Choice With(out) Equity? Family Decisions of Child Return to Urban Schools in Pandemic

In response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, most schools across the country closed in-person instruction for a period of time and many shifted to online schooling. Beginning in fall 2020, schools around the United States began reopening and many districts offered families a decision or “choice” to return their children to an in-person or online schooling experience. In many cities, this approach complicated existing school choice and permanent closure policies with already existing equity issues. Building upon previous scholarship on school choice and closure, this study draws on the concept of school choice with(out) equity (Frankenberg et al., 2010; Scott & Stuart Wells, 2013; Horsford et al., 2019). Using data from an online survey (n = 155 participants) in August 2020, this study examines why families (50% white, 50% people of color) decided to return their children to in-person schooling in Hartford, Connecticut. This study uses a mixed-method analysis of qualitative responses and quantitative data to understand family decisions to return to in-person schooling (Creswell, 2014). Rather than school choices with full equity considerations during the pandemic, these family responses focused on needs of childcare for full-time work and health safety. These responses suggest a partial equity in the landscape of available choices. The study raises questions about reapplying old forms of school choice to a new form of temporary school closure during pandemic.

Book Review

The book, Educating Chinese-heritage students in the global-local nexus: Identities, challenges, and opportunities, edited by Guofang Li and Wen Ma, provides a significant addition to the current need for a better understanding of Chinese immigrant literacy learning around the world.

“Your Eyes Open and so do Your Ears”: Centering Knowledge of Families with Refugee Backgrounds during a Follow-up Interview

In an exploratory case study of partnerships between educators and refugee families recently resettled in the U.S, we conducted follow-up interviews with each of the ten participating families during year one. In this paper, we report on themes from these interviews highlighted in three family case studies. We used methodological approaches that enabled us to reenvision and interrogate the power structure inherent in research relationships between ‘researcher’ and ‘researched.” The purposes of the additional interview were to conduct a member check on the data we had gathered, understand what had changed since our initial interview with the family, and gather families’ feedback about our comportment and methods. The two-part question was, How might decolonizing methods from a postcolonial lens serve as guideposts for disrupting research methods with families with refugee backgrounds?, and How did partnering with transnational student researchers inform ways of representing the family narratives? The follow-up narratives suggest a complex understanding of building knowledge within the limitations of a conventional research paradigm.

Why We Gather: Educational Empowerment and Academic Success Through Collective Black Parental Agency

Though previous literature has explored the importance of parents in education, scholarship has failed to empirically demonstrate the influence voluntary parent groups have on the educational trajectory of Black students. Using institutional agency and community cultural wealth frameworks, the author qualitatively evaluates a Black parent group’s self-initiated efforts to influence the academic outcomes of high-achieving students. The author illustrates how one parent organization negotiates an environment in which their racial group comprises less than 5% of the population to effectively guide and support families as their students navigate academic success. Findings show that at least three critical components— accountability, alliances and networks, and legitimacy—are vital in the provision of collaborative support and agency on behalf of high-achieving students.

Parent engagement in reclassification for English learner students with disabilities

Laws governing special education services and EL services specify different roles forparents in educational decision-making. Little research exists on home-schoolcommunication for families of English learner students with disabilities (ELSWDs), whoare navigating both sets of services. We conducted six case studies of ELSWDs toexamine parents and educators’ communication about educational services and,specifically, how parents were engaged in decisions about whether students should bereclassified and exit EL services. Findings suggest that educators conveyedinformation to parents using a one-way transmission approach (Nichols & Read, 2002).Parents often had incomplete or inaccurate information about their children’s services,had questions and concerns that they did not voice to educators, and sought out non-school sources to inform their decision-making.

Preservice Teachers’ Memories of Home-School Connections and Their Link to Anticipated Practices

Connecting with families is now a key professional role for teachers and supports student success in the classroom. This article presents an examination of elementary education preservice teachers’ anticipated work with families and how their memories of school intersect with those visions. A qualitative research design incorporated open-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with twenty-five preservice teachers. An inductive analysis using grounded theory techniques led to the identification of four main themes including: (1) “Involved” parents show up at school, (2) technology is a strategy to modernize work with families, (3) field-based experiences reinforce anticipated practices, and (4) institutionalized practices are the practices that count. Each theme connected to participants’ memories of school and future visions reflected traditional one-way efforts embedded in their school histories. Implications are discussed for teacher educators.

