We Are Here for the Future of Our Kids: Parental Involvement in Refugee Adolescents’ Educational Endeavours in the United States

Abstract

Every year, thousands of young refugees and their families face challenges as they adjust to schools in the US. This article explores how families resettled to the US from conflict-affected, Arab-majority countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, such as Iraq and Syria, view education, and how parents support their children’s education following the experiences of resettlement. To centre the voices and lived experiences of these families, we analysed focus group discussions with 30 adolescents and in-depth interviews with 30 parents and 27 key informants. Analysis using constant comparative method and thematic analysis showed that, upon resettlement, education remained highly valued by families. Our study finds that, despite the challenges associated with families’ newcomer status, parents in this study provided educational support to their children by engaging with the school and with their children’s learning at home. We offer suggestions on how schools and organizations can bolster parents’ ability to support their children’s education.

Introduction

Refugees resettling to the US face significant challenges as they adjust to their new societies. For children and adolescents, who comprise nearly half the refugee population worldwide [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 2019], education is a high priority and a fundamental right [United Nations (UN) 1948], yet displacement frequently disrupts their education (Sheikh and Anderson 2018). This disruption leads to increased marginalization, decreased integration, and lower levels of school adjustment after resettlement (Bang 2017). Globally, gaps in children’s education contribute to downward spirals in health, social, and emotional well-being and lifetime earning potential (Boyden et al. 2019).

Full participation in school helps newcomers to learn about the institutions and norms of their new society and develop academic and social–emotional skills, while also improving their future economic and health outcomes (Adams 2002; Tamborini et al. 2015; Ma et al. 2016; Zajacova and Lawrence 2018). In school, newcomers can develop healthy relationships with peers and mentors, which provide an important channel for acculturation (Sheikh and Anderson 2018) and can learn to navigate an educational setting that differs sharply from their old one (Custodio and O'Loughlin 2017). These benefits are particularly important for refugees, whose displacement places them at the higher risk of poor health, psychosocial, and financial outcomes (Yako and Biswas 2014; Miller and Rasmussen 2017; Sheikh and Anderson 2018; Hodes and Vostanis 2019).

Ideally, family plays a central role in supporting young people’s education. For many families, educating children and adolescents is part of family capital, defined as ‘the ensemble of means, strategies, and resources embodied in the family’s way of life that influences the future of their children’ (Gofen 2009: 115). Families that prioritize education actively encourage their children’s participation and learning in school. High parental expectations of their children’s educational achievement boost adolescents’ own educational aspirations and academic performance (Kirk et al. 2011). For vulnerable populations, parental messages around the importance of education help to motivate students to pursue and complete higher education (Gofen 2009). In addition, parents’ involvement at school further promotes their children’s educational achievement (Lee and Bowen 2006). Six ‘types’ of parental involvement have been previously identified in the literature: ‘(1) parenting: help by school to families regarding their parenting skills and home environment conducive to learning; (2) communicating: regular exchange of information between schools and parents about curriculum and students’ progress; (3) volunteering: encourage parents to participate in school activities; (4) learning at home: support of parental help with homework and other curriculum-related activities; (5) decision-making: involve parents in school management; and (6) collaborating with the community: find and incorporate community resources to aid parenting and learning at school’ (Epstein 2010, cited in Antony-Newman 2019: 363).

However, multiple challenges associated with refugee resettlement can impede parental support for and involvement in their children’s education (Bennouna et al. 2019a). Parents may be concerned that their children will background or reject their native culture(s). Language barriers as well as difficulty understanding and navigating school systems may prevent parents from active and meaningful engagement (Bloch and Hirsch 2017; Antony-Newman 2019; Bennouna et al. 2019a). Economic pressures and increased stressors within the family may also make it difficult for parents to support their children’s education. Finally, the challenges of adapting to a new context of reception rife with xenophobia, anti-refugee sentiment, and discrimination may also serve as a barrier to parental engagement with schools, as we have found in previous articles related to this study (Bennouna et al. 2019a,b; Stark et al. 2020).

SALaMA is a multi-sited study that aims to increase our understanding of refugee adolescents’ mental health and psychological well-being following resettlement to the US from conflict-affected, Arab-majority countries, such as Syria, Iraq, and Sudan. This article builds on previous findings by drawing on a subset of data that are part of the broader SALaMA study to analyse how refugees from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region who have resettled in the US view education and the role that families play in supporting their children’s education. We use qualitative data from students, parents and other key informants to explore and amplify the voices and lived experiences of refugees and to identify ways in which family supports may be bolstered to support educational endeavours.

