Working with African Immigrant Children and Parents: Challenges and Training Needs from Middle and High School Teachers' Perspectives

Background

African immigrants represent one of the fastest growing groups in the US, with almost half arriving since 2000.  Almost 40% are Somali.  Transition into the public school systems is a challenge for many children and their parents.   Difficult transitions are linked with low academic success and poor mental health functioning, both risk factors for poor transition into adulthood.  

                Teachers report less familiarity with religious diversity, few training opportunities about immigrant student/parent needs.    They are less prepared to address the educational or psychosocial needs of students.  For many immigrant families, there are differences in how teachers and parents and their children view education.    Efforts often focus on children (behavior problems, low motivation) and parents (poor communication skills) rather than strategies that focus on school-related issues.  Few studies have examined these issues from the perspective of the teachers and school officials that work with these immigrant families.

Methods

Samples include: (1) teachers from public middle or high schools that serve the east African immigrant community located in a large urban city in the northeast and (2) African immigrant parents.  Four focus groups were conducted with teachers (n=20) exploring: experiences working with immigrant families; their understanding about the culture, religion, and refugee/immigration experiences; challenges in working with families; and training needs.   Additionally a focus group was conducted to explore these issues with school officials (n=5).  Using a questionnaire translated into native languages, parents (n=125) were asked about their experiences with their school system, spiritual beliefs, involvement in faith communities, and immigrant experiences. 

Descriptive statistics from parent responses were used to provide a context and inform the development of focus group questions.  Qualitative analyses used an inductive, thematic process in a phenomenological approach to produce an explication of the data.

Results

Over 50% of the families immigrated recently (3-8 years).  Most (82%) parents spoke their native language at home.   Parents underscored the importance of self-advocacy in addressing children’s educational needs and the role that culture and religion has in their lives.  They reported not able to negotiate for their children and themselves in working with the school.  Many found communication difficult with school officials, feeling their needs were not understood.

                Focus group findings identified teachers’ lack of familiarity with Somali or other east African cultures, religion, transitional immigrant experiences, particularly in refugee camps.  Teachers identified a need for information and training opportunities to learn about perspectives that their students’ parents have regarding educational goals, needs for support.   Findings pointed to training areas that schools could offer teachers, an interest to establish closer working relationships with immigrant community organizations.

Conclusions/Implications

Teachers underscored the importance of collaborative relationships with immigrant families going beyond a focus on students’ academics to include better understandings of students’ cultural,  religious/spiritual contexts.  Teacher in-service efforts can start this process; partnerships between the local community immigrant organization and the school of social work (SSW) can support these efforts.  Implications include recommendations for practice (collaborative efforts between immigrant organization, school, and SSW internships) and research (barriers/facilitating factors for development of parent/school partnerships).