Decades of research show that parental involvement in their child’s education is a vital component for their academic success. [1] For this reason, the US federal government has enacted two critical policies in this regard. The No Child Left Behind Act, established in 2001, specifies that meaningful communication between parents and teachers is an important aspect of a student’s achievement. Then, in 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act called for the use of federal funds to promote parental engagement with their child’s school.
However, not all communication is good communication. When teachers talk with parents, the words they use matter. This is especially true when communicating with families of different ethnic backgrounds. Certain words can appeal to the parents more than others, while other words can have a higher likelihood of offending. Word choice often causes unintended consequences. This means that during parent-teacher exchanges, the underlying connotations of words can create a rift.
Unfortunately, specific training in parent-teacher communication and all of its nuances is uncommon. The task then falls on the teacher to bridge this gap. Teachers must proactively strive to effectively communicate with parents of varying ethnic backgrounds. Becoming more conscious of the ways different word choices impact parent-teacher relationships can help build trust. And that trust often translates to raising a student’s academic achievement.
The goal of this article is to help teachers better understand how the words they use can impact their relationships with parents. It will provide background information about word choice concerning specific ethnicities and targeted strategies to forge stronger partnerships between teachers and parents.
Ethnic Groups and Conversations
The meaning of a word can easily change depending on who you are talking to. The way a person interprets a word is often influenced by their cultural lens, an outcome of their ethnicity. As such, the use of what might seem like a neutral word can end up creating a barrier between a parent and a teacher. Addressing these barriers is a cornerstone to building stronger partnerships between teachers and parents, which will, in effect, have a positive impact on the students.
Teachers should seek to make their interactions with parents as productive as possible. When a teacher uses of a certain word in conversations with parents of different ethnic groups, it can create tension without the teacher realizing it. This is an unforeseen educational pitfall that has been widely overlooked. Productive conversations between teachers and parents can make a world of difference when managing student successes and instances of concern. If a parent misinterprets a teacher’s comments because of a discrepancy in a word’s meaning, the way they deal with their child can drastically change. Furthermore, it can also create mistrust between the parent and the teacher. In turn, this can impact student success.
Overcoming cross-cultural language barriers is particularly important when facing concerns about students’ academic progress or behavior. [2] Understanding how a parent’s cultural value system could impact the way they interpret words is then essential. Teachers who make the effort and take a parent’s perspective into consideration will have a better chance of communicating with them effectively.
The bottom line here is teachers should be mindful of the words they use with parents with different ethnic backgrounds. A Chinese parent might interpret a word differently than a Korean parent. A Mexican parent might take offense to a word that a Middle Eastern parent takes no note of. This is true even of words that might seem negligible. Consequently, knowing the appropriate words to use in each instance matters.
Ethnicities and Examples
Ethnic background can play a significant role in how a person interprets different words, as thecultural values of a country influence the psychology of its people. Even the most minuscule shift from a teacher’s use of one word to another can contribute to variations in interpretation on the part of the parent. The cultural background of a parent often influences their perception of words and what they mean in the context of their child’s education.
Below are several examples of varying ethnicities with related information about their cultural background that can cause them to interpret words in ways many teachers might not expect.
The Asian Distinction
Before getting into specific ethnicities, it is fundamental to point out the diversity of Asian cultures, which are as diverse as Europeans, Africans, or the continent of the Americas. To put it more specifically, Chinese culture, Korean culture, and Filipino culture do not come with a singular set of ideas and values simply because they are all Asian countries. Mistakenly classifying one Asian ethnicity for another can negatively impact a parent’s confidence and trust in a teacher.
China
Traditional Chinese values include being efficient, practical, and modest. [3] China is a communist country, and communism operates with these values at its core. It is understandable, then, that Chinese people have directly and indirectly been influenced to value these traits as well.
Korea
Hard work is deeply engrained and valued in Korean culture. This stems from some recent Korean history. [4] Before the Korean War in the 1950s, South Korea was an impoverished nation. Then, from the 1960s to the 1980s, the country experienced rapid economic development. Accompanying that development was the increased pressure for personal financial success.
Mexican
Some of the central values of Mexico are family and cultural pride. [5] The importance of family derives from the religious values of Catholicism. It also comes from Mexican society’s collectivist nature. As such, family members are conscious of their responsibilities to one another.
