Introduction

Parental involvement (PI) and partnership between teachers and parents can enhance children’s success at school (Epstein, 2010), their mental health (Hornby & Lafaele, 2011), promote positive attitudes toward learning, contribute to decreasing school drop-out rates (Peressini, 1998), and lead to positive parent-teacher relationships and a positive school climate (Hornby et al., 2011). New Zealand schools are encouraged to establish parental involvement to support children’s learning (Averill et al., 2016), however, it is challenging for teachers and their schools to have sufficient understanding of the diverse cultural backgrounds of their students’ parents and their varied perspectives on PI (Weerasinghe, 2020) to enable them to achieve this goal. Ensuring effective PI in mathematics learning is particularly important given that all New Zealand primary students study mathematics, it is a gatekeeper subject that affects students’ academic success and career options, and New Zealand teachers enjoy autonomy to design their own classroom programmes. Hearing frequent concerns about lack of knowledge of the mathematics curriculum and lack of feelings of partnership between parents and teachers from friends and acquaintances, the first author sought in this study to explore: (1) What do East Asian immigrant parents know about the New Zealand mathematics curriculum? (2) What do they know about their children’s mathematics learning at school? (3) How would they like to support their children’s mathematics learning at school and at home? and (4) What are their expectations of the school and of their relationship with the school in relation to supporting their children’s mathematics learning?

Respect for cultural diversity is a key principle of the New Zealand curriculum, with schools and teachers encouraged to value and be inclusive of learners’ cultural backgrounds (Ministry of Education, 2007). Teachers have been expected to develop cultural competencies in relation to Indigenous Māori and Pacific heritage learners (e.g., Ministry of Education, 2011, 2018), but little guidance is currently available for teachers wanting to develop cultural competencies relevant for working with other groups. Knowing about and attending to parental perspectives is necessary for enhancing parental involvement learning. However, given there are more than 200 ethnic groups in New Zealand, with one in four people having been born outside of the country (Statistics New Zealand, 2013), achieving this ideal is challenging. ‘Asian’, the third largest ethnic group in New Zealand, constitute around 15% of the New Zealand population, with around 80% percent of people identifying as Asian having been born outside of the country (Statistics New Zealand, 2019), and China being one of the main countries New Zealand immigrants arrive from (Li, 2014). Understanding the perspectives of Asian parents is needed for maximising the potential of Asian parental involvement in their children’s learning. This article focusses on perspectives of East Asian immigrant parents in one New Zealand city. While East Asia is often used to refer collectively to China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, in this study participants from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan were interviewed.

Background

Three key areas impacting on parental involvement in children’s learning (PI) are school involvement with parents (e.g., parent-teacher communication, parent-teacher conferences, and parents attending school activities), parental engagement with their child’s learning at home (e.g., parents assisting with and checking homework, parent–child communication about school), and academic socialisation (e.g., parental expectations of and attitudes toward education) (Wilder,2014). PI is influenced by many variables but is most strongly impacted by parental expectation and beliefs (Hornby & Lafaele, 2011; Wilder, 2014). Other influences on PI include societal, child-related factors (e.g., a child’s age and academic level), parent-teacher engagement, and individual family factors (e.g., family situation and cultural background) (Hornby & Lafaele, 2011). For example, while it has been documented that parent–child stress can be a factor in PI in relation to mathematics homework and achievement for some Asian families in Australia, PI is associated with positive gains in academic outcomes (Weerasinghe, 2020).

Positive impacts of PI on children’s academic achievement have been found regardless of student ethnicity. However, distinguishing between culturally-linked and individual characteristics in PI and teachers and schools being culturally responsive to individual learners and their families are important (Wilder, 2014). For example, understanding factors positively and negatively affecting PI of New Zealand parents from the Pacific Island nations requires understanding of the important roles that community and church leaders play in Pacific cultures, yet New Zealand PI initiatives do not always demonstrate such understanding (Hornby & Lafaele, 2011).

Immigrant parents’ involvement in their children’s education is shaped by their own educational experiences, often not corresponding well with those of the host country (Antony-Newman, 2020). Immigrant parents have been found to be less involved in schools than non-immigrant parents (Turney & Kao, 2009), perhaps partly due to challenges such as language barriers and low familiarity with the country’s educational system (Antony-Newman, 2020). Hence, challenges to establishing strong PI in students’ learning include parents and teachers having differing expectations about the parent’s role in their child’s education (Antony-Newman, 2020).

