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ABSTRACT
The overarching purpose of this paper is to provide a number of important insights into immigrant parents' school involvement in Cyprus. Therefore, it examines the perspectives of all actors involved in the school-family partnership - namely head-teachers, teachers, immigrant and native parents, and immigrant and native children - through a multiple perspectives approach. More specifically, this study aims to examine: (a) the ways in which immigrant parents' school involvement has been defined and implemented by headteachers, teachers, parents' and children themselves; (b) the barriers to immigrant parents' involvement in Cypriot schools; and (c) the implications for the development and implementation of practices which promote immigrant parents' involvement in Cypriot schools. Last but not least, the study aims to indicate successful ways in which immigrant parents' school involvement may take place.
ARTICLE HISTORY
received 9 december 2015
Accepted 25 April 2016
KEYWORDS
Parental involvement; migration; inclusion; multiple perspectives approach; Cyprus
Introduction
In contemporary literature focusing on intercultural education, underachievement has been interconnected with low socio-economic rank and immigrant or minority background (Retali, 2013). On the other hand, promoting immigrants' parental involvement has gradually arisen in the agenda of education research as an important aspect that facilitates their children's socio-emotional development and thus school achievement (e.g. Ramirez, 2003; Theodorou, 2014; Turney & Kao, 2009). Previous research has shown that "listening"to immigrant parents' voices and expectations for their children's education is a prerequisite in order to promote inclusion (e.g. Ritblatt et al., 2002). Hajisoteriou and Angelides (2013) argue that immigrant parents may better identify the factors that impede or promote their children's academic and social inclusion, while they may challenge segregationist practices that enhance marginalisation.
In the Cypriot context, research indicates that immigrant students underachieve in schools (Haar, 1999) and are often marginalised (Hajisoteriou & Angelides, 2015), while pointing out restricted immigrant parental involvement as one of the most important reasons (Theodorou, 2014). As already argued, international research indicates that increased parental involvement may positively influence student achievement and inclusion, by reinforcing positive attitudes towards education in children and thus better school attendance and lower dropout rates (Cakiroglu, 2004), while counteracting socio-economic status (SES) or ethnicity (Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2005). To this end, we argue that research should include all school actors' voices regarding the...