“If we don’t adapt, we lose some parents”. Collaborations with migrant families in the context of student wellbeing

Abstract

Based on focus group discussions with secondary school teachers in Denmark, Finland, and Sweden, we investigated teachers’ views on home-school collaborations with migrant families in the context of student wellbeing. We asked 1) what roles and strategies constituted home-school collaborations in teachers’ views, 2) what norms of belonging characterized teachers’ perceptions on collaborations; and, 3) to what extent teachers’ perceptions of home-school collaborations reflected equity. The findings revealed two major themes: seeing parents in paradoxical roles and attempting to collaborate in a context of constraints. These themes were often underpinned by teachers’ perceived ‘ideals’ on the educational, cultural-linguistic, familial and psychosocial characteristics of a ‘family’ and a ‘parent’. These assemblages seemed to set belonging for migrant families on condition of meeting teacher-perceived ideals, and pointed to the necessity to enable plural belonging to a collaborative school community that fosters wellbeing.