UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Valuing Education: How Culture Influences the Participation of Mexican Immigrant Mothers in the Formal Education of Their Children in the United States A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education by Gregory Sean O'Brien March 2010 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Natalie Becker, Co-Chairperson Dr. Robert Ream, Co-Chairperson Dr. Douglas Mitchell Copyright by Gregory Sean O’Brien 2010 The Dissertation of Gregory Sean O’Brien is approved: ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________ Committee Co-Chairperson ______________________________________________________ Committee Co-Chairperson University of California, Riverside This dissertation is dedicated to Gloria Adelina Montúfar de O’Brien … My beloved wife, esteemed colleague, and best friend. I could never have done this without you. Te amo con todo mi corazón. iv ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Valuing Education: How Culture Influences the Participation of Mexican Immigrant Mothers in the Formal Education of Their Children in the United States by Gregory Sean O’Brien Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Education University of California, Riverside, March 2010 Dr. Natalie Becker, Co-Chairperson Dr. Robert Ream, Co-Chairperson U.S. Latino parents are often characterized by educators as uninvolved in school and the formal education of their children because they do not value education. While research indicates otherwise, stereotypes still exist among many educators that one reason Latinos do poorly in school is because they do not care. Masked behind stereotypes is the significant variation in levels of parent involvement in education among U.S. Latinos. The literature does not address why parents with similar socioeconomic, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds respond to schools in such distinct ways. This ethnographic case study addresses variation in the involvement of Mexican immigrant mothers by focusing on how some use their cultured capacities to construct strategies of action in the formal education of their children in the United States. The implications for policy and practice include a greater understanding of why some Mexican immigrant parents routinely participate in the school affairs of their children while others with similar characteristics v and backgrounds do not; and how institutions, like schools, may have the means to impact the strategies of action chosen by parents through the use of widely disseminated semiotic codes. This study also finds that culture’s role in the participation of Mexican immigrant parents could not fully be accounted for in Epstein’s (1995, 2001) Six Types of Involvement for Parents. Socializing was identified as a seventh type of involvement that may actually serve as a catalyst for involvement in the other six types and a means for strengthening home-school connections. In addition, a significant finding not seen elsewhere in the literature was an overwhelming amount of evidence that the majority of Mexican immigrant mothers in this study believed that schools were better in Mexico than the U.S. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION iv ABSTRACT v TABLE OF CONTENTS vii LIST OF FIGURES x LIST OF TABLES xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Overview of the Problem The Current Study Focus: Mexican Immigrant Mothers Research Design Hypotheses and Research Questions Contributions to Theory, Policy, and Practice Summary Organization of the Study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 12 Literature Review Definition of Parent Involvement Effects of Parent Involvement on Student Achievement Schools and Parent Involvement Latinos and Achievement Gaps Theoretical Framework Explanations for Achievement Gaps Deficit model Cultural differences model Power differential model Complex interaction model Culture as Repertoire Codes, Contexts, and Institutions Summary CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION 45 The Research Design: Why an Interpretive Study? Data Collection The Setting Gaining Entry Participants Observations Interviews Focus Groups Document Collection vii Data Analysis Limitations of the Study Summary CHAPTER 4: THE MEXICAN IMMIGRANT MOTHERS 65 Connected or Detached Finding the Mothers The Connected Mothers The Detached Mothers Summary CHAPTER 5: USING THE TOOLS: STRATEGIES OF ACTION 90 The Daily Ingress and Egress of Students Place and Time Custodial Responsibilities of Parents at the School Interpersonal Interactions Parent-Child Parent-Parent Parent-Staff Meetings and Events Response to Requests for Attendance Widespread acceptance Widespread rejection Participation by Parents Official school meetings Social and educational events Summary CHAPTER 6: THE TOOLS: CULTURED CAPACITIES 