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Preparing Them for the Road African Migrant Parents' Perceptions of Their Role in Their Children's Career Decision-Making1.19 MB
Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
"Preparing Them for the Road": African Migrant Parents' Perceptions of Their Role in Their Children's Career Decision-Making
Education Sciences, Vol.10(5), pp.1-16
2020
Abstract
There are numerous theories on parenting styles, however, they are Western-oriented and may not be applicable to collectivist non-Western societies. A qualitative study which utilised semi-structured interviews was conducted to explore the perceived parenting roles of 26 Sub-Saharan African (SSA) migrant parents (both humanitarian and professional migrants) in their children's career pathways after they migrated to Australia. Data were analysed using grounded theory methods and this process facilitated the creation of a new framework to provide an in-depth understanding of how SSA parenting styles informed the migrant children's career choices while living in Australia. The study revealed that most SSA migrant parents maintained their style of parenting as used in their home countries. Interestingly, some parents adapted their parenting styles due to their perceptions of changed circumstances within the host country. Other parents, who would normally be authoritative, became trustful due to their perceived lack of educational expertise to guide their children. Conversely, some other parents who would normally be authoritarian employed wily tactics in influencing their children's decision, so as to circumvent the strict Australian legal framework around children's rights. Irrespective of parenting style applied, all the parents aimed to either guide or direct their children's educational and career development to ensure that they become economically productive adults. From the discourse of the SSA migrants' perceptions of their parental role, we offer potential explanations for what underpins their parenting preferences and the rippling effects on their children's career trajectories. Direction for areas of continued research are presented, and implications of the findings are discussed.
Details
- Title
- "Preparing Them for the Road": African Migrant Parents' Perceptions of Their Role in Their Children's Career Decision-Making
- Authors
- Peter Akosah-Twumasi (Author) - James Cook UniversityFaith Alele (Author) - James Cook UniversityTheophilus I Emeto (Author) - James Cook UniversityDaniel Lindsay (Author) - James Cook UniversityKomla Tsey (Author) - James Cook UniversityBunmi S. Malau-Aduli (Corresponding Author) - James Cook University
- Publication details
- Education Sciences, Vol.10(5), pp.1-16
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Date published
- 2020
- DOI
- 10.3390/educsci10050138
- ISSN
- 2227-7102
- Copyright note
- © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Grant note
- Australian Research Training Scholarship
- Organisation Unit
- School of Health - Public Health
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99967596902621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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