The Value of Hard Work
The Value of Hard Work: Lessons on Parent Involvement from an (Im)migrant Household
By: Erica Hurt & Meagan Stapp
As a teacher, when you think about parent involvement within your classroom, what does that look like? Have you ever considered other ways parents may view involvement within their child's life that is outside the 'traditional' models?
The "Transparency" of Parent Involvement
Parental involvement has been proven to be a contributor of student success. When thinking in traditional terms, involvement has often been thought of as direct activities parents contribute to, for example any student parties a parent attends, their contributions to the PTO and availability for parent-teacher meetings. Educators, practitioners, policy-makers and community organizations part of educational decision making processes and councils are calling for increased voice and visibility of those who have been historically marginalized. With a continuously increasing population of students of color, schools and teachers must revisit their thinking of what it means to be an “involved” parent to increase opportunities and efforts for marginalized parents.
The Study conducted by Gerardo R. Lopez
-qualitative research study
-5 immigrant/migrant families in Texas Rio Grande Valley
-families were purposefully selected on the basis of recommendation by school personnel
-series of observations and in-depth interviews
-purpose to uncover reasons for perceived lack of parental involvement
Specific Case study of the Padilla family:
-migrant family
-children were “highly successful in school as defined by academic and non-academic accomplishments, achievements, and successes” (421).
-through observations and interviews, Lopez concluded the Padilla family can be labeled as “uninvolved” when looking through the traditional academic lens
-the Padilla's felt involvement was “teaching their children to appreciate the value of education through the medium of hard work” (422).
Although Camilo and Margarita Padilla admit to not being directly involved with their children’s school life, this has not made them “uninvolved” parents. Both parents have demanding work obligations, which contributes to their lack of involvement within the school. However, within the parameters of their home, the Padilla’s are committed to instilling the value of hard work for academic, financial, and personal success among their five children. The case study notes that all five of the Padilla children have experienced academic success within their schooling, despite their parent’s “non-traditional” involvement.
Results of the Study:
“The concept of parent involvement has historically been defined within certain parameters. In fact, merely mentioning ‘parent involvement’ automatically evokes images of parents in schools performing a scripted set of tasks. What this study demonstrates, however, is that parents, particularly immigrant/migrant parents may perceive the concept of involvement in a radically different way than educators in schools. The implications of this research therefore directly challenge traditional understandings of involvement” (pg 434).
Various challenges that place growing demands on school organizations to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population:
- Equitable success for all students and families. No more one-size-fits all approach
- Schools need to make a greater effort to understand how marginalized parents are negotiating the concept of ‘involvement’
- Effectively partner with parents on the parents’ own terms
- Schools need to identify how marginalized parents are involved in unique ways already
- Research ideas to capitalize on these unique ways
- Schools need to recognize and validate the culture at home of diverse families, including Funds of Knowledge and belief systems.
Questions for Consideration:
- In what ways did your teachers attempt to incorporate involvement for all parents? (i.e behavior reports, classroom newsletters, conferences etc.)
- Was there ever a time you noticed a peer’s parents weren’t as involved as you thought they could have been? How have your thoughts/opinions changed on what it means to be an “involved” parent?
- As a teacher, what are some intentional ways you can incorporate parents who may not be able to be directly involved with the classroom?
Citations:
(n.d.). Retreived from http://www.youtube.com/watch?3_-aLWKOk90g.
Family Engagement Services / Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.effinghamschools.com/domain/516.
Lopez, G. (2001). The Value of Hard Work: Lessons on Parent Involvement from an (Im)migrant Household. Harvard Educational Review, 71(3), 416–438. doi: 10.17763/haer.71.3.43x7k542x023767u
In response to your second question, I cannot think of a time that I noticed a peer’s parents not being as involved as I thought they could, but I do remember thinking that my parents could have been involved more in my education. When I was younger, all of my friends seemed to have parents on the school board or their parents were on the PROS (Parents Reaching Out to Students) team, or they were just always the ones to come in to class to help with trips or just when things needed done in the classroom. Especially with having a stay at home mom for the first few years of my education, I always felt that my parents could have done more. However, now that I am older and now that I have a better understanding of what all encompasses an involved parent, I realize that my parents were involved. They helped me with my homework, they always attended parent teacher conferences, they read to me and told me stories, they took me to after school activities and they would come to programs and special events that the school hosted. The quote that you pulled from page 434 shows how parental involvement was originally created with certain parameters but how now the traditional understandings of involvement are being challenged. And I think that it is important to realize these changes, and to understand that involvement doesn’t mean the same thing for everyone, and sometimes it can’t mean the same thing. It is also important to understand that just because parental involvement doesn’t look the same from parent to parent, it doesn’t mean that the parents don’t care.