Methods

Setting

Austin, TX, and Harrisonburg, VA, were purposively selected as data collection sites due to existing connections with the school systems in these settings and their relatively high number of resettled families from MENA countries. In Virginia and Texas, respectively, 28.1 and 19.5 per cent of refugees and special immigrant visa holders were from the MENA region in 2015, surpassing the national average of 15.6 per cent (Office of Refugee Resettlement 2016). In both cities, support to refugees was offered in the community and school settings. For example, the Austin Independent School District (AISD) Refugee Family Support Office provided a variety of services, such as language and translation support, assistance with school registration, tutoring, and social and emotional support. The office also worked with community agencies to coordinate other culturally responsive resources that met refugees’ basic needs and informed local policy making related to refugees. In Harrisonburg, the newcomer programme helped refugee youth transition into the school system by providing opportunities for students to learn basic English through immersion classes, to establish relationship with peers through courses that were integrated with the general student body, and to learn about their new environment through cross-cultural orientation classes.

In addition, in both cities, the school districts had liaisons who were from the predominant regions of newcomer students, including some from the MENA region. These liaisons facilitated communication between families, schools, and community service providers and kept parents informed of their children’s academic progress. Finally, resettled families also received direct support from their communities, including from US-born families and other refugees. In both cities, refugees often lived in clusters of other resettled families, due to existing arrangements that resettlement agencies had established with local property managers.

Participants and Recruitment Process

This study targeted three groups of participants, namely: (1) high school students (13–23 years) who were born in or experienced displacement from conflict-affected, MENA countries; (2) their parents or caregivers; and (3) key informants responsible for providing services or programming related to the first two groups (see Table 1). Key informants included teachers, guidance counsellors, school district/division administrators, case workers, therapists, and community-based organization (CBO) personnel.

Table 1

Number of Participants by Location

Variables	Austin, n (%)	Harrisonburg, n (%)	All sites, n
Total sessions	28	23	51
Interview type
Key informants	17	10	27
Caregivers	16	14	30
FGDs	13	17	30
Total participants	46	41	87
Sex
Female	24	23	47
Male	22	18	40
FGD participant’s age
14	2	1	3
15	4	0	4
16	6	5	11
17	1	6	7
18	0	4	4
19	0	1	1
Country of origin
Iraq	16 (55.2)	25 (80.6)	41
Syria	8 (27.6)	3 (9.7)	11
Sudan	5 (17.2)	3 (9.7)	8
Total	29 (100)	31 (100)	60

The total number of unique participants is 85. Two adolescents participated in both caregiver interviews and FGDs.

In both cities, the researchers worked systematically with school officials to prepare a list of adolescents and caregivers from MENA and also key informants. The research team and an Arabic interpreter who had been trained on the study purpose, methodology, and orientation contacted adult caregivers by telephone or email, explaining the purpose of the study and inquiring about their children’s interest in participating. Families that expressed interest were visited by the researcher and interpreter to review the study, answer any questions, and complete written informed consent for adults and/or their children to participate. In Harrisonburg, 17 of 25 contacted families agreed to participate (one declined and seven had not been successfully reached by mail). In Austin, 14 of 48 contacted families participated (eight refused, five consented but did not show up for data collection, and the rest could not be reached). Following parental consent, written informed assent for the adolescents was completed at a public high school.

Sample Characteristics

Table 1 shows that a total of 51 sessions [individual interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs)] were conducted, with 87 participants (85 unique participants), with equal numbers of total participants for Austin and Harrisonburg. Over half (59 per cent) the interviewees were female. The majority of participants in our sample were refugees from Iraq (68.3 per cent), followed by Syria (18.3 per cent), and Sudan (13.3 per cent). The adolescents were all in high school and between the ages of 14 and 19 years, with a median age of 16. Although our study focused on adolescents, some families also had elementary and middle school aged children, whom they occasionally discussed or referenced in the interviews. Most (85 per cent) of the participating families were two-parent households. The amount of time that these families had lived in the US ranged from 2 to 9 years, with a median of 4 years. For the most part, adults in our sample worked in low-skilled jobs (e.g. construction, food processing, transportation), which often did not match their education and training or the skilled professions they had in their country of origin. Participants overall reported difficulty with learning English, which impacted their ability to interact with support services. For caregivers, this language difficulty also impacted their career prospects.

Data Collection

In July 2018, the research team conducted semi-structured interviews with key informants and caregivers and school-based FGDs with students. Parent/caregiver interview questions centred on displacement and resettlement experiences, acculturative stressors, engagement with schools and health care, and perceptions of children’s adjustment. Key informant interview questions focused on challenges faced by newcomers and the supports in place to promote positive outcomes. The researchers also conducted gender-stratified student focus groups to explore adolescents’ experiences at school, including their interactions with educators, parents, and peers. FGDs ended with a participatory ranking exercise to elicit participants’ ideas for improving school supports for resettled students from MENA.

At both sites, an Arabic interpreter, trained in conducting interviews of war-affected children and adolescents, was present as necessary. All interviews and FGDs were audio-recorded, unless a participant declined. The researchers also took detailed field notes. The audio files were transcribed and de-identified.

