Barriers and Gaps between Parents and School as Viewed by Parents and Educators
Good, M., Masewicz, S., Vogel, L. (2010). Latino english language learners: Bridging
achievement and culture gaps between schools and families. Journal of Latinos and
Education, 9 (4), 321-339.
Valdez, G. (1996). Con respeto: Bridging the distances between culturally diverse families and
schools. New York, NY: Teachers College Press, Colombia University.
First we must identify the gaps between schools and families. This will be done from both
the family’s perspective and the teacher’s perspective. Research conducted by Mary Ellen Good,
Sophia Masewicz, and Linda Vogell (2006), Latino English Language Learners: Bridging
Achievement and Culture Gaps between Schools and Families, explored the barriers to academic
achievement for English Language Learners (ELLs). Although there are several themes, I will
focus on four areas that overlap, communication and cultural clashes, expectations, support for
families, and meaningful relationships between teachers and students. To support my experience
and the findings of Good et all, Con Respeto, Bridging the Distances between Culturally Diverse
Families and Schools which was part of a larger ethnographic study by Dr. Guadalupe Valdes,
will be discussed alongside.
Valdez’s yearlong study from 1983-1986 involved ten first generation working class
Mexican families living in a semi-rural area near the U.S and Mexican border. She observed the
struggles and hardships that came along with trying to succeed in an unfamiliar society. The
study took place in a town she called Las Fuentes, along the US-Mexico borderlands, focusing
particularly on the poorest area of the town known as “el barrio.” Valdes hoped to show that
Mexican parents do know how to parent, but their parenting styles are a product of their class,
culture, and experiences. Originally Valdez’s research was about understanding and examining
the variety of factors that contribute to the academic “failure” of Mexican students in school. She
described their values, morals, beliefs, work experiences, struggles to find housing, encounters
with schools and educators, involvement in their children's education, and their everyday
activity. The goal was to provide information and awareness that would help bridge the distance
between culturally diverse families and schools.
Communication, Culture and Expectations Between Teachers (Schools) and Families
According to Good et al. (2010) both teacher and parent groups identified communication
gaps as a major barrier to student achievement (p. 327). From the view of the parents, “parents
acknowledged that they lacked English language skills needed to effectively communicate with
teachers and school personnel” (p. 329). They also felt like there were not enough bilingual
teachers to help bridge language gaps. Good et al, (2010) found that teachers were frustrated that
the majority of teachers in the district were not bilingual and that those that were bilingual were
not appreciated or valued. Both parents at teachers agreed that “if teachers do not speak the
child’s language or understand his/her culture, learning cannot be optimized” (p. 329).
One of the largest misunderstandings between the parents and teachers is the expectations
they have of each other. Valdez claims that this has to do with the expectations teachers had
about what families should be or not be doing with their children at home (p.148). On the other
hand parents had different expectations of teachers as well. Valdez continued to say that many of
the parents had little or no formal education and it was a sensitive topic for them to communicate
with the teachers about (p. 149). The lack of communication lead teachers to perceive that
parents did not want to be involved in school and did not care about their child’s education, since
unlike middle class families they did not come to the school or help their children with
homework. Valdez argues that this is not the case. Parents want to be involved. Often parents did
not feel competent enough to communicate with school personnel. Many misunderstandings led
them to believe that school personnel did not care about their children. For example, parents did
not understand teachers who expected them to send their children to school already knowing
their ABC's, because in Spanish learning combinations of letter sounds made more sense than
single letters and because teaching ABC's was the job of the teacher. The job of the parent was
shaping behavior and the school's job was academics.
Both Valdez (1996) and Good et al (2010) found that each group of people involved had
difficulties communicating information and receiving information. Many teachers tried their best
to teach the children what they thought was important, children used the skills they learned at
home at school, and parents did their best to support their children at school but in all three cases
many failed. This leads to all groups involved feeling helpless, angry, and confused.
