Building Family Strengths Through Successful Parental Involvement Strategies: A Case Study with Latino Immigrant Families and Elementary School Staff

Abstract

Latino immigrant families often face significant barriers in becoming involved in their children’s education due to common cultural biases and misunderstandings and language barriers. Moreover, limited evidence suggests that the ways in which Latino immigrant families engage in their children’s education may not be recognized and valued by schools, which operate within mainstream cultural values. As a result, effective outreach and engagement practices specifically for Latino parents, particularly recent immigrants, are not presently well understood. To that end, the purpose of the present case study is to explore and evaluate the strategies used by an elementary school to involve its Latino immigrant parents into their children’s education. Focus groups with parents and interviews with key school staff revealed three ways that the school has broken through cultural and language barriers to encourage their families to get involved: building trust, clearly communicating with families in culturally sensitive ways, and empathizing with families and their needs. These findings are discussed in light of implications for social work practice.