Ethical Considerations

As described above, the researcher involved systematic informed consent and assent processes. To enable safe, ethical interviews, the researchers avoided asking aggressive questions that could trigger difficult memories, worked closely with schools and community NGOs on how to approach refugees and where to conduct the research safely, and engaged with interpreters from MENA who were known and trusted in the communities. The researchers also trained everyone involved in data collection on the ethics of research with children (Graham et al. 2015; Bennouna and Stark 2020), organized referrals for specialized care in case any participants needed it, maintained participant confidentiality, and de-identified and secured participants’ data.

The research protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Boards (IRB) at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health (IRB-AAAR7830), Washington University in St. Louis (IRB-201905151), AISD’s Department of Research and Evaluation (R18.62), and the Superintendent of Schools at HCPS.

Analysis

The research team analysed the data using thematic analysis and the constant comparative method (Silverman 2015; Glaser and Strauss 2017). Initial codes were developed following review of all transcripts. These codes were compared to the relevant literature, and analytic memos and an initial codebook were subsequently created. The principal investigator and the research team provided feedback on the codebook, with changes made as appropriate. The codebook was finalized following application to a subset of the data. A team of coders with backgrounds in public health, social work, psychology, and refugee resettlement were recruited and trained on the study protocol and codebook. Together, the research team created 56 codes and built inter-coder reliability (at least 66.7 per cent on tested codes) using Dedoose’s Training Center (Table A1). The lead analyst reviewed and resolved ambiguities in coding applications.

Results

Despite the various challenges that families faced during and after resettlement, education continued to play an important role in their lives. The following analysis focuses on three, interrelated themes: (1) the value of education among refugee families; (2) parental involvement in their children’s education; and (3) barriers to parental support of their children’s education.

The Value of Education

Parents generally placed a high value on education, backed by the belief that high academic achievement provided a path to higher education and, ultimately, a promising future. In particular, parents recognized that educational opportunities in the US were often much better than those in their home countries or countries of first asylum. Parents’ appreciation of the importance of education was heightened by their awareness of their own losses and hardships and their hopes that life in the US would better position their children for a positive future. One parent from Syria expressed: ‘We are so happy that we have good education for our kids because we are here for the future of our kids.’ Another parent from Iraq stated: ‘I cannot live if he will not graduate from college because I work really hard for him to be in this position.’

Education participation and success were seen not in strictly individual terms but as benefits to the whole family. One student from Iraq described what obtaining an education meant to him and his family:

…Going to America and getting like a degree is like a big thing for like our family. Like, they’re really like counting on you. Like they’re counting on you to come here, get a degree, buy them a house or some like, it’s, it’s just like they, to pay them back. Like they, they brought you all the way over here and the struggles that, that they had is like a lot.

Given the sacrifices and commitment caregivers made for their children, most parents had high aspirations for their children’s education and future careers. As one father from Syria shared: ‘I have big hope in them and I hope that they will be something in the future.’ Another parent from Iraq explained: ‘So we are as a family, we [are] very encouraging, studying and we love the knowledge, and we hope that all of our children will graduate with high certificate.’ Similarly, a mother from Iraq stated:

So, I try to plant this idea and this concept in my children. When you aim to be a doctor don’t just be a doctor, be a successful one. When you want to be a teacher, you don’t want to be a teacher only, but be a successful one. Any job you want to be, don’t only be a teacher, or pharmacist, or doctor, but be a successful one.

Adolescents were generally encouraged to seek prestigious or high-income professions, such as medicine, law, or engineering. As a result, they were well aware of their family expectations for success. One male student from Iraq explained that he would receive the following messages from his family: ‘Go to college’, ‘Be a doctor’, and That’s all you hear from them’. The encouragement to seek these particular professions reflected the type of status and social mobility that parents expected of their children.

However, not all parents had strict rules or set expectations regarding their children’s education or career. As one male student shared, ‘My family, they want me [to] do what I wanna do, because they got forced [by what] their parents wanted [them] to do.’ One father from Syria demonstrated flexibility, allowing his son to make the final decision: ‘…I sit down and talk to him. That you have this school here and it will be your option. You want to finish your education; it will be your option. You don’t, again it’s your option.’ Similarly, one parent from Iraq explained, ‘I’m not pushing her immediately but step by step.’

The importance placed on academic achievement frequently led to conversations where parents expressed concern that their children were not taking their studies seriously. One mother from Iraq shared: ‘…I talk to him about that and express my worries about his quitting studies early and he telling me, I’m okay, don’t worry about me.’ Several parents expected children to focus on their studies and avoid potential distractions. As one student from Iraq explained, ‘… my parents were kind of worried about that, ‘cause like I was playing too much and they’re like when later on when you grow up that’s gonna catch up to you.’

Parental Support

The degree and type of support for education caregivers offered varied across families due to limitations parents faced integrating into their new communities. Broadly, this support entailed educational support directly offered to the child via the parent–child relationship and indirect support via parental–school involvement.

