Parental Perspectives on Education: Mexican and Mexican-American Farmworker Families with Young Children Enrolled in Migrant and Seasonal Head Start

Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) is a Head Start program which serves exclusively young children from the migrant farmworker community, the majority of whom are Mexican nationals and second-generation immigrants. From this early childhood context, little is known about parents' perspectives on education and the roles they take to engage in their children's education. For this inquiry, 14 in-depth interviews were conducted with migrant farmworker parents. Key findings highlight the importance of language identity and language loss in young children, cultural practices around child rearing and the roles of adults, and education for social mobility.