The Studies
The observations reported here result from two studies of immigrant students and their parents, reported in Gunderson and Anderson (in press). All study participants were born outside of Canada; most were permanent or “landed” immigrants (the Canadian equivalent to U.S. “green card” status), not Canadian citizens.
The first study was conducted in 9 schools in 4 British Columbia school districts and included 22 teachers, 3 principals, 1 vice principal, 3 cultural liaison workers, 51 parents, and 63 students. Semistructured interviews were conducted with all groups over an 18-month period. Parental interviews were conducted in each parent’s first language by interpreters who were members of the parent’s cultural and linguistic community. The researchers’ conclusions and observations were shared with the participants to ensure accuracy.
The participants in the second study were 30 parents from an urban area of western Canada. The 10 Chinese and 10 European parents were in professional-managerial professions; the 10 Indopean parents were in “blue collar” professions. The sample was drawn from among parents of children in three elementary schools (grades K-7, with learners aged 5 to 13 years) with fairly large populations of students learning English as a second language (ESL). Parents were interviewed either in the home or in their child’s school. An open-ended question -- “What are the five most important things you are doing to help your child learn to read and to write?” -- and the Parents’ Perceptions of Literacy Learning Interview Schedule (PPLLIS; Anderson, 1994) were used. The parents were interviewed in their first language by a trained research assistant from their own cultural group.
Reading Online, www.readingonline.org
Posted February 2001
© 2001 International Reading Association, Inc. ISSN 1096-1232