Support via the Parent–Child Relationship

Several parents/caregivers mentioned providing psychological and emotional support through encouragement and affirmation. One female student from Iraq shared that her mother ‘was always supporting me. Like, she was like “You can do it, you can do it, you can always do it.”’ These parents affirmed their children’s endeavours by lauding their accomplishments, as was well captured in one Iraqi father’s story:

Well, you see my daughter, when she come a few years ago to U.S., she didn’t know a single English word. Now she’s very developed [in] English and fluent and all what you see in front of you is your effort as a parent … that’s what you did, that’s what you try to help her and support her … She [i]s able to say big speech in front of a big audience, so me and my wife are so proud of our daughter.

Parents also supported their children by making adaptations and decisions that best positioned their children to succeed. Worried that her son was struggling academically at the first school he attended upon resettlement, one mother from Syria decided to work fewer hours to switch him to a school that would better fit his academic needs:

We are refugees, we have more challenges against us because our kids are learning in a second language. It’s not learning like in their mother tongue. So, if you take all of these considerations into your mind, then, for sure, he will not be able to make it. So, that’s why I made the decision to bring him to [this] school. Because I want to offer him the most suitable education environment here in [this] high school.

Parents also assisted with and advised on their children’s schoolwork. A mother from Iraq explained, ‘I was teaching them at home, teaching them English letters and math ….’ Even when faced with language barriers, some parents helped their children with subjects such as maths. A female student from Iraq said:

I remember she’s [the mother] good at math. But in the same time, sometime there’s English equation and she sit with us and translate it and so she teach us in Arabic and then we figure it out so we can solve it in English, and then do all the process.

When parents were unable to help their children at home, they encouraged their children to seek teachers’ support. The parents of a male student from Sudan offered the following advice: ‘Stay after school, talk to your teacher, and then just ask questions when you have to ask questions, don’t be shy and ignore when people are making fun of you.’

Parental support sometimes came in the form of monitoring their children’s studying, learning, and grades. One male student shared how his parents checked in on his learning: ‘…And then when I come back home, they’re like what did you learn today?’ Another male student from Iraq described, ‘My mum will definitely get on me for not doing my homework.’ However, other parents were less involved in monitoring school performance. One male student from Sudan stated: ‘I just come from home, they don’t look at my grades, they don’t ask about my grades so I have to tell my own grades, and I have to make it up if I’m failing. But I pretty much never failed.’

Parents also encouraged their children to improve their English and to learn about the US by building relationships with English speaking peers. One Iraqi mother commented:

… I was very determined, and I charged them all the time to make friendship with this community and improve their English. And that’s why I was very eager that they have good education in the school. And I was keeping on them that if you have good English or you do very well in school you’ll be able to do your correspondence, your mail, your email, so try to make friends with your community.

Similarly, another mother said: ‘We want them to learn about all the traditions, all about American culture, and we want them to know people different than us.’

At the same time, parents sought to guide, or interfere with, their children’s peer relationships in school as a means of avoiding bad behaviour (e.g. peer pressure) and strengthening their connection with their cultural heritage. Concerned about adolescents’ engagement in drug use, fighting, or other behaviour deemed unacceptable (e.g. girls interacting with boys), parents advised on how to navigate peer relationships both in the school and in the community. Some parents advised their children to be selective in the friendships they made and to prioritize school over peer relationships. As one father described, ‘I advise them to keep only one friend because of conflict or problems.’ A mother from Iraq explained how her son was told by his friends that he could leave home at the age of 18, but she preferred to maintain the tradition of her home country, where children often continued to live with their parents into their adulthood. She asked, ‘Why does he have to leave at 18, when I have room for him in my home?’ She added that, ‘When his friends say you have just one more year … it hurts me. “This is not your life, don’t follow them.” His friends live different lives from us, their traditions are different.’ Parents addressed these concerns by continuing to teach their children their native language and traditions and encouraging community building with other Arab families to learn about and maintain their cultural identity. One mother from Iraq described, ‘We taught them to speak Arabic, write Arabic, and read Arabic.’

School Involvement

Some parents openly acknowledged the importance of being involved in their children’s school. As stated by one parent from Syria: ‘You must be in contact with the school of your kids so you know everything about their education.’ Parents’ high levels of involvement with school were evident in this key informant’s observation:

Our parents and families are hungry to learn, they want to know, and we are teaching them how to advocate for themselves. I often joke around at our parent meetings [that] my favorite question is, ‘How many credits does your child need to graduate?’

Direct communication with the school, often by phone or email or even in person, was a frequently used strategy for parental engagement. Speaking of his parents’ involvement, a male student said: ‘They just come to school, ask a lot of questions.’ One mother from Syria recalled about her younger child:

I had good communication with the middle school because they at least emailed me two to three emails every week. And also, every two to three months, there’s a parent conference with the teachers. So, we gather in the cafeteria and do that conference.