ReplyDeleteCitation
Lopez, G. (2001). The Value of Hard Work: Lessons on Parent Involvement from an (Im)migrant Household. Harvard Educational Review, 71(3), 416–438.
I found your response intriguing because analogous to yourself, during my school upbringing, I also felt that my friend's parents seemed to help with field trips considerably more than my parents. However, despite my parents never joining field trips or taking me to activities the school hosted, I acknowledge before my parents became divorced, they provided other academic enriching experiences, such as making visits to the zoo and museums. My mother was similar to your parents, as my mother would assist me in completing my elementary homework. Therefore, even though my parents were never around the school building, my mother was involved in my academics. Additionally, I previously thought my father was uninvolved in my schoolwork, but now I acknowledge how he connected the real world with academics without me even knowing. For example, one of the unique ways my father became involved in teaching me mathematics revolved around showing me how to use excel to track my little league baseball statistics. Despite previously believing my father was uninvolved in my academics, from the age of nine, my father taught me how to competently comprehend batting statistics, which incorporates division, percentages, part of the whole relationships, and averages. Therefore, I believe this non-traditional academic involvement contributed to my high mathematic skillset throughout my elementary school years. I agree with you that involvement can become incorporated through various methods, which may not always become apparent to the eyes of the school administration and educators.
DeleteTo address your second question, instead of focusing on a peer's parent who appeared uninvolved in their academics, I will make a personal connection to discuss how my opinion has changed on my initial perception of my father's lack of involvement in my education by realizing through my father's preaches and practices that modeled hard work, my father outlined the foundation for my current academic success. Although I deem that my father was more involved generall in my life before my parents got divorced, my father hardly ever assisted me in my academics. Moreover, my father was involved in any of the volunteering opportunities in the school. Therefore, my father traditionally would become deemed as being uninvolved in my academics. Nevertheless, my father preached and allowed me to experience hard work by having me spend much of my leisure time practicing sports drills. Even though I did not translate this work ethic into much of anything besides sports and work until following my brain injury, following enrolling in college, the hours upon hours of practice throughout my childhood provided the blueprint on how to attack my academics with equal dedication. Furthermore, despite not agreeing with my father forcing me to practice baseball constantly, which was not one of the sports I enjoyed playing, I now acknowledge that this ideology has assisted me to push through assignments and other tasks when I would rather procrastinate. Additionally, following my parents becoming divorced, I initially believed that my father was even less involved in my life inside and outside my academics. For example, due to my father's increased workload, my father stopped coaching me, working on drills with me, and rarely ever came to my games. Moreover, when my father was home, he was often so exhausted by the workday, the little amount of time my father was around, didn't appear to consist of much father-son bonding. Furthermore, my father became less likely to assist me in working on school assignments or even asking me what was occurring at school unless I obtained an unsatisfactory grade. Nevertheless, during this time, I acknowledge that my father sacrificed much of his life's enjoyment to work an excessive workload for the family.
ReplyDelete(Here is the rest of my post.)
