Abstract
This chapter explores Indian immigrant parents’ cultural beliefs, educational practices, and aspirations for their children’s STEM education in Australia. Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) children’s educational achievements regardless of bias, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES) are a current international debate resulting in calls for social change (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Together 2030 agenda in Realizing the SDGs for all: ensuring inclusiveness and equality for every person, everywhere, 2019). There is little empirical research exploring CALD parents’ sociocultural beliefs, practices, and aspirations for their child’s STEM education; hence, this chapter contributes new knowledge in this area. The study adopts (Shonkoff in Proc Natl Acad Sci 109:17,302–17,307, 2012) systemic theory of change approach, postulating that early experiences are carried over to adulthood, highlighting the supporting of those who are the most disadvantaged. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted with six Indian families (both parents; n = 12). Findings report on the drivers that shape the families social and cultural capitals, and the expectations and aspirations they have for their children’s STEM learning. Parents’ sociocultural and educational experiences can provide deeper insights for policy makers and school stakeholders to build an all-inclusive STEM learning and engagement approach for nurturing children’s STEM capital.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the research committee of Monash University’s Faculty of Education Early Years Academic Community Seeding funding for this project.
Statement on Open Data, Ethics, and Conflict of Interest
The research project was approved by the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee and followed all the protocols inherent to the conduct of research in an ethical manner. The authors acknowledge they have no financial interest or benefit arising from the direct applications of their research.
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Kewalramani, S., Kidman, G. (2023). Social and Cultural Capitals of Parents from Indian Immigrant Background: A Case for Developing Children’s STEM Learning. In: Weuffen, S., Burke, J., Plunkett, M., Goriss-Hunter, A., Emmett, S. (eds) Inclusion, Equity, Diversity, and Social Justice in Education. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-5008-7_12
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