Leadership

This study examines ways in which Chinese immigrant families are involved in their children’s mathematics education, particularly focusing on how different types of families utilize different forms of capital to support their children’s mathematics education. The theoretical framework defines four types of Chinese immigrant families – working families, small business families, transitional professional families, and settled professional families – and addresses three forms of capital – cultural, social and economic capital. In the analysis, the first two groups are often clustered as less educated families and the other two groups as highly educated families. Nine families with different backgrounds participated in the study. Data include observations, interviews, essays and Twitter messages from students, and a video discussion activity. Data analysis utilized cross-case analysis (Yin, 2002). First, this study shows significant differences in how Chinese immigrant parents conceptualize U.S. mathematics education. Highly educated parents believed U.S. mathematics education failed to meet their children’s mathematical needs while less educated parents were less critical of U.S. mathematics education