Consistently throughout the reviewed articles, the ways in which parents and teachers
viewed the role of the teacher came up. Good et al. found that there were obvious differences in
the way teachers and parents viewed the role of the teacher. To show this, Good et al. gave an
example that I think is important. One parents said:
In Mexico, teachers consider students and extension of their own family and refers to
them as my children. They not only see themselves at educators, but also as parents,
counselors, grandparents, and even mothers… As parents we trust their judgment; we
believe what they tell us (p. 330).
This is an important quote to share because parents in this study felt like schools administrators
viewed them as a problem. When asked about cultural barriers, parents expressed a loss of
cultural identity and a loss of control. Many parents shared stories about family chaos resulting
from the cultural conflicts and barriers the children faced entering a new culture and trying to
understand where they fit in.
Valdez discussed the barrier of cultural clash more in depth than Good. She found that the
ten families in her study each functioned as a collective family unit and schools did know how
the Mexican family unit worked. The socialization practices used by these families did not
prepare students for school, and the school does not view these practices as valuable. For
example the children’s role was to contribute to the functioning of the family unit. Parents used
consejos, which are cultural narratives, to teach to respect and obey their parents, to discourage
selfishness, to take care of their siblings, and work together to reach family goals. For these
families, sharing and cooperating was necessary for survival. One parent told Valdez “Les digo y
les digo [consejos], para que se les vaya grabando” (I tell them and I tell them [consejos] so that
it will become engraved in their memory) (p.126).
Valdez argues that families rely on traditional methods of parenting, including clear roles
for parents, men, women, and children. For example parents learn the strengths and weaknesses
of each child and use them to the advantage of the family unit. Husbands were generally
providers for the family and wives were responsible for taking care of the household and
education of the children. Children were responsible for contributing to the well-being of the
family by performing chores, caring for younger siblings and teaching them family
responsibilities, and to contribute money to the household as soon as it was reasonable and
possible. Valdez says that success was defined as having hardworking sons and virtuous
daughters. Families never imagined that young people might need to make choices between
family responsibilities and their own ambitions. To these families, success was not doing well on
a test, success was having connections and using these connections appropriately. This leads to a
large cultural clash with schools.
Support for families
Families face a tremendous amount of challenges as they transition to the U.S, with new
language and new systems. Often times there is little no no support for families maneuvering the
new system. Good et al, reported that parents expressed a “feeling of being trapped in the
economic reality of having to work long hours for very low wages” (p.333). Children also
experience these challenges, for example Valdez’s research showed that children expected
school to be like home. They expected for adults to behave in the same way they had seen adults
behave at home. At home “children were trained not to be disruptive, not to call attention to
themselves, not interrupt adult speech, and so forth” so when at school, they followed familiar
rules of interaction (p. 149). According to Valdez, this is problematic because the children did
not speak out loud, ask for teacher’s attention, volunteer, or call out answers.
Meaningful Relationships between Teachers and Students
Often, teachers struggle with the increasing demand to raise performance standards,
improve instructional practices, and demonstrate accountability through high risk testing. Both
“theory and practice show that without meaningful relationships with educators, students have
little reason to connect with school and achieve academically” (Shepard et al., 2012, p.48).
Currently, relationships of most teachers with their students seem surface and basic. Many
teachers with large amounts of students know their students “only from their performance within
rather limited classroom contexts” (Moll et al., 1992, p.134). It is important for teachers to care
about students learning and about them as individuals. There “must be an indubitable connection
between caring for students and educating them effectively” (Peele-Eady, Nasir & Pang, 2007,
p.885). Valdez found that parents “felt the school environment was not welcoming and that some
teachers were defensive” (p. 329). Parents expressed great desire to advocate for their children,
but felt that schools did not listen. I viewed this as rooted in the lack of relationships rather than
in language differences.
In my experience as a nonprofit afterschool educator of eight years, the CEO and higher
level supervisors all support staff in building positive relationships with families by training the
staff to learn about the families and home life. Educators are encouraged to have in depth
conversations with families to contribute to the curriculum if they wanted to etc. When I
completed my student teaching in a public 5th grade classroom, I felt a completely different
expectation. The administration did not want us to do home visits or spend time bringing kids
culture into the classroom. We were on a tight schedule and would get in trouble if we strayed
from the plan.