Parent-Child Interaction in Latin American Families: Attention to Strengths and Culturally Appropriate Methods

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Research on developing academic skills in children from non-dominant families often takes a biased approach, contrasting with mainstream children’s cultural values and practices and assuming deficits. In particular, US Latine families and families maintaining connection to their Indigenous practices are often considered “at risk” and needing intervention. Understanding non-dominant families on their own terms is a necessity. This symposium takes a strengths-based approach to understand cultural values and practices in young children’s learning through interactions among Mexican-heritage, US Pan-Latine, and Guatemalan Mayan families.

The first talk explores US Mexican-heritage parents from two schooling groups and European-heritage families sharing a culturally relevant wordless book with their young child. Mexican-heritage parents with less than 12 years of schooling used more decontextualized (beyond the here and now) talk with their children than parents in the other two groups.

The second talk examines US Pan-Latine parents’ mathematics attitudes and math-related talk with their children. Findings revealed variations in families’ beliefs about and uses of mathematics within their everyday lives and correlations between how families use and the importance they place on mathematics.

The third talk considers how collaboration practices have changed in a Guatemalan Mayan community across 30 years as schooling and other Western practices have become more dominant. The same families observed to use sophisticated collaboration 30 years before, now less often engage in collaborative ways, instead sometimes leaving people out or not interacting.

Our discussant, an internationally recognized researcher in the field, will reflect on themes and future directions.

Sub Unit

• Solicited Content: Anti-Bias Research or Interventions

Chair

• Graciela Solis, Loyola University Chicago

Discussant

• Diana Leyva, University of Pittsburgh

Individual Presentations

• Storytelling in Three Communities: Contextualized and Decontextualized Talk - Presenting Author: Graciela Solis, Loyola University Chicago; Non-Presenting Author: Maureen A Callanan, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Las matemáticas son primordiales: Everyday Mathematics in the Homes of Latine Families with Young Children - Presenting Author: Margaret Caspe, National Association for Family, School, and Community Engagement; Non-Presenting Author: Gigliana Melzi, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Nydia Prishker, St. Thomas Aquinas College; Non-Presenting Author: Catalina Alvarado, Universiteit Leiden

• Transformations in Collaboration Across a Generation in a Mayan Community - Presenting Author: Itzel Aceves-Azuara, California State University - Sacramento; Non-Presenting Author: Barbara Rogoff, University of California - Santa Cruz