The curriculum can influence opportunities for PI contributions to children’s academic achievement (Antony-Newman, 2020). New Zealand’s national curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007) is intended to impact how teachers plan, teach, connect with students, and assess students’ learning, and serves as a guide to shape teachers’ pedagogy and expectations toward PI. The New Zealand mathematics curriculum prioritises exploring mathematical ideas using meaningful contexts, mathematical thinking, problem solving, and modelling, emphases which differ from country to country, and between New Zealand and many East Asian countries. New Zealand teachers have flexibility and a wide range of mathematics curriculum resources to draw from, which is contrast to many school mathematics learning settings in many East Asian countries where the delivered curriculum can be strongly based on prescribed text-book content, as described below. Understanding parents’ perspectives about the mathematics curriculum is important as their expectations and understanding of the curriculum affect PI and its effects on student learning (Averill et al., 2016).

Many studies have used frameworks adapted from Epstein’s, (2010) and Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s, (1997) work. Epstein, (2010) describes six types of PI: parenting, communication, volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and community collaboration, with factors such as the family’s socioeconomic status and living situation and the child’s age and ability affecting the extent and nature of PI. However, these factors cannot fully explain what determines parental thinking and actions or what influences their involvement in their children’s education (Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1997). Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (1997) outline factors appearing to influence parents’ motivation to be involved in their child’s learning, including parents’ construction of their parental role, their sense of efficacy regarding their ability to help their children, and their feelings regarding the extent to which their child and school invite and welcome their involvement.

East Asian Immigrant Characteristics

There are some similarities and some differences between East Asian people’s characteristics and those of others living in New Zealand. East Asian countries share close culture and heritage (Cheng, 2017). Influenced by Confucian teaching and thought (Cheng, 2017; Leung, 2001; Yoon et al, 2017), Confucian heritage people often place high value and expectations on education, learning, and intellectual excellence (Banks, 2012; Jerrim, 2015; Li, 2006; Chen & Stevenson, 1995; Schneider & Lee, 1990; Yoon et al., 2017), and have high educational expectations of their children. Many East Asian parents emphasise the value of effort of pursuing academic achievement (Chen & Stevenson, 1995), place high emphasis on involvement in their child’s learning (Kim, 2020; Li, 2006), and consider a good education necessary for self-esteem, family honour, economic opportunities, and to help overcome discrimination related to their immigrant background (Schneider & Lee, 1990). In contrast to the New Zealand mathematics curriculum’s emphases, mathematics can be seen by East Asian parents as a set of skills children can be taught to master (Mok, 2020).

The educational systems, school curricula, and textbook use of many East Asian countries are standardised and controlled by the central governments (Kim, 2020; Ni et al., 2011; Tam et al., 2014), with less flexibility and variation in mathematics teaching programmes across schools than in New Zealand. As PI has not traditionally been included in East Asian education policy, many East Asian parents in their home countries defer to school authority and do not have opportunities to be formally involved in their children’s education (Kim, 2020). Kim’s, (2020) meta-analysis of studies of PI of East Asian parents calls for ways of capturing PI that can assist with improving communication between the school and parents, lead to practical policy solutions, and enhance academic results.

In summary, PI is valuable for student learning and wellbeing, New Zealand has a large population of East Asian immigrant parents, and cultural differences in perceptions of mathematics and what counts as effective and suitable mathematics teaching and assessment are likely to exist between these parents and many New Zealand teachers. Hence there is potential for misunderstandings and misinterpretations to occur which could undermine PI in children’s learning by Asian immigrant parents, and negatively affect their children’s mathematics learning. The greater the match between teachers’ and parents’ understandings and expectations, the more positive PI outcomes are likely to be (Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 1997). Little research to date has focussed on New Zealand parental perspectives of their involvement in their children’s mathematics learning, and even less on the perspectives of specific cultural groups.

Method

A qualitative phenomenology design (Johnson, 2014) was used to understand immigrant parents’ experiences regarding their children’s learning. Consistent with a phenomenological approach, in-depth individual semi-structured interviews were used (Appendix). Full ethical approval was gained and all ethical requirements followed.

