How British-Chinese parents support their children: a view from the regions

Abstract

Although the high level of achievement experienced by British-Chinese pupils in schools is well documented, the Chinese community in the UK is a relatively under-researched ethnic group. There is only patchy information on ways in which British-Chinese parents and children engage with education. It is often presumed the success of Chinese pupils is due to conformist cultural practices leading to the enactment of effective cultural capital. In this paper we examine support strategies adopted by professional and non-professional British-Chinese parents of young people in secondary schools in the East Midlands of England. Through demographic and qualitative interview data we look at how British-Chinese parents support their children’s educational achievement. Our study suggests that the parents adopt similar strategies to those seen in British and North American parents, yet with some significant class nuances related to cultural divergence. This suggests that class influence is less rigorous than other analyses, being supplanted by cultural dispositions.

Keywords:

• British-Chinese
• school achievement
• cultural capital
• school choice
• parenting
• Bourdieu

Acknowledgements

The authors are most grateful to the headteacher of the Nottingham Chinese School, the two headteachers of the Nottingham schools and to the many parents and young people who participated in the study. The authors are also grateful to Geoff Oxendale of Nottingham City Local Authority for his support. The authors are also highly appreciative of the constructive support from the two reviewers.