Mexicans are a proud people, but their pride is cultural rather than national. It comes from their appreciation of Mexico’s wealth and depth of culture. Finally, Mexican parents tend to value obedience over independence in their children, as they come from a culture where respect for elders is paramount. [6]
Dominican Republic
Similar to Mexicans, a core value of Dominicans is family, deriving from the collectivist style of their society. [7] Another core value of Dominicans, particularly Dominican parents, is that they are very protective of their children. [8]
Latin Americans
Strong familial ties are a predominant cultural trait in the entire region of Latin America, not just in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. This is once again in part because of the collectivist societies of the region and its predominantly Catholic roots. Latinos across the board also tend to place great value on personalism, meaning that relating to others with warmth is customary. [9]
Filipinos
The Philippines’ multicultural history has had a significant impact on the core cultural values of the country. [10] Influence primarily comes from the Chinese, the Spanish, and Americans. Before the 16th century, heavy trade with China influenced Filipino culture considerably. After that, colonization began when the Spanish came into the picture. Then in 1898, the US took control of the Philippines from Spain. [11]
In turn, Filipino society takes after Spanish culture to a large extent. Family is of utmost importance, putting the group before the self. Furthermore, Filipino parents operate with an authoritarian attitude over their children, so obedience and respect for elders are highly valued traits in children. [12]
Indians
Indian culture (from India) places an enormous value on education, with the goal being that their children grow up to have successful careers. Interestingly, Indian parents even weigh in on what they want their children to study. They prefer engineering, followed by business, computer science, medicine, and law. They set the bar extremely high for their children and tend to be strict. [13]
Slavic Countries
Slavic countries include Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, and Montenegro. However, several other Eastern European countries, such as Romania and Armenia, have been highly influenced by Slavic culture because of Soviet occupation and proximity. In Slavic culture, privacy is highly valued, and people tend to be reserved and formal. These cultural traits come from a history of corrupt communist governments. [14]
Middle East
Some of the core cultural values shared by Middle Eastern countries are respect, honor, and morality. [15] Family is also a dominant cultural value throughout the region. Middle Eastern values are largely connected to religion, with Islam being the most prominent. As a result, many Middle Eastern families tend to be socially conservative.
Words that Appease
Choosing the right words to use in conversations with people of different ethnic backgrounds will depend on where they are from. This is true both for parents and guardians of students and in business settings. With just a little bit of understanding about their culture, you can select words that will be effective for communication in each case. Even if you are talking to different parents about the same work or project, the specific words you use and the way you frame it can either build trust or undermine it.
A parent’s cultural background may cause them to define words differently than you do. For example, using the word “good” in reference to a student earning a “B” might not be taken well by an Indian parent with an educationally focused mindset. If the teacher thinks a “B” is good, the parent may start to doubt the teacher’s credibility if the parent finds anything less than an “A” to be worthy of praise. The teacher’s use of the word “good” in this instance may also indicate to the parent that they think this is the best the student can do. In turn, the parents might take offense.
The breakdown of confidence in trust in the teacher-parent relationship here is necessary to consider, particularly because parents from certain ethnic backgrounds are non-confrontational. For example, Middle Eastern parents, specifically mothers, tend to be non-confrontational out of politeness, even when they disagree with what a teacher is saying. [16] This means they will walk away from the encounter having lost trust that the teacher can provide adequate academic support to their child. As a result of the miscommunication, they might feel the need to hire a private tutor or switch their student to a private school, even if it is not necessary.
Because of their culture, Chinese parents tend to react better to words like “practical” and “efficient” when talking about their child’s work in the class. They do not care as much about hard work the way Koreans do, so emphasizing a student’s hard work to Chinese parents will probably not land as well. Along the same lines, if you use the word “efficient” to a Korean parent, they may feel like you, as their teacher, are taking shortcuts and not making them work hard enough. For this reason, using phrasing like “work ethic” and “hard work,” and emphasizing the amount of time they spent on the work will likely elicit a better reaction and help them fully understand that their child is doing well.
When talking to a Mexican parent about their child’s work and behavior in school, using words like “obedient” and “well-mannered” are excellent choices, as they will emphasize the respect their child is showing toward you, the teacher. Using a word like “obedient” with Dominican parents may also foster a trusting parent-teacher relationship. Furthermore, the protective nature of Dominican parents over their children means that emphasizing that your classroom is a “safe space” for them could go a long way in building trust.