To maximise participant comfort and hence the data quality, potential participants were identified using purposive and convenience sampling—all were people known to the researcher. The researcher, an East Asian immigrant herself, recruited East Asian immigrant parent participants from her personal contacts (P1, P2, P4, P8, P9, P11) and workplace, a mathematics and English tutoring agency (P3, P6, P7), and a friend (P5, P10, P11) (Table 1). The inclusion criteria were: (1) had received their education (primary and/or high school) outside of New Zealand, (2) is an immigrant parent from an East Asian culture, and (3) has at least one child studying in a New Zealand English-medium school. All participants were female and five described their occupation as teacher; one teaching in a New Zealand mainstream primary school, three in New Zealand early childhood settings, and one previously taught in her own country. Other participant occupations were housewife, lab-related work, nurse, bank-related work, and cook. Ten interviews were conducted in participant homes and one at a café, according to participant preference. Participants did not know the questions prior to their interview. Interviews were carried out in participants’ own language, Mandarin, recorded, transcribed, and translated by the first author, a fluent Mandarin speaker, with all translations checked. Transcripts were provided to participants who were invited to check them and provide corrections and comments.

Table 1 Study participants
Full size table

Data Analysis

Thematic analysis of the Mandarin transcripts was used to identify, analyse, and report patterns and themes within the data (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2012). Inductive analysis was used to draw themes closely matching the content of the data, and to give voice to participants’ experiences and meanings. A deductive approach was used to interpret the data in relation to Epstein’s (2010) and Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s (1997) frameworks.

Results

The results are presented within four themes: confidence in understanding their children’s mathematics learning and the New Zealand mathematics curriculum, understandings of the New Zealand curriculum, types of PI in relation to mathematics learning and the partnership between parents and the school and teacher, and how participants hope to gain support from schools and teachers. P1 and P5 are teachers and their comments indicate the usefulness of this background for them in understanding and critiquing practice.

Knowledge About how Mathematics is Taught

Only one of the 11 participants stated that they ‘understood clearly’ the child’s mathematics learning, four ‘somewhat understood’, two had some understanding but were not very clear, and the other four ‘had no idea’. Potential benefits of understanding the child’s mathematics learning is shown by the participant who said as she clearly understood her child’s mathematics learning, she was able to support her child at home:

Basically I know what he’s learning at the moment, and following that, I’ll help him…basically we follow the teacher’s content but I will give him more questions to do, because I think my expectation is higher, I don’t think [the teacher’s set work] is enough. (P1)

Decisions regarding PI and whether parents felt PI was easy or challenging were related to their confidence in understanding their children’s mathematics learning, with parents with lower levels of understanding describing challenges to being involved in their child’s mathematics learning:

If we have some extra time at home, we would like to give her some extra training, but sometimes I don’t know where to start because I have no idea what her level is. (P9)

The narratives revealed ways that parents expected to know about their children’s mathematics learning, such as through their child’s homework, textbook, and curriculum, and their strong feelings about lacking this information:

For me, I really panic, because as a parent we cannot see what they are learning at the school, and there is no curriculum, textbook, and no one telling us what we are going to learn this term… I really have no idea what they are learning. (P10)

School parent meetings were described by most participants as how they learnt about their children’s mathematics learning. Some participants discussed challenges and unmet needs regarding accessing these meetings and other communication with teachers:

Even though [the teacher] had the report which he thought he wrote very clearly - we don’t know how to read it [for meaning]. Even when I went to the parents’ discussion to ask him those questions, I couldn’t get the final answers. What he said was very vague to me. (P11)

In summary, most East Asian immigrant parent participants felt they did not have strong understanding of their child’s mathematics learning, and there is evidence that not all gained understanding about mathematics learning from parent meetings or written reports. Some participants expressed concern, frustration, and anxiety about lacking this understanding. Only one felt confident in their understanding of their child’s mathematics learning and reported that this enabled her to support her child’s mathematics learning.

Knowledge About the New Zealand Mathematics Curriculum

Seven of the 11 participants did not know about the New Zealand mathematics curriculum document, two knew about it, and two, who knew about the curriculum through the school’s online system, from parent meetings, or from their children’s learning, had seen it. One participant stated that the curriculum was challenging to understand; “what does ‘creatively’ mean here? … what does it mean really putting it into practice?” (P2) Four participants felt that knowing the curriculum was not helpful, because they felt “the educational philosophy [of the curriculum] may not work for [mathematics]” (P11), “because it is too easy” (P1), or because they found it too hard to see a match between the curriculum goals and whether the goals had been achieved:

They have the curriculum, but it’s hard to see if parents and students understand it. I can't tell if they have this understanding. (P3)

Five participants stated that they would like to understand the mathematics curriculum document so they would know “how to support my child so that they can follow and reach the national standard” (P4), or “about the teacher’s motivation so that I can support my child if they felt uncomfortable or challenged during their mathematics learning” (P6). One parent said that “the curriculum may be useful for Asian parents, [because] at least it lets me know what my child needs to learn, but it doesn’t mean that I know that is what the school will teach” (P5), showing a lack of confidence that the teacher was teaching to the curriculum and possibly a lack of confidence of being able to understand how the New Zealand curriculum is intended to be implemented.

