Parental Involvement on Education: Moroccan Muslim Migrant Parents’ Perspectives with Children Enrolled in Spanish Schools
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs2025.3.871.889Keywords:
parental involvement, Moroccan migrant parents, language barriers, formal education, parental engagementAbstract
Aim. This research aims to analyse Moroccan Muslim migrant parents’ perceptions on their involvement with the school. This involvement is examined considering several dimensions: communication, networking, participation, decision-making, cultural and religious recognition and educational support. Furthermore, it focuses on identifying the barriers to this involvement.
Methods. The study follows a mixed-method design. In the first stage, a questionnaire was administered to a non-probabilistic sample of 162 Moroccan Muslim migrant parents. During the second phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 12 Moroccan Muslim migrant mothers. A descriptive statistical analysis and a deductive content analysis were carried out for quantitative and qualitative data respectively.
Results. There is high communication between Moroccan parents and the schools. However, their involvement in school activities, the Parent’s Association and parent-teacher meetings are hindered by linguistic deficiency, socio-economic barriers and working constraints. They tend to create more networks with other Moroccan parents, since they find local parents to be hard to approach. It is seen that parents are consulted on decision-making processes related to their children academic performance and development. However, their cultural and religious backgrounds are often overlooked, which subtly excludes them. Moreover, they still struggle to be supported with home education, especially helping with homework.
Conclusions. Parents show willingness to be involved, but they struggle with several barriers. Specific measures and policies that minimise these obstacles are needed. This would be beneficial for fostering the inclusion of Moroccan Muslim migrant parents a their children, reality that has been little studied thus far.
Downloads
References
Agresti, A., & Liu, I. M. (1999). Modeling a categorical variable allowing arbitrarily many category choices. Biometrics, 55(3), 936-943. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0006-341x.1999.00936.x
Al-deen, T. J., & Windle, J. (2015). The involvement of migrant mothers in their children’s education: cultural capital and transnational class processes. International Studies in Sociology of Education, 25(4), 278–295. https://doi.org/10.1080/09620214.2015.1083404
Antony-Newman, M. (2018). Parental involvement of immigrant parents: a meta-synthesis. Educational Review, 71(3), 362–381. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2017.1423278
Arnaiz-Sánchez, P., Giménez-Gualdo, A.M., & López-Fernández, G. (2017). Participación de las familias migrantes en una escuela inclusiva. Revista Interacçoes, 13(43), 53-74. https://doi.org/10.25755/int.12031
Baker, R., Brick, J. M., Bates, N. A., Battaglia, M., Couper, M. P., Dever, J. A., Gile, K. J., & Tourangeau, R. (2013). Summary report of the AAPOR task force on non-probability sampling. Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology, 1(2), 90-143. https://doi.org/10.1093/jssam/smt008
Carrasco, S., Pàmies, J., & Bertran, M. (2009). Familias inmigrantes y escuela: Desencuentros, estrategias y capital social. Revista Complutense de Educación, 20(1), 55-78. https://ddd.uab.cat/record/189205
Creswell, J. W., & Plano Clark, V. L. (2017). Designing and conducting: Mixed methods research (3rd ed.). SAGE
Crozier, G. (2001). Excluded Parents: The deracialisation of parental involvement. Race Ethnicity and Education, 4(4), 329-341. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613320120096643
Epstein, J. L. (2018). School, family, and community partnerships: Preparing educators and improving schools (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Erkenbrack, M. (2025). School-based parental involvement: Community and student outcomes. The Sociological Quarterly, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/00380253.2025.2516730
European Commission. (2019). Integrating students from migrant backgrounds into schools in Europe: National policies and measures. Eurydice Report: Publications Office of the European Union. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2797/819077
García, M. F., Hodges, J. C., Pineros-Leano, M., Baidoo, C., Schwartz, S. J., Maldonado-Molina, M., Bates, M., Calderon, I., & Salas-Wright, C. P. (2024). The experience of cultural stress in the school system among Puerto Rican Hurricane María migrant families. Journal of Latinx Psychology, 13(2), 117-133. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/lat0000269
Garreta-Bochaca, J. (2016). Fortalezas y debilidades de la participación de las familias en la escuela. Perspectiva Educacional, 55(2), 141–157. https://doi.org/10.4151/07189729-Vol.55-Iss.2-Art.395
Gay, G. (2013). Teaching to and through cultural diversity. Curriculum Inquiry, 43(1), 48–70. https://doi.org/10.1111/curi.12002
Ghaffar-Kucher, A. (2014). ‘Narrow-minded and oppressive’ or a ‘superior culture’? Implications of divergent representations of Islam for Pakistani-American youth. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 18(2), 202-224. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2014.889111
Glock, S., Kovacs, C., & Pit-ten Cate, I. (2018). Teachers’ attitudes towards ethnic minority students: Effects of schools’ cultural diversity. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 89(4), 616-634. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12248
Graham, S., Kogachi, K., & Morales-Chicas, J. (2022). Do I fit in: Race/ethnicity and feelings of belonging in school. Educational Psychology Review, 34, 2015–2042. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-022-09709-x
Habib-Allah, M. C. (2019). Estudio sobre la comunicación de las familias migrantes con el centro escolar. Revista Electrónica Interuniversitaria de Formación del Profesorado, 23(1), 33-47. https://doi.org/10.6018/reifop.404181
Hammersley, M. (2006). Ethnography: Problems and prospects. Ethnography and Education, 1(1), 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/17457820500512697
Haynes, J. (2019). Introduction: The “clash of civilizations” and relations between the West and the Muslim world. The Review of Faith & International Affairs, 17(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/15570274.2019.1570756
Huntington, S.P. (1996). The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order. Penguin Books.
Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE). (2022). Principales series de población desde 1998: Comunidades autónomas población extranjera por nacionalidad, comunidades, sexo y año. INE. https://www.ine.es/jaxi/Datos.htm?path=/t20/e245/p08/l0/&file=02005.px#_tabs-tabla
Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE). (2024). Estadística Continua de Población (ECP) 1 de julio de 2024. Datos provisionales. Notas de Prensa. https://tinyurl.com/3wv7wwrm
Kamp, A., & Mansouri, F. (2010), Constructing inclusive education in a neo-liberal context: Promoting inclusion of Arab-Australian students in an Australian context. British Educational Research Journal, 36, 733-744. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920903142958
Karpontini, M. (2024). Dimensions of parental involvement in refugee and migrant students' education: Views of parents and teachers of Zones of Educational Priority (ZEP) classes of a Greek intercultural high school. European Journal of Education, 60(1), Article e12843. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12843
Kast, J., Lehofer, M., Tanzer, N., Hagn, J., & Schwab, S. (2021). Parents’ attitudes towards students with a background of migration – Does the background of migration matter?. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 70, Article 101014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2021.101014
Keddie, A., Wilkinson, J., Howie, L., & Walsh, L. (2019). ‘…we don’t bring religion into school’: Issues of religious inclusion and social cohesion. The Australian Educational Researcher, 46, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-018-0289-4
Lozano-Martínez, J., Castillo- Reche, I. S., Cerezo-Maíquez, M. C., Angosto-Fontes, R., & Alcaraz García, S. (2000). La participación de las familias en contextos educativos multiculturales: Hacia una escuela intercultural e inclusiva. In R. M. Martínez-Artero & J. I. Alonso-Roque (Eds.), Investigación educativa en educación primaria (pp. 218-229). Ediciones de la Universidad de Murcia.
Medaric, Z., Gornik, B., & Sedmak, M. (2022). What about the family? The role and meaning of family in the integration of migrant children: Evidence from Slovenian schools. Frontiers in Education, 7, Article 1003759. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.1003759
Melnikova, J. (2022). Migrant parents at high school: Exploring new opportunities for involvement. Frontiers in Education, 7, Article 979399. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2022.979399
Ortiz-Cobo, M., Jeri-Levano, R. I., & Garcia-Martin, J. (2023). Technologies in migration processes: Mediation in communication and social capital. Journal of Education, Culture and Society, 14(2), 188-210. https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs2023.2.188.210
Pearce, S., & Lewis, K. (2018). Changing attitudes to cultural difference: Perceptions of Muslim families in English schools. Cambridge Journal of Education, 49(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2018.1427217
Reininger, T., & Santana-López, A. (2017). Parental involvement in municipal schools in Chile: Why do parents choose to get involved? School Psychology International, 38(4), 363-379. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143034317695378
Revilla, M., Saris, W., Loewe, G., & Ochoa, C. (2015). Can a non-probabilistic online panel achieve question quality similar to that of the European social survey? International Journal of Market Research, 57(3), 395-412. https://doi.org/10.2501/IJMR-2015-034
Santos-Rego, M. A., & Lorenzo-Moledo, M. M. (2009). The participation of immigrant families in school. A study centered in the origin. Revista de educación, 350, 277-300. http://hdl.handle.net/10347/18499
Schreier, M. (2012). Qualitative content analysis in practice. SAGE.
Smith, J., & Johnson, D. J. (2019). Parental perspectives on education: Mexican and Mexican-American farmworker families with young children enrolled in migrant and seasonal head start. Journal of Latinos and Education, 21(4), 388-403. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2019.1666010
Torres-Zaragoza, L. (2024). Creación y validación del cuestionario “inclusión del alumnado migrante en los centros educativos de educación formal”. In M. M. Fernández-Martínez, I. Ruiz-Calzado, B. Berral-Ortiz, & M. D. Pérez-Esteban (Eds.), Educación innovadora e investigación en acción (pp. 93-104). Dykinson.
Torres-Zaragoza, L., & Llorent-Bedmar, V. (2024). Barriers to inclusion of Muslim migrant students in western schools. A systematic review. International Journal of Educational Research, 125, Article 102363. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2024.102363
Unión de Comunidades Islámicas de España [UCIDE] (2023). Estudio demográfico de la población musulmana. https://ucide.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/estademograf24.pdf
Watkins, M., & Noble, G. (2016). Thinking beyond recognition: Multiculturalism, cultural intelligence, and the professional capacities of teachers. Review of Education, Pedagogy and Cultural Studies, 38(1), 42-57. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714413.2016.1119642
Weiss, S., Lindner, J., & Kiel, E. (2024). Hard-to-reach schools? Discrimination experienced by parents with a migrant background. A participatory research approach. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 33(4), 1353-1371. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2024.2361853
Wirth, R. J., & Edwards, M. C. (2007). Item factor analysis: Current approaches and future directions. Psychological Methods, 12(1), 58–79. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.12.1.58
Yang, Y., Li, T., & He, L. (2021). The Relationship among Chinese adolescents’ parental involvement, core self-evaluation and school adaptation. International Journal of Mental Health Promotion, 23(4), 521–531. https://doi.org/10.32604/IJMHP.2021.019290
Yip, S. Y. (2023). Positionality and reflexivity: Negotiating insider-outsider positions within and across cultures. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 47(3), 222–232. https://doi.org/10.1080/1743727X.2023.2266375
Zhao, L. (2023) Networks in the making: Friendship segregation and ethnic homophily. Social Science Research, 110, Article 102813. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2022.102813
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Lucía Torres Zaragoza
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
CC-BY
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. All authors agree for publishing their email adresses, affiliations and short bio statements with their articles during the submission process.
