British-Chinese parental support strategies for young people’s academic achievement and socializing

• Main Author: Guo, Xumei
• Published: University of Nottingham 2014
• Subjects: 305.8951
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.755819

Whilst British-Chinese young people consistently outperform other ethnic groups at Key Stages 3 and 4 in the UK educational system and a handful of studies have researched the cultural perspective that the Chinese value education highly, little is known about the parental support strategies of British-Chinese families that support this outstanding educational performance. This research explores the nuances of British-Chinese parental support strategies towards education and socialization that contribute to their children’s academic success. In this study, I used qualitative interviews with 20 parents and 20 young people, 10 of each from a professional background (parents with a higher degree working in a professional field) and a non-professional background (parents with no degree, working manually). The research questions cover parents’ considerations in choosing secondary schools, the nature of parental academic supporting strategies and the kind of socialization support parents provide or advise about participation in extra-curricular activities and friendship networks. The findings show that British-Chinese parents purposively foster in their children a Chinese cultural habitus to cultivate dispositions and practices in learning through a hard work ethic and positive socialization, irrespective of their class. Their support starts from choosing a school where students can exploit school resources by exercising agency for individual educational achievement. After accessing school, parental academic support strategies vary, depending on the age at which children joined the UK education system and on parental cultural and economic capital. Social capital has been little useful, according to the parent participants studied since each family is unique in terms of immigration background, cultural capital and economic capital. However, reproduction of a Chinese cultural habitus from parents to young people across transnational borders and parental emphasis on agency overcome the limitations of class demarcated resources at school and home. The exploration of nuances shows a pluralistic Chinese community in the UK.