Engaging Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Families to Support Elementary School Emergent Bilinguals’ Emotional and Mental Well-Being: Teachers’ and Families’ Perceptions
Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: Family-school engagement has been found to influence students’ emotional and mental well-being. Meanwhile, culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) families have often been found to perceive and respond to engagement efforts differently than Euro-American families. The unique needs of emergent bilinguals, a subsample of the CLD community, render it necessary to delve deeper into examining how family-school engagement can influence their emotional and mental well-being. This examination is particularly important given that CLD families and school staff have, at times, been found to hold very different perceptions of each other and of family-school engagement efforts. These discrepancies have, in turn, functioned to inhibit respectful and effective engagement efforts. For this study, I have utilized a phenomenological exploratory approach informed by the cultural reciprocity framework to explore and compare the perceptions of teachers and families regarding emergent bilingual students’ emotional and mental well-being and how family-school engagement efforts can serve to support them. Findings illustrated that teachers of emergent bilingual students were generally aware of the unique cultural and linguistic experiences that influence students’ emotional and mental health needs, as well as their families’ perception of engagement efforts. Meanwhile, family members held various stances concerning their perceptions of their children’s emotional and mental health needs and how to support them. They also shared different ways in which they perceived schools’ responses to those challenges. This study concludes with a discussion concerning why those differences might exist and potential research and practical implications.
Author: Abdellatif, Haya
Institution: University of Pittsburgh
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7037624673