Cultural meaning of education and parents' involvement in education: Perspectives of immigrant Latinos

• Published date: 01 February 2024
• Author: Aosai Liu,Mikayla Heath,Joseph G. Grzywacz
• Date: 01 February 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12940

RESEARCH

Cultural meaning of education and parents’involvement

in education: Perspectives of immigrant Latinos

AosaiLiu| MikaylaHeath | JosephG.Grzywacz

Department of Human Development &

Family Science, Florida State University,

Tallahassee, FL, USA

Correspondence

Aosai Liu, Department of Human

Development & Family Studies, University of

Wisconsin–Madison, 1300 Linden Drive,

Madison, WI 53706, USA.

Email: aliu237@wisc.edu

Abstract

Objective: This qualitative research describes how low-

education, largely undocumented immigrant Latino par-

ents understand and engage in their children’s education in

the United States.

Background: Education has a dual meaning in Latin America,

emphasizing children’s moral and academic development. It is

unclear if this cultural model shapes how immigrant parents

navigate the U.S. educational system with their children.

Method: In-depth interviews were completed with low-

education, largely undocumented immigrant Latino par-

ents (N=16). The narrative data were analyzed using a

consensual method.

Findings.: Analyses resulted in a conceptual model with three

primary themes: Latino parents’bidimensional definition of

education (i.e., moral and book smarts), unfamiliarity with

education (i.e., the lack of educational experience and desire

for generational improvement with education), and educa-

tional responsibilities (i.e., a division of labor between parents

and teachers).

Conclusions: The developed model suggests that low-

education immigrant Latino parents are involved in children’s

education in various ways related to their cultural capital, per-

sonal experience, and view of school as a “general black box.”

Implications.: Eliminating the education gap among Latino

youth whose parents are undocumented or have limited edu-

cational attainment requires acknowledging that “parental

involvement”has diverse cultural meanings. Outreach pro-

grams based on the proposed model may create more pro-

ductive partnerships between parents and schools.

Author note: A. Liu is currently affiliated with the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Wisconsin–

Madison

Received: 2 October 2022Revised: 5 March 2023Accepted: 5 June 2023

DOI: 10.1111/fare.12940

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use,

distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.

© 2023 The Authors. Family Relations published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Council on Family Relations.

262 Family Relations. 2024;73:262–281.

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare

KEYWORDS

community cultural wealth, consensual qualitative research, education,

immigrant, Latino, parental involvement, parenting

The rapidly growing Latino

1

youth population experiences disproportionately poor educational

outcomes in the United States. Latino students have historically had the highest school dropout

rates, lowest college enrollment/completion rates, and longest completion time (G

andara &

Mordechay, 2017; Gibson & Bejinez, 2002). Recent data indicate promising improvements in

the past decade, such as the record low Hispanic dropout and growing college enrollment rates;

nevertheless, Latinos remain the most educationally disadvantaged ethnic group in the

United States (U.S. Census Bureau, 2022).

Cultural misalignment is one possible factor underlying Latino students’poor educational

outcomes (Durand, 2011). The misalignment begins with an often-unspoken expectation on the

part of the U.S. educational system, which is that parental engagement in specific activities such

as monitoring children’s homework and participation in student advocacy (e.g., membership in

local parent–teacher associations) is the key ingredient for student success (Holloway

et al., 2014). By contrast, in Mexican and Central American schools, especially rural schools,

children’s diligence in the classroom under strong teachers is considered the key ingredient to

student success (Durand, 2011). Misalignments such as these impede student success, frustrate

teachers and school personnel, and may contribute to stereotypes of Latino parents being uni-

nvolved in their children’s education (Grace & Gerdes, 2019; Marrun, 2020).

Aligning the cultural models of education implicit in the U.S. educational system and those

of immigrants may offer promise for attenuating, or perhaps eliminating, the educational gaps

experienced by Latino children (Grace & Gerdes, 2019). A critical first step in aligning the

models is documenting Latino parents’beliefs about their children’s education in the

United States and how they understand the responsibilities of parents and school personnel in

their children’s educational success (Grace & Gerdes, 2019). Although previous quantitative

studies offered some insight (Cox, 2017; Walker et al., 2011), qualitative methods are better

equipped to provide detailed descriptions of parents’meaning-making surrounding their chil-

dren’s schooling. Such data can be used to create an empirically based model to help educators

and administrators design culturally competent outreach strategies that benefit all students

(Holloway et al., 2014).

Therefore, this qualitative investigation aims to record low-education immigrant Latino

parents’attitudes and beliefs about education as well as their self-imposed responsibilities and

those of teachers to ensure children’s educational success. Honoring the beliefs and values of

immigrant Latino parents will allow the U.S. educational system to better support the success

of Latino children, who comprise the fastest growing population segment in the United States

(Darder & Torres, 2014).

EMPIRICAL AND THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS

Latinos have been the largest ethnic minority group in the United States across the 21st century.

The most recent U.S. Census Bureau (2021) data showed an increase in the Hispanic or Latino

population from 50.5 million (16.3% of the total U.S. population) in 2010 to 62.1 million

(18.7%) in 2020, accounting for more than half of the total population growth in the 2010s

1

We deliberately used “Latino”throughout the current research to represent Spanish-speaking people who self-identified with the Latino

ethnicity. We avoided using gender-specific descriptions (e.g., Latino or Latina) and gender-neutral pronouns (e.g., Latinx) to remain

inclusive to our target population as our sample included the general Latino parent population who may not feel comfortable being

identified as nonbinary or other popular pronounce in the following generations (Pew Research Center , 2020).

LATINO CULTURAL MEANING OF EDUCATION AND PARENTING263