UC Riverside

Research is lacking on Pilipino-American parents' views and involvement in their children's educational and academic trajectories. In light of this, I wanted to understand how Pilipino-American parents utilized their extended familial and community networks in the guidance of their child’s academic trajectory. This is knowledge we can use to inform teachers, counselors and colleges as they reach out to and help this population achieve higher education. I researched the historical and sociocultural aspects of Pilipino parents using the framework of Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) (Yosso, 2005) with two questions in mind: What role do parents play in supporting Pilipino-American students’ academic success in high school, thereby preparing them for entry into higher education? How do Pilipino-American parents’ experiences and insights support their children’s academic success in high school and their future college trajectories? Ten Pilipino parents were interviewed for sixty to ninety minutes about using their experiences, insights, and connections to help their child make educational decisions. I coded their interview responses and found an overarching narrative of the Pilipino community that foregrounded the parents’ immigrant identity in the ways they helped their children succeed in the United States. One main finding was that the parents repeatedly talked about the sacrifices they made to support and help their children succeed in life. Another main finding was the parents’ use of their networks and knowledge of education to gather information and work the system. I then connected these two main themes of sacrifice and working the system to four forms of capital (aspirational, familial, social and navigational) within the framework of Community Cultural Wealth. Finally, I found these Pilipino parents were consciously building, accumulating and utilizing these four forms of capital to support the success of their children in schools and ultimately in their future lives as adults.