DeleteTherefore, despite disagreeing with many of my father's extremely questionable rearing practices, currently, I am blessed that my father modeled a strong work ethic before and during this period, because if my father would have merely preached a hard work without demonstrating this virtue, I do not believe that I would have acquired the habits which have lead to me overcoming a severe brain injury to obtain academic success eventually. This ideology connects with Lopez's (2001) conclusions about the Padillas family, "The parents believed that if their children learned to work hard, they would be equipped with the necessary skills to be successful in both the academic world and the world of work" (p. 425). Additionally, through rebuilding my relationship with my father in recent years, I believe my father attempted instilling the value of hard work to prepare me for the challenges in the academic world, the world of work, and the world in general. Moreover, my father extended this ideology by demonstrating resilience and maintaining his work ethic throughout several difficult life obstacles. Therefore, I acknowledge my father was involved in developing my work ethic and resilience, which are deemed as critical attributes to academic success through modeling his work ethic and constantly discussing the value of working hard to overcome challenges. The ideology of work ethic and resilience is crucial to academic success because, for instance, when one fails a test, a resilient individual will not accept failure, and will continue pushing until they obtain their goals. Although I used to question many of my father's actions in determining whether or not he cared about me, as an adult, I think he uniquely demonstrated his care about my preparation of the adult world through his beliefs and practices around work ethic.
References
Lopez, G. (2001). The Value of Hard Work: Lessons on Parent Involvement from an (Im)migrant Household. Harvard Educational Review, 71 (3), 416-438.
To answer question one, the only memory I have of parent involvement was parent volunteering. So either volunteering to help in the classroom or going on field trips.
ReplyDeleteFor working parents like mine, this made it hard to be involved. My parents both worked 9-5 jobs so they weren't always able to be part of these things. I can remember the field trips specifically that my parents did get to go on because I was so excited they were there.
I think there are many advances now to help promote parents involvement, like apps such as Class Dojo. Had smart phones been around when I was in school I could have seen my parents being a lot more involved because that was something they would be able to check during lunch or after work. Instead, they had to rely on me to recap my day, which normally only involved talking about what I wanted to talk about.
I would like to respond to question 3, one of the hardest things with being an educator is handling parents whether that is getting them involved or having to talk to them about things their child maybe experiencing or doing. There are a couple ways I would get parents involved, one is by offering a time and a place to meet the family whether that is at their home or a public place, this will take place prior to the school year, so I can make connections with parents and students. Another thing I will do is create an instagram group and post daily or weekly with things that are happening in the classroom, this may not be connecting with the parents directly but it is allowing opportunity to involve the parents. The third thing I would do iss be sure to contact parents often, to tell them the great things their students are doing, I do not want mu communication with parents to only be when there is an issue with the child. The is the quickest way to lose family involvement.
ReplyDeleteBrinkley, I think these are all great ways to get parents involved into the classroom even if they can't come into the class. I agree when you stated how difficult it is to get everyone involved but it is possible if your are willing to make it happen. I hope to make sure all parents get involve in some way to know what their child is learning in class.
DeleteGreat blog! To answer your question 3, I think it is very important to involve all parents if they able to physically be in class or not. I know it is very hard to get to all parents involve but as a teacher we need to try and get them at least to try by providing them with different way to do so. Providing them with times they can come into the classroom. Another way is to have a providing them with a schedule of all school events so they can help volunteer or provide materials if they aren't available. Have a get to know parent day, where parents can come in but also have parents video chat in if they aren't able to come in or ask them to create a powerpoint. I would also use a tool
ReplyDelete(app) of some sort where I can keep parents updated on their students and things going on in classroom. I will also send home what we are learning about in the classroom, so parents can have discussion at home with their children.
One way to incorporate all parents is either daily behavior reports or conferences. Sending something home for parents to look over is good because they may not have time to come into the school to meet all the time. This is something that goes overlooked because parents are busy people as well and simply reading over a report can give them a recap. Conferences are also good maybe once a semester to just do a check in with the parents and student to make sure that everything is going well in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteResponding to question 2. In high school, I had a lot of friends whose parents I never met until graduation. These were classmates who were athletes or in another after school club, and I never saw their parents at games or performances. I remember feeling sad for my classmates because I felt like their parents weren’t supporting them. The favored students had the most “involved” parents. My school later tried to enforce parent involvement by imposing some type of consequence on the students if parents didn’t meet a specific standard of involvement. Since coming to college, my views on parent involvement have changed dramatically. Some parents are unable to be physically present at games and performances because they work multiple jobs or long hours to make sure that they have some place to live and food to eat. They may help with homework or simply ask how their day went. An uninvolved parent is one that takes no interest in their child’s well-being or what goes on in their life.
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