Figured worlds of immigrant fathers, sons, and daughters in steps to college through science bilingual family workshops

ABSTRACT

Interest in parents’ roles in promoting students’ academic success and career aspirations, especially in STEM areas, has grown as educators and world leaders set goals for expanding and diversifying the STEM workforce and extending science literacy across the globe. Responding to a call for research on fathers’ roles, and considering the rise in immigrant populations in many regions of the world, the study reported here investigates the experiences of Latino immigrant fathers and their adolescent sons and daughters who participated in Steps to College through science bilingual family workshops. Findings, informed by figured worlds theory, illustrate the ways in which fathers and their children figured identities together that included engaging with science learning in pursuit of college and career pathways.

KEYWORDS:

• Identities
• fatherhood
• family
• migration
• race and ethnicities
• parents

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Martha Allexsaht-Snider is Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice at the University of Georgia. She conducts research about family–school–community interactions in diverse settings, including U.S. Latino/a communities and rural México, and professional development and equity in mathematics and science education. Currently, she is collaborating in a National Science Foundation grant, Language-rich Inquiry Science with English Language Learners through Biotechnology (LISELL-B), involving Latino/a secondary school students, their families, and their science teachers.

Max Vazquez Dominguez is an Assistant Professor in Teacher Education at the University of North Georgia. His most recent research explored middle-school emergent bilingual students’ experiences in a project designed to connect their passions for soccer to opportunities for meaningful learning of science practices and the language of science. He also investigates ways to foster pre-service and in-service science teachers’ confidence and efficacy in teaching science in today’s multilingual, diverse classrooms.

Cory Buxton is Athletic Association Professor of Education at the University of Georgia. His research fosters more equitable science-learning opportunities for all students and especially for emergent bilingual learners. His most recent research, funded by the National Science Foundation, is on creating spaces where students, parents, teachers and researchers can engage together as co-learners while strengthening their academic relationships, their knowledge of science and engineering practices, and their ownership of the language of science.

Elif Karsli is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Elementary Education, TED University, Turkey. Her research focuses on socio-cultural contexts of children’s mathematics in and out of school, and family–school–community relationships in culturally and linguistically diverse settings. Currently, she is working for her national research grant about supporting teachers of Syrian refugee children and collaborating with their families in public schools of Turkey.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Science Foundation [grant number LISELL-B, 2013-2017, award # DRL-1316398].