represent diverse backgrounds including Chinese, El Salvadorian, Peruvian, Guatemalan and American. Parents participated in two semi-structured individual interviews on two separate occasions. Interviews were collected in parents’ preferred language (i.e. English, Mandarin, and Spanish). Each interview lasted approximately 60 to 90 minutes.

The current study suggests that national, state and school policies shape parental understanding of their children’s schooling environment and how they as parents can engage with schools to support their children’s learning. At the national level, recent changes in immigration policy and the climate towards immigrant families have changed how parents are willing to be visible in public and in schools. For example, immigrant parents who do not have a local address or legal documents face challenges in registering children in local kindergartens. These parents learn to navigate the kindergarten registration system, with limited language proficiency. At the state level, a major concern is that children with special needs receive inconsistent support from state to state. Parents expressed concern that their children do not get adequate and consistent support when they family moves from state to state within the United States. At the school level, school policies sometimes contradict cultural practices. For example, in Chinese culture, eating a hot meal is essential to children’s development, but American schools do not have the capacity to heat-up student lunches, which raises health concerns for Chinese parents. Many working parents report that the timing of parent-teacher conferences often conflicts with their work schedule, which limits their participation in school events. This study provides a deep understanding of how policies limit and shape parental engagement in their children’s transition to kindergarten.

Authors

• Xiaoran Yu, Lehigh University
  Presenting Author

• Peggy Kong, Lehigh University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Xinwei Zhang, Lehigh University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anuradha Sachdev, East Stroudsburg University
  Non-Presenting Author