Parental Aspirations and Investments in the Educational Achievements of African Immigrant Students

Abstract

Situated in social capital theory, the purpose of this mixed-methods study was to investigate the relationship between African-born immigrant parents’ educational level, income status, family structures, and academic performance of their children in the United States (U.S.). To that end, 205 African-born immigrant parents from a metropolitan city in the U.S. were surveyed using the modified Longitudinal Immigrant Student Adaptation Questionnaire. The participants’ (N= 205) responses to the questionnaires were analyzed using Chi-square tests and the participants’ (n = 45) interview responses were analyzed using ATLAS.ti qualitative analysis software. Findings from the quantitative data showed relationships between parents’ income, educational level, family structures and academic performance of their children. Interview findings revealed that hard work and resilience to succeed, parental expectations and academic goals, parental support and investment in education, parental involvement, parent-teacher interactions, and parental educational experiences influenced parents to support their children’s education. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for teachers who are tasked to render better educational settings for African immigrant students to succeed in United States schools.

Factors Influencing Parents’ Awareness of Children’ Education Investment: A Systematic Review

“…Among the main factors that can influence decisions to invest in education is the parent's awareness of the importance of education, as awareness is a situation where the individual can understand all the existing rules, duties, and responsibilities and will consciously comply [22]. Parental knowledge gained from experience and relationships with education and institutions is a sociocultural form related to the educational system [23,24], so it can be said that parents' connections deriving from experience and institutions can be used as the basis of their decision to invest in education for their children.…”

Exploratory factor and reliability analyses of educational awareness of educational investment

“…Thus, parents need to set targets for their children's level of education (Dhanaraj et al, 2019;Hargreaves, 2021;Jagnani & Khanna, 2020;Nakagawa et al, 2021;Tshabangu, 2017;Siyahhan & Ghoddusi, 2021), especially in educational planning to support the achievement of children's future needs, both economically and socially (Alonso-Carrera et al, 2020;Bokayev et al, 2021;Dhanaraj et al, 2019;Jagnani & Khanna, 2020;Nakagawa et al, 2021;Siyahhan & Ghoddusi, 2021;Tshabangu, 2017;Yasuoka, 2018). Moreover, it is also worth noting that parents' awareness of the importance of children's education is associated with the experience they gained from the educational process and the benefits they gained after the process (Kumi-Yeboah et al, 2017;Robbins, 2000). Hence, from this knowledge and experience, parents can provide more motivation to their children to carry out the learning process in educational institutions.…”

“…Because parents understand that education has a lot to do with the future of their children, the implementation of education must follow existing rules, duties and responsibilities, and should be carried out consciously (Hasibuan, 2017). The parents' awareness of the importance of education is closely related to the sociocultural form of the educational system since they will use their knowledge and experience to help with their decision to invest their wealth in the form of their children's education (Kumi-Yeboah et al, 2017;Robbins, 2000). However, individual awareness of the importance of education will not appear if there is no concrete action (Qomar, 2012) because, in cultivating such awareness, it is necessary for the individual to execute a process of adaptation by applying it directly to their social life so that this will change their views, thoughts, lifestyles and attitudes, which will then be applied to actions that are different from their previous actions (Atkinson et al, 1999).…”