¡Quiero estudiar! Mexican immigrant mothers' participation in their children's schooling---and their own.

摘要

This dissertation examines the literacy practices and parental school involvement of a group of seven first-generation Mexican immigrant mothers who participated in native language literacy classes designed for parents at their children's school. Using ethno-graphic methods to detail the mothers' lived histories, cultural moorings, and current practices at home and at school, the study found that the mothers participated in their children's schooling---and their own---in a variety of ways, regardless of their individually varying levels of access to print and formal schooling. Specifically, the mothers enjoined their own family literacy networks, engaging their children in needed literacy tasks at home that supported school-based literacies in kind. These social networks involved print and non-print literate members in exchanges of various forms of assistance, print-related and otherwise. In parent classes, framed as a safe haven for readers and writers at all levels, the mothers similarly engaged in exchanges of print literacies and other forms of cultural capital, such as knowledge about school and community doings.;Through words and actions, the mothers defined parental participation as support for their children's schooling in seven broad moral and material categories, many of which have yet to be recognized in much of the academic literature. Specifically, the mothers defined and enacted parent involvement typologically as: parental presence on the school grounds; networking with other parents, teachers, or administrators; participating in school or community activities; literacy and numeracy support; providing material support for their children such as food, clothing, shelter, hygiene, and transportation; providing moral support such as encouraging children or keeping after them as needed; and acting as positive role models for their children.;The study suggests that viewing parental involvement from parental perspectives may give educators and researchers greater insights into the efforts, achievements, and challenges of parents from a variety of racial, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds.