Educational Prioritization: Cross-Cultural Differences Between US Immigrant and US-Born Parents

Both US-born and immigrant parents view education as of utmost importance in their children’s lives, sharing high aspirations for their children’s success (Hiatt-Michael, 1994). Attitudes of US-born parents toward education reflect values of increasing knowledge, information-seeking, democratic propagation, and liberated thinking (Jackman & Muha, 1984). Less is known about immigrant families. The current study evaluated the cultural differences in educational prioritization between US immigrant and US-born parents. 30 US-born and 19 immigrant parents (from China and India) answered the following question and explained their numerical score: How important do you think education is for your child’s future (1-5: from not important to very important)? Qualitative text analysis suggested that US-born parents’ justifications included non-academic personal development, critical thinking, skill and work ethic acquisition, and finding purpose and meaning. For example, some stated, “I don't care if you get a C or an A… you've demonstrated that you worked your tail off and were doing your very best.” US-born parents placed less emphasis on grades, instead highlighting personal growth, whether that be in a peer-setting or within a classroom. Akin to their US-born counterparts, immigrant parents also valued critical thinking, skill acquisition, and personal development in an educational setting. However, immigrant parents also prioritized education in their children because of the opportunities that follow it. For example, they stated, “education is important because if they have a good education, they have a good opportunity to get a good job” and “education is our top priority …that's your platform to success in life, to a career and profession.” Immigrant parents think that succeeding in academic settings is like receiving a ticket to professional and financial success. Mann-Whitney U independent-samples test showed that the difference between US-born parents’ (M = 4.53) and immigrant parents’ (M = 4.87) responses was trending towards significance: z = 1.83, p = .068. Although US-born parents and immigrant parents both indicated high responses on educational prioritization, there are key differences between their justifications. US-born parents place less emphasis on grades as a measure of success, whereas immigrant parents think there is a link between educational achievement and opportunities.