Abstract
This study aimed to gather parents’ insights and opinions about their involvement in their child’s education. This study was conducted at an affordable housing complex owned by Mutual Housing California with parents of children in the K-12 education system in Sacramento, California. Although it is hard to reach population, 20 parents were recruited for this study. The study was a qualitative study which included a brief questionnaire followed by a one hour focus group discussion. The emphasis was on parents’ opinions about their strengths, challenges, suggestions, and future on their engagement in their children’s education. The participants identified mostly as Latino (n=16) and the focus group discussions and all materials were offered in Spanish and English. The participants in this study were low income and the majority was first generation immigrants. In the literature, many families with these characteristics tend to be labeled as less likely to participate in their child’s education due to a variety of obstacles. Contrary to the literature, this study’s findings suggested that these parents were very engaged in their child’s education and further, wanted increased communication with teachers to be told how to engage more. Parents expressed their views on what improvements could be made such as: increased access to parent education, more opportunities for youth after school, and greater relationships with other parents at the apartment complex to build mutual aid. Overall, this study demonstrated that low income parents with barriers such as language, limited free time and financial struggles still engaged at high levels in their child’s education and had strong desires to be as involved as any other parent. The researcher recommended that the community utilize this study to reflect on the opinions of the parents to better strengthen the partnership between the school and the parents in the community. With a stronger partnership, parents and teachers could work together to ensure clear expectations and increase overall engagement in child education.