‘You’re looking at this different language and it freezes you out straight away’: identifying challenges to parental involvement among immersion parents

Abstract

There is now consensus among researchers and educators that parental involvement in education is related to children's academic and social success at school. However, less is known about the reasons why some parents choose to become involved and others do not. In recent years, there has been a move towards developing theoretical models which can be used to explore parents’ motivations for involvement. However, little research has focused on how such models might apply in alternative educational models, such as immersion education. Immersion parents have been given little opportunity to share their unique and valuable insights into what parental involvement means in a context where the language of the school and the language of the home differ. The present study utilised qualitative methods to explore the experiences of involvement of parents with children in Irish immersion schools. Here, findings are presented relating to parents’ perceptions of challenges to their becoming successfully involved. These findings were derived from two datasets: a series of semi-structured interviews with 10 immersion parents and from responses (n = 84) to open-ended questions on a large-scale parental involvement survey. Implications of the findings for future research, and suggestions for policy and practice in immersion schools, are considered.

Keywords:

• parental involvement
• immersion education
• qualitative
• home–school relations
• heritage immersion

Acknowledgements

The doctoral research from which this article was drawn was funded by a postgraduate fellowship to the first author from An Comhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta agus Gaelscoilíachta (COGG). We would like to thank COGG, in addition to the parents, children and schools who took part in the research.