Parents also engaged via school-facilitated channels to follow their children’s academic progress. As one father explained:

Daily I follow up when they go to the school, they come back, they have homework, so I follow up the process for [this]. Also, between time and time I visit the school and I have application on my cell phone, so I directly speak with teachers.

Another parent stated, ‘I was always communicating with his school by email.’ Finally, a father from Syria said: ‘Yes, I attend meetings at school. They call me and tell me that you are invited to a meeting and I just go.’ Through visits, parents learned of programmes and events that were important for furthering their children’s educational goals. As one student from Iraq explained: ‘The principal taught her [the mother] about STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math], she taught her about ‘What’s this program?’ so my mom brought it to me and then she wanted me to be in the program.’

Parents’ school involvement also included advocacy for their children’s interests and needs. When starting at a new school, grade placement and advancement was a common point of concern for both adolescents and parents, as many adolescents faced language barriers and interrupted schooling. Adolescents’ language skills, academic capabilities, and available transcripts from previous schools often did not match the grade their age indicated they should be placed in, which resulted in difficult conversations and decisions. One student from Iraq recalled this challenge when he first arrived to the country a few years back:

When I came here, we had a meeting with the principal of the middle school and they wanted to put me a grade back because of my age. But I came in the middle of second semester of 6^th grade. So they’re like ‘We don’t know what to do,’ my family said ‘No.’ They didn’t understand it because … when you drop a grade in my country it’s a big thing. So they didn’t know what to do and my family was like ‘You’re going to summer school and finishing some of the 6^th grade that you missed’ and stuff.

After his parents advocated for having him attend summer school, the student participated in summer school, caught up to his peers, and enroled in the appropriate grade level the following fall.

Wanting their children’s grade level in school to match their ability, some parents advocated for holding their children back a bit. As one parent from Syria shared about his 7-year-old daughter, who had been struggling with English language:

… she has some challenges academically. So, we ask the school not to proceed her to second grade. She is still in the first grade. So, she can have more practice and more control of what she is learning.

Parents also advocated for developing and using supports that would better meet the needs of their children. One key informant from a local CBO described how their organization initiated dialogue to address parents’ concerns regarding how prior trauma would impact their children’s schooling: ‘We had this meeting at the school where parents could come and talk about their kids, and um, their concerns about their kids and how to help their kids in school.’ In addition, parents advocated for adequate language support at school as one mother from Iraq described:

I went to school and talked to them and we found a solution for that problem […] [we] reached a kind of agreement that her teacher when she give her list [of what] to do, kind of studying—she translate for her into Arabic.

Finally, parents served as advocates for peer conflict resolution. One parent described how she addressed her daughter’s experience of bullying by her peers:

So, I complained to the school. My husband went there and complained about the students and the school said ‘It’s okay, we are going to handle it. We are going to talk to their parents and handle it.’

Barriers to Support

Many parents faced barriers that impacted the extent to which they could support their children’s education. Families’ new economic circumstances often meant that both parents were working long hours, leaving them with limited time to devote to their children’s schooling. As one school key informant described the parent–teacher association (PTA):

It is very hard. The traditional PTA … doesn’t work. We have people working 2^nd and 3^rd shift. We have very hard-working families with jobs it is very difficult. We have to take whatever we have whenever we can.

Also, parents’ lack of understanding of the US education system often limited their ability to support children’s education. One student reflected on the limitations faced by several refugee parents:

They don’t know a lot of stuff, their English might be bad and they’re scared to come to school and stuff … Their family might not even know what AVID [Advancement Via Individual Determination] is or what STEM is or what JROTC [The Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps] or anything, but they still try help their kids. But they could only do so much …

Another male student offered a related observation:

The involvement of parents in schools is basically at home, because whatever we experience here, we talk to our parents about it, but they [are] never directly involved because they don’t know much about school, especially the systems and stuff. So, everything they want is to ask that we are fine, but they really don’t know what’s exactly going on in the school.

One female student described the impact of having parents that did not understand how to navigate the US course structure. ‘Sometimes their [U.S. born students] parents help them choose classes. In our situation, the parent doesn’t know what’s going on. We’re the ones that gotta just do it.’

In addition, a barrier to parental involvement, and the parent–school relationship more broadly, was that school personnel did not always have the awareness or skills to facilitate parental engagement in a culturally responsive manner. Community liaison and service providers played an important role in cultural brokering; however, time and resource limitations meant that they were not always available to provide sufficient support. One key informant described a situation in which a teacher wanted to call Child Protective Services on a family because the student had come to school only wearing boxers. The key informant described, ‘… we got involved before they did that, and said, “woah, woah, woah, let’s, let’s slow down. And let’s call the family and let’s see what’s going on here. I’m sure this is just a cultural misunderstanding of, “what is this new clothing that I have, that I haven’t been exposed to before” ….” The key informant added that, while she was able to intervene in this case, several comparable instances had only been reported to her after the fact.