Latin American culture at large is warm and personal, so building a relationship with Latin American parents based on those qualities can help create an effective teacher-parent partnership that will lead to student academic success. [17] Being warm and personal also lets them know both they and their child are welcome in the classroom. You might express that the classroom is a “family” and every student is taught to “respect” the teacher and one another. [18]
Thinking about the difference between Latin American parents and Slavic parents provides another clear window of understanding into recognizing the way different words and behaviors can impact a teacher’s relationship with a parent. Where Latin American parents may welcome a warm and personal approach to conversation, to Slavic parents, who value privacy and formality, this approach would likely be off-putting. Calling their child a member of the classroom “family” could be detrimental. Instead, the use of more formal words to reference academic progress, such as “performance,” “accomplishment,” and “achievement” has a higher chance of connecting with Slavic parents than less formal phrasing, such as, “Your child produces good work.”
Like Latin culture, Filipino culture also puts obedience and respect in high regard when it comes to their child’s behavior. Therefore, using these words directly can benefit the teacher-parent relationship here. Furthermore, because of the value of family in Filipino culture, small changes in phrasing can have an enormous impact. Instead of saying to a parent, “You should be proud of your child’s excellent work,” you can rephrase that to, “Your family should be proud of your child’s excellent work.” This use of the word “family” when during teacher-parent conversations about a student can extend to other cultures with deep family ties, such as Korean and Latin American cultures.
In many cultures, the gender of a student impacts the pressure their parents place on them to succeed. Male children are the ones who usually take the brunt of this pressure in Korean, Indian, Chinese, and Middle Eastern cultures in particular. In these cultures, the male patriarchal roll in the family remains despite living in the United States, where that mindset is outdated. Then, thoughtful word choice when talking to parents about a male student becomes even more essential. Often, teachers only reach out to parents when there is an academic or behavioral issue. However, reaching out to alert parents of high achievement can help ease the pressure off both male and female students.
Final Thoughts
When teachers understand the nuance of words in the context of communicating with multicultural parents, it becomes clear that word choice matters. This is even true for the use of seemingly inconsequential words, as they can unintentionally misrepresent a student’s achievement or offend the parent. Once confidence or trust between a teacher and a parent is broken, communicating becomes difficult and can get in the way of a student’s achievement in the class.
It is important to take the time to research the cultural backgrounds and mindsets of different ethnicities, as fostering productive relationships between teachers and parents helps to ensure student success. In many ways, this begins with language. Choosing the correct words in a given conversation can serve as a cue to help parents from different ethnic backgrounds fully understand how their child is doing in the class.
Interactive Self-Practice Exercises
1. Cultural Deep-Dive
Consider the students on your current roster. Make a list of those who come from multicultural backgrounds. For each ethnicity, do your own research into their background. Understanding their history can provide a lot of insight into their culture. Furthermore, do specific research into parent-child relationships in that culture. For example, if you have first (or even second) generation Korean, Salvadorean, and Somalian students in your class, you will be researching all three of those cultures.
When you finish your research, make yourself a quiz, noting the correct answers. Ideally, you will make it on an app, so you can take the quiz easily, again and again, to reinforce what you learned. Quiz questions should pertain to language in order to teach yourself not only the words you should use to effectively communicate with those students’ parents, but also why those words are the best choices. The ultimate goal here is to understand the cultural backgrounds of these parents well enough to be able to communicate with them both effectively and naturally.
2. Interactive Research
The internet contains a wealth of resources, including a direct connection to other people from all over the world. Use it to connect with parents from different cultures in a more or less anonymous fashion. Find ways to connect directly with adults from the ethnic background of the students on your roster. For example, if you have a Pakistani student in your class, connect with a Pakistani parent. You can do this through social media. For instance, on Instagram, you can start an honest digital relationship through direct messaging, asking questions to inform your perspective, which can, in turn, improve your communication with the parents of your student. You can also opt to post on digital forums like Reddit and Quora, asking questions geared at parents of particular ethnicities. The idea here is to interact with actual parents who can provide specific insight about what constitutes productive (or unproductive) relationships between teachers and parents in a particular ethnic group.
Effective Conversational Points
1. Think of a time when you felt your communication with a parent of a different ethnic background was unsuccessful. What made it unsuccessful? How can understanding the impact of language in these conversations help improve the outcome of these conversations in the future? Did you feel something you said offended them? Do you remember using words that might have caused them to lose confidence in you as a teacher? Do you generally have a standard method of communicating with parents that doesn’t consider their cultural background? Thoughtfully consider your past behavior, so it will be easier to improve it in the future.
