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When school language and home language differ: one parent’s lived experience

ABSTRACT This phenomenological study investigated the relationship between parenting and schooling for one parent whose home language was not the same as the language used in the school. The central question for this phenomenological inquiry was: What is it like to parent a child who is attending school in a language that differs from the home language? The participant was one English-speaking mother who was sending her son to a French-medium school in Québec, Canada. Data sources included email journal entries collected over two years, plus one interview at the end of the two-year period. Four major elements contributing to the structure of the lived experience of this mother were identified: that she considered varied community opinions, that she made firm guesses from unclear information from the school, that she ‘[went] in waves’ about language, and that she maintained her parental role. Together, these elements reflect an essential structure that echoes and adds to the literature on parental decision making, communication and collaboration with teachers, and support for schooling in the home. Implications for researchers, educators, and school programs are shared.