Beyond the school, parents struggled to support their children at home due to not being able to understand their schoolwork. As a father caregiver explained: ‘… she [student] was struggling last year with math. We couldn’t help her because we don’t know exactly what she’s taking—we don’t have an idea, we are like blinded totally.’ A male student from Iraq stated: ‘I don’t know cause they [his parents] want to help me but they can’t because they can’t understand what I’m doing. But it’s just hard for them to understand.’

Language barriers were another common limitation for caregivers, with adolescents frequently serving as interpreters and/or gatekeepers of information between their parents and the school systems. As one mother from Iraq stated:

Actually, my son is the point of communication between us because I gave my son’s phone number and his email. So, if they [the school] have anything, they contact my son and my son will tell me.

Of course, complications also accompanied adolescents’ role as interpreters. Along with potential misunderstandings due to limitations in adolescents’ language abilities, there were also challenges with adolescents being the gatekeepers of information involving them and a school system that their parents did not understand. According to one school key informant:

My refugee students very much like being in control of their own. They don’t tell parents much of anything. There’s a total disconnect between the parent involvement in school, different than we would expect in that kind of affluent neighborhood where other parents are way involved in their child’s education. Here, with the refugees, it’s a struggle so students don’t share and parents aren’t following up, necessarily, with their students.

Another school key informant discussed a situation in which the school wanted to hold back a student who was academically unprepared for the next grade. Initially, the father agreed with the school’s recommendation but was later convinced by the student to do what the student preferred. As the key informant described:

The kid has been fighting it ever since. And the kid has now convinced his parents to jump from what would be eighth grade this year to go all the way to high school this coming year … So, when the dad called me, you could tell they [the child] were kind of coaching him on what to say to me.

Discussion

This study explored the perceptions of education among refugees of MENA origin who had been displaced and resettled in the US. The study also explored the role that parents play in supporting their children’s education and the barriers these parents face while attempting to offer this support. The families in this study placed a high value on educational attainment, a finding that adds to the mixed literature on this topic among immigrants more broadly. For example, substantive evidence suggests that immigrant parents emphasize the importance of education for their children, motivating them to excel in school as compared to their native-born counterparts (Suárez-Orozco and Suárez-Orozco 1995; Schaller et al. 2007). However, Custodio and O'Loughlin (2017) find that, although immigrants generally value education and recognize its importance, education may become secondary as families adjusting to their new societies with little social support are forced to focus on meeting their basic needs.

Settling for More

This study offers additional insight into parents’ prioritization of and capacity for supporting adolescents’ education among refugees more specifically. In addition to the challenges associated with immigrating and acculturating to a new country, refugee families often bear the added burden of adverse life experiences, including interrupted education. Nonetheless, findings from this study suggest that, despite the challenges faced by refugee families as they transitioned from displacement to resettlement, parents maintained and prioritized their value for education. The high value placed on education in this study population, and the aspirations for particular forms of educational and career success, may in part be inflected by participants’ MENA backgrounds. Haboush and Barakat (2014), for example report that education tends to be highly valued among Arab Americans because of its role in reinforcing the family unit, which is also highly valued. However, several families in the study faced shifting parent–child power dynamics as adolescents became the gatekeepers of their own education due to the language barriers facing their parents. These shifting parent–child relationships, sometimes accompanied by a growing generational divide, have been previously explored among non-MENA immigrants, and studies suggest that interventions emphasizing the transitional nature of adapting to the new society can help mediate family challenges and support intrafamilial relationships (Suárez-Orozco and Suárez-Orozco 1995). Further research exploring how these shifting roles impact the family unit for refugees specifically could be useful in providing insight into how family relationships can be supported while integrating into new host countries and navigating new educational systems.

Similar to findings by Gofen (2009), families in the present study perceived education as a vital, long-term investment for a better future for their children. Education has a long-standing link with social mobility and financial security. Given the loss of social and economic capital that many of these refugees experience due to their displacement, education becomes one avenue to regain lost status and long-term financial security. In this study, parents often had high expectations regarding the type of careers their children should pursue through their education, often because they represented future security and upward mobility. This study supports the argument that states and organizations serving refugees and other displaced people should prioritize educational opportunities. In addition to providing refugees with opportunities to secure a prosperous financial future, education is also a right that supports refugees’ healthy development, facilitates refugees’ integration into host countries, and enhances refugees’ ability to contribute to society.