2. Put yourself in the shoes of immigrant parents in the US by imagining yourself as an immigrant parent in another country. What are some of your cultural norms those teachers need to consider to communicate with you effectively and productively? What are some examples of words they might choose to bolster the effectiveness of the conversations as they discuss your child’s progress with you? What are your values as a person and (perhaps hypothetically) as a parent? What language or behavior might you find offensive or off-putting from a teacher? Why do you think certain words would trigger different responses from you, considering your background and culture? Considering these things might make it easier to approach your own communication with multicultural parents.
References
1. Jaiswal, S. & Choudhuri, R. (2017). A Review of the Relationship between Parental Involvement and Students’ Academic Performance. The International Journal of Indian Psychology. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sandeep-Jaiswal-2/publication/324030083_A_Review_of_the_Relationship_between_Parental_Involvement_and_Students’_Academic_Performance/links/5aba02eb0f7e9b68ef539518/A-Review-of-the-Relationship-between-Parental-Involvement-and-Students-Academic-Performance.pdf
2. Graham-Clay, S. (n.d.). Communicating with Parents: Strategies for Teachers. The School Community Journal. https://www.adi.org/journal/ss05/graham-clay.pdf
3. Lihua, Z. (2013). China’s Traditional Cultural Values and National Identity. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. https://carnegieendowment.org/2013/11/21/china-straditional-cultural-values-and-national-identity-pub-53613
4. Kasulis, K. (2017). South Korea’s play culture is a dark symptom of overwork. Quartz. https://qz.com/1168746/south-koreas-play-culture-is-a-dark-symptom-of-overwork/
5. Cultural Atlas. (n.d.). Mexican Culture. https://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/mexican-culture/mexican-culture-core-concepts
6. Calzada, E.J. (2010). Bringing Culture Into Parent Training With Latinos. Cognitive and behavioral practice. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4422064/
7. Callegari, C. et al. (2019). The 6-D Model of National Culture as a Tool to Examine Cultural Interpretation of Migration Trauma-Related Dissociative Disorder: A Case Series. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10903-019-00904-7/tables/6
8. Melendez, C. (2019). Dominican Parenting Across Generations. University of Pennsylvania, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2388705978
9. International Extension Curriculum. (n.d.) The Essence of Culture: A peek at Hispanics-Latinos Culture. https://ag.purdue.edu/ipia/Documents/International%20Extension%20Curriculum/1.4.S4.pdf
10. Purdue Filipino. (n.d.). Basic Filipino History. https://purduefilipino.com/filipino-history#:~:text
11. Herrera, D.R. (2015). The Philippines: An Overview of the Colonial Era. Association for Asian Studies. https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/the-philippines-an-overview-of-the-colonial-era/
12.Alampay, L.P. & Jocson, R.M. (2011). Attributions and Attitudes of Mothers and Fathers in the Philippines. Parenting, science, and practice. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3150789/
13. Raghavan, P. (2015). Indian parents have very high expectations about their children’s education and careers. Times of India. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/minorityview/indian-parents-have-very-high-expectations-about-their-childrens-education-and-careers
14. Alta California Regional Center. (n.d.). Understanding Slavic Culture: Cultural Differences.
https://www.altaregional.org/sites/main/files/file-attachments/cultural_differences10.18_slavic_culture.pdf?1597350164#:~:text
15. Harb, C. (2016). The Arab Region: Cultures, Values, and Identities. Handbook of Arab American Psychology. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319159856_The_Arab_Region_Cultures_Values_and_Identities
16. Moosa, S., Karabenick, S.A., & Adams, L. (n.d.). Teacher Perceptions of Arab Parent Involvement in Elementary Schools. The School Community Journal. https://www.adi.org/journal/fw01/Moosa%20et%20al..pdf
17. Lectura Books. (n.d.). How Educators Can Reach Out to Hispanic Parents. https://www.lecturabooks.com/educators-can-reach-hispanic-parents/
18. Wlliams, S.G. (2014). Communicating With Hispanic Parents of Young, School-Age Children. University of Tennessee-Knoxville. https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2756&context=utk_chanhonoproj
Jess Lakritz 