A SURVEY OF TEACHERS’ AND PRINCIPALS’ PRACTICES AND CHALLENGES IN FOSTERING NEW IMMIGRANT PARENT INVOLVEMENT

This research, using questionnaire and interview data, examined practices and challenges of educators in areas of southern Ontario in fostering immigrant parents’ support for their children’s literacy. Results showed that teachers learn about the language and culture of their students, modify homework assigned to their ESL students, and encourage parents to read to their children in their mother tongue. Teachers need to increase their awareness of parents’ perceptions of authority and the role of their first language for success in their children’s English literacy. Teachers also need to understand parents’ role as co‐teachers at home. Key words: home‐school relationships, ESL parents, parents as co‐teachers, homework support Cette recherche faisant appel à un questionnaire et à des données tirées d’entrevues porte sur les pratiques et les défis d’enseignants du sud de l’Ontario qui veulent inciter des parents immigrants à favoriser la littératie chez leurs enfants. Les résultats indiquent que les enseignants apprennent à connaître la langue et la culture de leurs élèves, modifient les devoirs qu’ils demandent à leurs élèves en anglais langue seconde (ALS), de faire à la maison et encouragent les parents à faire la lecture à leurs enfants dans leur langue maternelle. Les enseignants ont besoin de se familiariser davantage avec les perceptions qu’ont les parents de l’autorité et du rôle de la langue maternelle dans le succès des enfants en littératie en anglais. Les enseignants doivent aussi comprendre le rôle des parents comme co‐enseignants à la maison. Mots clés : liens maison‐école, parents et ALS, parents comme co‐éducateurs, soutien pour les devoirs faits à la maison

Exile Vol. XXVI No. 1

Photo: Untitled by Jamie Bailey 3 Poem: Hi, My Name Is by Kathy Andrews 4 Poem: Untitled by Willi Haworth 5 Photo: Stratified Snow by Jim Lundy 6 Poem: Untitled by A. Pence 7 Poem: Akua\u27ba by Tona Dickerson 8 Photo: Untitled by Jim Lundy 9 Story: The Dogcatchers of Portimao by Debora Papierski 10-13 Photo: Untitled by Holly Hall 14 Poem: Tocopold Bloom: A Working Class Hero by Mary Ladky 15 Photo: Untitled by Cory Easter 16 Poem: A Mortal Wound by Peter Fish 17 Poem: Let Me Sleep by R. G. Trub 18-19 Photo: Modified Cube by Jim Lundy 20 Story: Untitled by Kathy Desmond 21-23 Photo: Untitled by Holly Hall 24 Poem: Untitled by Sharon McCartney 25 Photo: Untitled by Him Lundy 26 Poem: Every Morning I Wake by Peter Fish 27 Photo: Untitled by Rof Smith 28 Poem: For Mark Some Words by Bonny Lowe 29 Photo: Untitled by Jim Lundy 30 Poem: A Flash of Crooked Light by Lisa Minacci 31 Photo: Untitled by Jim Lundy 32 Poem: Paper Hearts by W. Dulles 33 Drawing: Untitled by Roger Weisman 34 Story: Untitled by Dane Lavin 35-42 Photo: Untitled by Jim Lundy 43 Special Thanks To Laurie Howard -