Parenting in Resettlement

In this study, parents openly provided their children with messaging around the importance of education to their future, as well as the high expectations for their children’s educational attainment. Although this analysis focused on parental perspectives, rather than student perspective or academic performance, previous studies have found that parental expectations for education can be significantly predictive of adolescent’s own aspirations and academic achievement (Kirk et al. 2011). As such, it is possible that this positive messaging may better position these adolescents to succeed academically. Although not all parents had strict expectations, and some parents recognized the limitations to their children’s academic opportunities given their years of interrupted education and age at resettlement, many parents still wanted their children to do their best in their academic pursuits. These high expectations may serve as a motivator for these adolescents to do well academically (Kirk et al. 2011) and to potentially pursue higher education (Gofen 2009). At the same time, it is possible that, given the challenges mentioned above, these high expectations may be unrealistic and place undue stress on these adolescents. Further research exploring how adolescents perceive and respond to these educational expectations within the context of their new circumstances may be useful in identifying ways in which schools can better support these adolescents and work with families.

Along with extensive messaging around the importance of education, parents also made meaningful efforts to support their children’s schooling. Many parents offered encouragement and some parents verbally expressed the pride they had regarding their children’s progress. These types of affirming messages have been shown to be crucial to children’s self-esteem, which in turn can have implications for academic achievement (Fox et al. 2004). Parents also provided their children with advice on how to navigate peer relationships and build community, hoping that these relationships would better position children to do well academically and integrate into the larger community. Although parents wanted their children to make friends and become part of the community, advice around peer relationships also focused on helping youth avoid distractions so that they could focus on their schooling, as well as avoid relationships that encouraged behaviour that parents deemed unacceptable, such as drug use, fighting, or developing relationships with peers of other genders. In some situations, this advice resulted in youth limiting the amount of time spent engaging in extracurricular activities. Though meant to be protective, this type of parental messaging could be counterproductive to helping refugee youth integrate into their new communities, since peer support and school attachment tend to promote acculturation (Sheikh and Anderson 2018). Extracurricular activities, in particular, have been shown to propagate friendships for adolescents and bolster students’ applications for college admissions (Cherng et al. 2014). These findings suggest an opportunity for schools to work with parents to foster supportive peer and school relationships for adolescents, while also preventing potentially harmful behaviours (e.g. drug use, criminal activities).

In our analysis, parental involvement was most commonly exemplified through learning at home and communicating with schools. Several parents—despite barriers related to language, lack of initial familiarity with US schools, competing demands on their time and resources—took it upon themselves to supplement their children’s learning by teaching their children concepts covered in school at home. It is possible that this process strengthened the parent–child relationships, as these adolescents could see their parents’ demonstrated commitment to their education. Moreover, the additional support received from parents may have positioned their children to do better academically. Similarly, many of the parents in this study recognized the importance of communicating with the school about their children’s academic progress. Bergset (2017) argues that, through high parental involvement, parents position themselves to identify their children’s academic needs and to take initiative in their child’s education. Although other research has found that parental engagement with the school can be lacking among other immigrant groups for a variety of reasons (Antony-Newman 2019), the existing community and school services in these study areas likely facilitated these parents’ ability to interact with their children’s schools (Bennouna et al. 2019a). For example, in both cities there were established community supports and cultural liaisons that encouraged parent and school communication (Bennouna et al. 2019a). These supports may have addressed barriers noted in the literature that has found that not having language supports in the school served as a barrier to parental participation (Antony-Newman 2019; Bennouna et al. 2019b).

Participants’ family circumstances may also have contributed to the level of parental involvement that these parents exhibited. A majority of the families in our sample were composed of two-parent households. It is possible that, for some families, having two parents in the household afforded at least one parent the time to communicate with schools. Some of the parents in our sample also had formal education and degrees in their home country, which may have framed the ways in which they perceived and engaged in their children’s education. In addition, parents in the study had varying English language abilities. Having some command of the English language enhanced parents’ ability to communicate directly with schools whenever they needed to, as opposed to going through formalities to receive support from a third party. Finally, those parents who had access to transportation, personal computers, and other resources that could facilitate direct communication with school personnel were likely more capable of engaging routinely with schools. Individual parental characteristics may also play an important role in the level of parental involvement in adolescents’ education. For example, prior research has found that parents taking on the role of ‘active initiators’ tend to have more mainstream school involvement (Bergset 2017).

The Limits of Parental Engagement

Although many parents made a significant effort to support their children’s education, to a large extent, parents in this study did not commonly report engaging in other forms of parental involvement activities (i.e. parenting, volunteering, decision-making, or collaborating with the community) outside of learning at home and communication with schools. These findings may be in part due to the fact that our study did not directly ask about each of the various types of parental involvement and instead asked parents generally how they were involved in their children’s school. However, lacking participation in these other ‘types’ of parental involvement may also be largely due to the barriers and limitations posed by families’ circumstances. Although some schools attempted to address barriers, for example by offering parent meetings during times that could better fit parents’ schedules, parents’ demanding jobs often made it difficult for them to accommodate such arrangements. This limit to school involvement was potentially compounded by a lack of understanding of the school system. Despite the fact that some parents actively advocated in their children’s best interest, parents’ lack of understanding of the school system limited the ways in which they could advocate for their children and support their children in navigating the school system. Other research has similarly noted how parents’ lack of understanding of the school system can prevent parents from meaningfully engaging in their children’s education (Bloch and Hirsch 2017; Antony-Newman 2019). Further research exploring the level of parent involvement may be useful.

