Exploring the impact of parent mentoring programs on Latino parent engagement and empowerment

Research indicates that children do better academically when their parents are directly involved in their education, but parents of ethnically and linguistically diverse students fail to participate in schools at the same level as families from the dominant culture. Over the past 20 years a number of parental involvement programs have been attempted in an effort to be more inclusive of Latino families, but they have not had sustainable effects in engaging these parents in the school community. Parent mentoring programs, in which parent mentors are used to facilitate classes and create a bridge between the school and Latino parents, are a promising new practice for creating long-term, collaborative relationships between Latino parents and schools. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of Latino parents and administrators involved with a parent mentoring program in an effort to understand how these types of programs might create more collaborative relationships between Latino parents and schools. This ethnographic case study took place at two elementary schools in Sunnydays Unified School District, a pseudonym for a suburban K-12 district east of Los Angeles in Riverside County. The study used a purposeful sample of nine Latino parent mentors, 11 Latino parent participants, two site administrators, and one district level administrator all involved with the parent mentoring program at two school sites. Data was collected utilizing semi-structured individual interviews, observations and focus groups. The theoretical framework used for this study was Bourdieu's (1977) theory of social and cultural capital. The findings from this study showed that their lack of social and cultural capital in the dominant culture hindered Latino parents from getting involved in their children's school. Parent mentoring programs helped address such barriers as the fractured relationship between the Latino parents and the school through the use of parent mentors as a bridge of communication and support. Parent mentors also played the important roles of teachers, advocates, and role models for the other Latino parents at the schools. Data revealed that administrative support was an important factor in the success of the parent mentoring programs, but that site administrators had not received professional development on Project 2-INSPIRE and therefore had not informed or trained their staff about the program. Thus, despite the best efforts of the parent mentors, the program was never given the opportunity to bring about a true collaboration between all stakeholders. Insights from this study could be helpful to school districts interested in increasing Latino parental involvement and engagement, particularly those school districts hoping to move away from traditional parental involvement programs and toward a parent engagement approach. The study also sheds light on the need for Latino parental involvement programs to focus not just on increasing parents' cultural capital, but rather creating the environment that will increase their social capital. This study showed that the relationships and network built between the parent mentors and other less involved Latino parents was the major factor in the success of the program and the increased involvement of Latino parents at the school. Recommendations for policy and practice include replacing traditional forms of parent involvement with programs that include a parent mentoring component; training administrators and school staff in collaborative parent engagement strategies; create warm and welcoming environments at schools that foster and appreciate diversity; and creating a space specifically designated for families in the school run by a bilingual parent/community liaison who can help in bridging Latino parents to the school.