154 Thoughts & Feelings Skills, Styles, and Habits Group Membership Worldview Summary CHAPTER 7: EXTERNAL CONSTRAINTS ON CULTURE 196 Codes Contexts The Institution Summary CHAPTER 8: CATEGORIZING PATTERNS OF PARENT INVOLVEMENT 218 Parenting Communicating viii Volunteering at School Learning at Home Decision-Making Collaborating with the Community Socializing Summary CHAPTER 9: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 244 A Thin Line of Action Socializing and Community Building as a Type of Parent Involvement External Constraints on Culture Contributions to the Literature and Future Research Practical Applications REFERENCES 259 APPENDICES 270 Appendix A. Parent Interview Questions (English) Appendix B. Preguntas de Entrevistas para Padres (Spanish) Appendix C. Staff Interview Questions ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1. Language Spoken at Home and English-Speaking Ability: 2000 27 Figure 2.2. Percentage of 16- to 24- Year-Olds Who Were Status Dropout 28 by Nativity and Race/Ethnicity: 2005 Figure 2.3. Percentage Breakdown by Latino Sub-Population in the 29 United States x LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1. Overview of Connected Mothers 79 Table 4.2. Overview of Detached Mothers 84 xi CHAPTER 1 Introduction If there is a single proposition that almost all parents, educators, politicians and the public-at-large can agree upon, it might be that parent involvement in a child’s schooling benefits the child, the parents, and the school. For more than forty years, research has been conducted to document the benefits of parent involvement and find ways to increase it (Henderson & Mapp, 2002; Epstein, 2001). At the national level, the significance of parent involvement in school is such that schools under the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 are now charged with not only increasing student achievement to state proficiency standards but with increasing parent involvement as well (Henderson, 2002; Fege & Smith, 2002). Yet, as I will demonstrate in this study, what parental involvement is ideologically and practically is so circumscribed by culture, SES, and the institution of the school that researchers are often talking at cross purposes or in ways that result in miscommunication and misunderstandings. Overview of the Problem Gaps in student achievement between students who are categorized for purposes of statistical analyses as White or Asian and students who are categorized as Black, Latino1, and/or poor are one of the most persistent challenges facing educators (Ream, 1 The term “Latino,” as used in this paper and most publications, refers to individuals whose heritage is linked to Spanish-speaking individuals from Latin America, the Caribbean, and, occasionally, Spain. The term “Hispanic” is also commonly used. For K-12 public schools, three out of every four limited English proficient (LEP) students speak Spanish and are classified as Hispanic (Carrasquillo & Rodriguez, 1996). The similarities between the various Latino ethnic groups are often limited to language. Latinos in the U.S. are a heterogeneous mix of individuals from Central and South America, Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and other nations. The vast majority, 66.1 percent, are of Mexican descent (Therrien & Ramirez, 2001). 1 Espinoza, & Ryan, 2009; NCES, 2006; Ream, 2005; Llagas & Snyder, 2003; Boethel, 2003). I have chosen to use “gaps,” in the plural, to highlight the fact “that what is often characterized as a single gap between White students and minority students is more accurately portrayed as multiple gaps between and within ethnoracial2 and social class groups” (Ream et al., p. 657). Many consider the benefits of parent involvement to be an important element toward the NCLB goal of eliminating achievement gaps (Henderson & Mapp, 2003; Boethel, 2003; Epstein 2001; Chavkin, 1993). A Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the public’s attitude towards schools found that 97% of those surveyed believed that parent involvement was a very important or somewhat important factor contributing to the achievement gap (Rose & Gallup, 2003). Nowhere are these factors more salient than when connected to the achievement of Latinos and their relationship to the public school. Latinos are not only the fastest growing minority group in the United States (already constituting the largest ethnoracial group in California public schools) but also one of the lowest academically achieving groups (U.S. Department of Education, 2006; Llagas & Snyder, 2003; Ream, Espinoza, & Ryan, 2009). The need to develop and implement parent involvement policies at the federal, state, and local levels is often cited as a crucial step for beginning the process of 2 I have chosen to use the term “ethnoracial” to reference the often times ambiguous terms of race and ethnicity.