Date of Award

2008

Degree Type

Major Research Paper

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Immigration and Settlement Studies

First Advisor

Judith Bernhard

Abstract

The present paper examines the Parenting Circles Program as a successful intervention for parental involvement and the Early Authors Program's transformative framework for the creation of personal books. The question to be answered throughout this paper is, how did the participation of Spanish-Speaking parents in the workshop highlight elements that facilitated their meaningful engagement in their children's education? The design of the project included newcomer Spanish-speaking primary caregivers with a child or grandchild younger than thirteen years of age, who were required to attend at least five of six weekly workshops dealing with topics related to education. The main conditions were that the parents felt free to express themselves and exchange ideas, their children were part of the process, they gained access to valuable information and they took on the role of co-leaders. Implementing lessons learned from this study will result in future successful parent interventions.