Parental engagement is critical to children’s
educational achievement. Before and during elementary
school, it is crucial for parents to be involved in their
children’s education in order to foster development and
achievement. Hispanic parents’ immigrant status, coupled
with a lack of English proficiency, means that they often
find themselves of low socioeconomic status (SES). Being
low SES also means that parents possess fewer resources
for engaging with their children. The current study seeks to
understand low-income, primarily Hispanic mothers’ per￾ceptions of their roles in their first grade children’s edu￾cation. Mothers were interviewed regarding parenting
confidence related to teaching their children, and responses
were analyzed using qualitative research methods. Mothers
in this study associated their roles in their children’s edu￾cation with two primary areas: helping their children to
learn, and raising their children to be well-behaved and
respectful. The main barrier to parental confidence in these
roles appeared to be mothers’ lack of English proficiency.
This is consistent with previous research demonstrating
that Hispanic parents maintain the perception of a lack of
proficiency in English as a significant barrier to parental
involvement in their children’s education in the United
States. Future interventions with teachers and parents may
benefit from these findings in consideration of the optimal
ways to involve parent related to their perceived personal
strengths regarding parental engagement.

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Tersedia

• Perceptions About Parental Engagement Among Hispanic Immigrant Mothers of First Graders from Low-Income Backgrounds

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