Breaking Barriers by Enhancing Collaboration Between Schools, Communities, and Spanish-speaking Immigrant Parents

There are barriers that interfere with parental involvement in their children's education in many schools in the U.S. However, additional barriers are often encountered by immigrant parents across our country. This investigation proposes practices that will better serve this population and reduce the barriers that affect their school engagement. One guiding question for this study is: What actions could be implemented to foster more effective collaboration between schools, communities, and Spanish-speaking immigrant parents? The objective of this study was to create a proposal for school personnel and Spanish-speaking immigrant parents to collaborate more effectively in terms of their children's education. The theoretical framework was guided by Epstein’s (1987) overlapping spheres of influence theory and Epstein’s and Sheldon’s (2022) framework of the six types of involvement. These theories provided a solid foundation and guided this study to create a proposal on how to alleviate the barriers that immigrant parents face when trying to engage in their children's education. The methodology used a qualitative research design with a phenomenological approach that examines the experiences of eight participants using semi-structured interviews. The proposed actions are directed at educators and administrators to improve immigrant parents' collaboration and promote a more inclusive and enriching educational environment, generating a positive impact on their children's education.