“We have stories to share!”: Narratives of Identity and Perspectives of Japanese Descent Teachers in the USA

As the number of immigrant children entering school systems increases across the globe, preparing teachers to support these children and their families is of critical importance. How to support and bring strength to English language learners (ELLs) and immigrant children is a new subject among the scholarship of teacher education, due to the increasing numbers of immigrant children. There are unique complexities that educators need to consider, including: (a) their own cross/bicultural, bilingual identity development, (b) their interpersonal relationship building, and (c) their hybrid experiences in a culturally and linguistically unfamiliar environment with other children and teachers in a new country.In this study, we focus mainly on three teachers who are Japanese descent and their support of Japanese immigrant students. Findings from this study suggest that the three teachers used their funds of knowledge (González, Moll, & Amanti, 2005) as immigrants and immigrant teachers to support their Japanese immigrant students in the following three categories: building interpersonal connections, cross-cultural mediation, and nurturing identity development in the context of hybridity and wholeness.

Niam Txiv Txoj Kev Txawj Ntse: A Psychosociocultural Understanding of Hmong Parents' Support of their Hmong American Undergraduates

This qualitative study examined the narratives of support that 8 sets and 2 single mother Hmong parents (10 mothers and 8 fathers) provided their children pursuing higher education. Ten 90-minute semi-structured interviews were conducted in Hmong parents’ homes. Using a psychosociocultural approach, narratives were analyzed using a multi-step process, yielding three emergent themes for both Hmong parents and two specific to mothers and fathers, respectively. Findings clearly reveal the importance of Hmong parent home practices and processes to support their child in higher education. Implications for university personnel working to establish educational partnerships with Hmong parents and communities to support Hmong student persistence are addressed.

Bridging the Gaps: Parental Involvement and Asian Non-native English Speakers’ Postsecondary Enrollment

While the number of the Asian non-native English speakers (NNESs) is increasing, their postsecondary education (PSE) enrollment rate has remained low in comparison to enrollment rates of Asian native English speakers (NESs). The achievement gap in postsecondary enrollment between NNESs and NESs has widened, due not only to content areas such as reading and language arts that require higher English proficiency but also sociocultural factors, such as parental involvement. The current study aims to investigate the extent to which parental involvement factors predict the likelihood of Asian NNESs PSE enrollment after controlling for socioeconomic and linguistic factors. This study, being an expansion of previous work, which explored parental involvement and NNESs' PSE in the U.S., uses the national representative data from the Education Longitudinal Study dataset in 2002 (ELS: 2002) and a binary multilevel logistic regression model analysis. The results indicate that parental involvement is related to a greater likelihood of attending PSE institutions. Among the various forms of parental involvement, parent-student involvement and parent-school involvement have the greatest impact on Asian NNESs' PSE enrollment. The results also showed that Asian NNESs' enrollment is higher if their parents participate in school volunteer work. Limitations, future studies, and implications for educators, parents and school policy makers will also be discussed.

Parental Involvement and Educational Achievement of South Korean High School Students

Over the past few decades, South Korea, as a rapidly transforming society, has witnessed a massive drive for educational credentials. Some scholars suggest that South Korea has been gripped by an education fever that is leading to huge investments of economic and social capital to further young people’s educational interests. This article refers to a study of three high-achieving South Korean schools. Through the conducting of a survey among 206 school students, 71 teachers and 254 parents, the study aimed to identify the key factors deemed to be responsible for high educational achievement in the schools. Social capital and its physical, relational, structural, and cognitive dimensions presented the conceptual and analytical tools of the study. The findings suggest, after all dimensions are considered, that familial social capital and the nature of parental involvement are most definitive for students’ success. In this sense there is correspondence with James Coleman’s views on the importance of family background as significant in determining how students ultimately perform. However, there is also an indication that mothers and fathers involve themselves differently – and that boarding school students benefit from retaining some distance away from family. The article concludes by offering a set of general recommendations useful for policy-makers in any society seeking to enhance students’ educational achievements.