“School is the child’s second home”: family engagement from a Latino sociocultural perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACT “Parent involvement”, valued by the field of early childhood education, is shown to contribute to the growth and development of children. However, what has in fact, been “valued” are engagement practices based on normalized white middle class cultural patterns. The current understandings of and expectations for “parent involvement” do not take into account the cultural patterns of Latino families as they determine and support the developmental and academic goals for their children. The findings of this study on the family engagement practices of Mexican immigrant families indicate that when research is grounded in a sociocultural framework, Latino families in a Head Start program fully engaged in their children’s development and early education. Moreover, they did so by relying on their cultural values of: respeto, convivencia, confianza, and comunicación. The findings presented in this paper, a.) elucidate family engagement as a cultural practice, and b.) offer insights into how teacher preparation programs can support preservice teachers’ awareness and understanding of diverse cultural patterns to strengthen the family-community-school relationship.