Centre for Shared Education
School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, Queen's University Belfast

Migrant and ethnic minority parents’ engagement with schools: the role of faith and culture capital recognition

All are welcome to register for this seminar with Dr Marta Moskal, University of Glasgow.

Abstract: Parental engagement with children’s learning can boost children’s self-esteem, increase motivation, and lead to better learning outcomes. Yet, little is known about migrant and ethnic minority parental engagement, including its efficacy and barriers. This paper explores the nature of equitable parental engagement and the relationship between home and schools, taking Central and Eastern European migrant families as an example of ethnic minority engagement.

To promote greater recognition and collaboration between teachers and parents, I employed a parental engagement continuum model proposed by Goodall and Montgomery (2014) to examine parental involvement and engagement census data (Scottish Government, 2022) and case study data (ESRC project ES/M011038/1) of Central and Eastern European migrant families’ experiences in England and Scotland. Some examples of parental involvement and engagement with children’s learning are discussed to demonstrate the benefits of moving away from the relationship between parents and schools to focus on the relationship between parents and their children’s learning. While literature discusses the lack of ‘relational trust’ between parents and teachers due to cultural and social distance, the paper points to faith as a bridging element in parental school choices and calls for recognition of parental cultural capital as a key contributor to pupils’ attainment.

Speaker: Dr Marta Moskal is Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Glasgow. Her work explores how cultural and social diversity can promote optimal education outcomes and how this knowledge can be translated into fair and inclusive policies and practices for migrant young people, families and students. Her research has been funded by the ESRC, AHRC, the British Academy and Erasmus+ and she has published in major journals including the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Children’s Geographies, and Race, Ethnicity and Education.