The purpose of this study is to explore the aspirations of parents of elementary children of Caribbean background in Montreal. Several studies show that these children tend to do poorly in Canadian schools. Research indicates that a significant variable in the home environment which influences school performance is the aspirations of parents for their children. The aspirations can be manifested through parental encouragement and are influenced by factors such as culture, class and/or ethnicity. / A sample of 20, English speaking West Indian parents agreed to participate in this research. An interview protocol was used to collect the data by telephone. The semi-structured interview was based on questionnaires used in similar studies and from issues emerging from the literature review. / The findings show that despite West Indian parents' high aspirations, their socioeconomic and/or ethnic status influence the outcome. They feel disadvantaged in a society where the realization of their perceptions of success are dependent on their ethnic status vis-a-vis the dominant group. Despite human rights legislation and multicultural policy, these parents anticipated racial and socioeconomic disadvantages for their children. The language factor in Quebec is seen as compounding the problem for English speaking Canadians of Caribbean origin.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.61331 |
| Date | January 1992 |
| Creators | Maraj-Guitard, Arianne |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Faculty of Education.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001315259, proquestno: AAIMM80349, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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