Capitalizing On Mexican Parents' Cultural Models Of Parental Involvement From Their Children's Perspectives

Educators have recognized the importance of parental involvement for students' academic success. At the same time, there is not a universal definition of parental involvement. In the U.S. parental involvement includes activities such as bake sales, fundraisers, PTA/PTO, and back to school nights. However, many immigrants do not share the U.S. notions of what counts as parental involvement. In especial, Mexican parental involvement differs from what U.S. schools accept as parental involvement. Using critical discourse analysis and drawing on the concepts of culturally relevant pedagogy, this study explores the cultural models of Mexican parental involvement from the perspectives of some recently arrived Mexican students at a U.S. high school. The study also discusses why cultural models of Mexican parental involvement are not valued by the school and explores how those cultural models described can be recruited by the school when dealing with Mexican students.