The current study is based on interviews with 19 immigrant parents from Eastern European countries, whose children attend elementary schools in the province of Ontario, Canada. It uses the concept of curriculum orientations (academic rationalism, social efficiency, humanism and social reconstruction) to explore the connections between parental satisfaction with school and their involvement in children's education. I found that interviewed parents were split between supporters of academic rationalism and the blend of social efficiency and humanism. Parents who adopted social efficiency and humanism were satisfied with their children's education and followed normative school‐based involvement. Parents who preferred academic rationalism were not happy with their children's school and expected more emphasis on academic development. They were mostly active at home and faced difficulty communicating with teachers. Mismatch in curriculum orientations of immigrant parents and host country teachers results in additional barriers to their parental involvement and might shape such involvement in profound ways.
Parental involvement is a crucial, but often, neglected factor for success in learning languages. A growing number of Canadian students from immigrant families attend French Immersion programs and bring additional languages to the classroom. Yet, the role of Eastern-European immigrant parents in their children's French Immersion education, their beliefs about speaking multiple languages, and developing literacy practices at home across multiple languages are under-researched. Rooted in a plurilingual framework to examine parental beliefs and practices, this paper uses critical discourse analysis to present data collected via interviews and journals. The data show that immigrant parents demonstrate awareness and a rich variety of beliefs about their children's plurilingual learning; they value French for instrumental reasons; and offer individual solutions for plurilingual literacy development. Implications for educators include valuing parental "funds of knowledge" and acknowledging how neoliberal educational policies widen the gap between plurilingual homes and bilingual classrooms.
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