Experience of Partnership

Only six of the 11 parents discussed experiences of partnership with the school, with four stating they did not feel they were an equal partner with the school or teacher in relation to their child’s learning and two stating they did not understand what such ‘partnership’ would mean. Reasons they felt this way included a lack of information from the school, perceptions of race-based attitudes, and lack of engagement between teachers and parents regarding collaboration:

I don’t think [it’s a partnership] - no one has told me what they are learning. It could be a language problem. (P7)

Yeah, but you know that’s not true because sometimes they think Asians are so demanding. [When] we say something or do whatever, the teacher might be like ‘oh, this parent is difficult’. (P10)

I haven’t seen any real collaboration… of course we have normal reports and parents can help from home, but you say partnership, real collaboration, that’s an equal relationship, but there is none… probably we haven’t reached a consensus about what a partnership/collaboration is. (P1)

In summary, the East Asian immigrant parents described different levels and sources of understanding of the New Zealand mathematics curriculum. Many were not fully aware of the curriculum and none stated they felt they were partners with teachers or schools in relation to their child’s mathematics learning.

Parental Involvement

Some parents were motivated to be involved in their children’s mathematics learning as they see supporting children’s mathematics learning as a parental responsibility:

Because parents are children’s first teacher, aren't they? Parents surely have the responsibility to support children in their learning, life, or every domain, whether in mathematics or whatever else. (P8)

Several types of PI were described by the participants with some describing more than one. Finding mathematics questions themselves for their children to practise at home was most common (9). Giving mathematics questions to their children was seen as “the way of learning mathematics” and “building a learning routine”:

This way children can really concentrate, in my view, in that way you will remember the content. (P1)

Taking their child to a mathematics “cram school” (private after school educational institution that helps students prepare for exams and tests) was the second most common PI method discussed (5). On parent’s decision to use extra mathematics tuition for their child was due to a lack of faith in their child remembering the New Zealand-taught strategies:

I sent my child to cram school when he was Year 4 or 5, because we came [to New Zealand] when he was almost five, and I thought since we were here I needed to let him to learn [mathematics] New Zealand’s way. So, I didn’t teach him any math, and then he slowly followed “New Zealand’s way”. I was actually surprised… It taught lots of strategies to children... It was good for my boy that he learned those strategies, but without repetitive practice and with no assessments, those all were only fragmentary memories for him… He didn’t make those strategies internalised to be a way he solves the problems. Thus, it becomes like, his mom remembers everything, but he doesn’t…These strategies are good, but if one day he needed to add 29 to something, do you think he would remember that he has to add big numbers then take away 1? I don’t think so. Like I said, he hasn’t internalised [the New Zealand way], so how is that done? Through repetitive practices and regular assessments, right? (P5)

This parent, initially comfortable with their choice for their child to follow New Zealand ways of learning mathematics, became concerned when they did not see as strong emphasis on memory and assessment as in their own country, in their child’s mathematics programme.

Comparison with practice in their home country, this time in relation to being given a mix of questions also contributed to another parent’s decision to have tuition for their child, along with concerns about their child’s poor results for homework tasks. Taking their child to extra mathematics tuition was motivated by their child having been given homework to complete, without sufficient understanding from classroom teaching to be able to be successful:

When my son was around Year 3... for a while, every day the teacher would ask him to bring home a page of maths homework with around 20 questions on it. But none of the 20 questions were the same…I was like, “no way, like won’t you think doing the homework like this at home is very confusing?” Did he really learn that much? Because when I was little, it took like around a half year to learn how to read the clock. I was like how could he understand all of that? … the homework he brought home, he didn't get any of it right, very few, only the very, very easy ones. I think he didn’t even know what the questions were asking about, like he didn’t even have any concept of it at all. (P11)

Neither parent discussed whether they had asked their child’s teacher about these mathematics teaching practices, however, as neither indicated they had been asked about their priorities or concerns or mentioned such discussions, it seems likely they did not.

