Parental Involvement with Secondary School Leadership: The Experience of Four Vietnamese Immigrant Parents in Saskatoon

This multiple-case study aimed to examine how culture influences the way Vietnamese immigrants understand parental involvement with school leadership. The study was guided by three research questions: (1) How do Vietnamese immigrants articulate parental involvement with school leadership? (2) How are they involved in school leadership? and (3) What are the differences between their parental involvement practices in Canada and in Vietnam? Findings of the study indicated that the Vietnamese immigrant parents had no firm definition of parental involvement with school leadership. However, the idea of making a contribution to the school development existed in their mind. The study revealed that the participants were practicing five out of six types of parental involvement featured in Epstein’s (2001) model. Besides the practices similar to Epstein’s (2001) description, the participants were found to have some additional practices in parenting and supporting the children’s learning at home. None of the participants had any experience in volunteering at school. The findings also showed that there were three major differences between the participants’ parental involvement practices in Canada and Vietnam. The differences lay in the levels of parent-school communication, parents’ financial support to schools, and parents’ making school-related decisions. By answering the three research questions, this study provided insight into the Vietnamese immigrants’ understanding of parental involvement and confirmed that both Vietnamese culture and Canadian school culture had a significant impact on the frequency and quality of the immigrants’ parental involvement with school leadership.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Education (M.Ed.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Administration

Grantor

University of Saskatchewan

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Nguyen, Tram Thi Quynh 1990-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Okoko, Janet

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Walker, Keith
• Cottrell, Michael
• Brenna , Beverley
• Squires, Vicki

• Parental involvement
• School leadership
• Vietnam
• immigrant parents
• Vietnamese immigrants
• cultural influence
• culture

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10388/9236

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:harvest.usask.ca:10388/9236