Finally, parents, adolescents, and key informants alike commonly noted that language was a significant barrier to parental involvement. This finding is well supported in the literature (Bergset 2017; Bloch and Hirsch 2017; Antony-Newman 2019). Refugee parents are often in precarious positions as they find themselves attempting to navigate new systems while being unable to communicate well with the agents of those systems. This struggle has implications for both adolescents’ education and family dynamics. It has been argued that having a child take on the role of language broker can lead to a role reversal, as parents’ inability to communicate with the school places great onus on the adolescent. However, Weisskirch (2010) argues that there is minimal research supporting the idea that language brokering results in a complete role reversal or power shift. Although shifting dynamics appeared to have occurred for some families, others indicated that having their children translate served as a source of pride.

Ultimately, the barriers noted by these participants may hinder school engagement and parents’ ability to support their children’s academic endeavours. Given the important role of family capital in supporting young people’s education, as well as the strong, positive association between parental school involvement and children’s academic achievement (Lee and Bowen 2006), these findings highlight opportunities for schools to better support refugee families and youth’s educational journeys. Given the ways in which parental involvement may be impacted by the many demands refugee parents face, schools should focus on opportunities to engage with these parents, such as when they enrol, to gain an understanding of their challenges and ways in which they hope to support their children. School intervention aimed at facilitating parental engagement could consider the main ways in which parents support their children, through learning at home and communication, and identify creative ways to support and expand beyond this type of parental involvement. The schools and districts in this study have developed several innovative strategies that may be useful in mitigating some of the barriers that newcomer parents face at other resettlement sites (Bennouna et al. 2019a). For example, having something similar to Austin’s Refugee Family Support Office that provides language support, along with services that are instrumental to adolescents’ education (school enrolment, tutoring, parent–school liaison, etc.) may enhance refugee parents’ ability to overcome some of the most salient barriers to parental involvement. School districts may also consider hiring liaisons who share refugee backgrounds, similar to those available in Austin and Harrisonburg, who can support parents with navigating the school system and coordinating parent–school communication. These liaisons can play a pivotal role in creating a welcoming school environment for parents and can help both schools and parents navigate some of the cultural differences that may impact how parents engage in their children’s education.

Conclusion

This qualitative study explored the value that refugees place on education, the ways in which parents support their children, and the barriers these parents face while attempting to support their children’s academic endeavours. The findings suggest that upon resettlement, families continue to focus on survival, yet they are able to re-shift their focus on education as a long-term investment for their children and family’s future. Although refugees face a multitude of challenges that may impact the level of involvement in their children’s schooling, this study demonstrated that with the presence of directed school and community supports, these refugee parents were able to make meaningful effort to engage with their children’s schools despite the challenges they faced. As a whole, these findings have important implications on the ways in which schools and refugee resettlement agencies can support families resettling in the US. While parents clearly wanted to support their children’s education, they still faced considerable challenges and addressing these barriers may impact the degree to which parents are involved in their children’s education. School- and refugee-focused programming should focus on mitigating barriers to parental involvement in schools and strengthening the ways in which parents already support their children beyond some of the expected traditional forms of parental involvement in school (e.g. PTA, volunteering in the classroom).

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the support of the study participants, school and community partners, and the Qatar Foundation International (QFI) team.

Availability of Data and Materials

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to IRB restrictions but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Funding

This work was supported by QFI. The funders contributed to study design but did not contribute to data collection, analysis, publication decision, or manuscript preparation.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest

Appendix

Table A1

Summary of Codebook

Theme	Code	Theme	Code
Life experiences and challenges	Mental health issues Language challenges Bullying or fighting Discrimination ‘Bad’ influences Within-group tensions Inter-group tensions Pre-flight experiences Displacement experiences	Intercultural factors	Acculturation strategies Reactions to American life and culture Perceptions of refugees Religion Comparison between Arab and non-Arab migrants Negotiating personal identities Perceptions of MHPSS
School-specific	School comparisons School registration, accreditation, and grade placement Adjustment to new school Sense of school belonging School cultural and trauma competence Potentially harmful practices	Structural factors	Political influences Policies Gender system Employment and household finances
Linkages	Partnership Programme coordination Referrals Funding	Innovations	Ideas and recommendations New approaches Technology Data and evaluations
Support	Language support Academic and career support Resettlement and basic needs support SEL support Community support Parental support Support for parents Peer support Layer III (non-specialized mental health support) Layer IV (specialized mental health support) Staff professional development Reinforcing strengths Definition of support Reactions to MHPSS services Universal vs. targeted supports Coping mechanisms	Relationships	Parent–school relationship Parent–child relationship Parent–community relationship School–child relationship Provider–client relationship Peer relationship