All five participants described extra mathematics tuition as “helpful” for their children’s mathematics learning, and some reported receiving positive feedback on the effects of the tuition from their child or the teacher. However, two also expressed concerns regarding whether this type of PI met their expectations and their child’s needs:

I don't really know why I sent her to the education centre. I sent her to some kind of educational organisation that I think may help her, but did it really work? ...she’s still in the middle group at school, which means that [the school and the education centre] did not link with each other…my husband even said what’s the point in sending her there when she’s still only at the middle group. (P2)

This response shows that while these parents were also not confident that the teacher’s mathematics programme was enabling their child to learn to her potential, they accepted the teacher’s assessment of their child’s learning and resulting placement in the class grouping system. Again, while it is not clear whether the parents had discussions with the teacher either about the child’s mathematics potential or group placement, it seems unlikely as no such discussion was mentioned. Such discussions may have enabled the teacher to better cater for the child and the parents to be sufficiently satisfied to not feel the need to send their child to tuition.

Other types of PI described included “communicating with other parents” (2), “using the school’s online system” and “reading teacher’s regular email” (1 each). Two participants stated they had no PI with their child’s mathematics learning. In summary, the East Asian immigrant parent participants chose PI methods which reflected their beliefs and their own mathematics learning experiences and that did not directly link to their child’s teacher, school, or the classroom mathematics curriculum. Participants’ motivations for engaging in PI related to their role as parents and specific concerns about their child’s mathematics learning or the teaching of their child.

Parent Expectations and Hopes of Teachers and Schools

Most parents wanted more details and specific information regarding their child’s mathematics learning levels, stating that this information could help them to support their child’s learning at home. Some parents described past communication experiences from the teacher or school as not satisfying their needs, as they “did not only want to know what the child did well at school, but also wanted to know the things that the child needs to improve and possible future learning”. Other parents described that knowing or having access to systematic learning material or mathematics problems databases for different levels would help them to support their child’s mathematics learning at home. Participants clearly and emphatically described hopes for more regular and more specific teacher communication with parents about their child’s learning and learning needs:

If it’s possible, teachers can spend ten minutes every two weeks to meet with parents, and maybe it would be better? [I would like] more up-to-date communication, not like after one or two months. (P8)

[Ideally] the teacher would tell you some of the goals that [my child] didn’t pass. I was like, “This year is already over, and he didn’t pass the goals, and you didn’t let me know about this earlier?” (P5)

Some parent responses showed deep frustration about the content and extent of communication and lack of partnership they had experienced from teachers to date:

Mainly it’s about communication, …it's about making the communication more meaningful, not only saying my child is good. As for whether she’s good or not, as a parent I kind of have some sense, like her strengths and weaknesses. I want to hear about something positive, that’s for sure. But I also want to hear about the opposite, that’s what I care about even more. Because the good things you just have to keep doing, but what’s the bad? If the teacher lets me know specifically what the child’s level is, then they can tell us the next steps. The teacher surely has to tell me what’s the next few levels, like letting me know the year levels for Year 5 and 6…then I can even find some questions for her to do. (P2)

[Another thing] is how teachers and parents can plan together to help the child. What’s the level for the middle group? What kind of children are in the middle group? I want to know very clearly that what she should do every day, and if she could do it. I cannot accept that I don’t know what’s going on. (P2)

These comments indicate clear dissatisfaction with teacher-parent communication and that situations unlikely to result in productive partnership between teacher and parents in supporting the child’s mathematics learning.

Other comments showed that some parents are keen to be involved in their child’s mathematics learning and would also like detailed, specific information about the school mathematics curriculum and what is needed to feel confident about a child’s mathematics learning progress:

The ministry of education needs to categorise the curriculum into more details, like, …what level means what? And with the requirements, what levels you can do, and how you can reach the level, and how much quantity needs to be provided… how many math questions? How much time do you spend on math every day? If all teachers in New Zealand could go to the database to find math questions, then it would be convenient for teachers, and it would be fair to children. If you give math questions with the answers, which even I as a parent cannot do, then I can still help if I want to, right? But right now, the [curriculum] you showed me, I don’t even know where I can find it. It’s too much work if I have to correspond the materials I found [from other countries] with New Zealand’s curriculum, so I would rather just use the teacher's materials, and follow the [New Zealand] system… (P3)

Such comments show the frustration of parents who want to support their child’s learning but do not know how to access clear information to help them do so. Provision of such information could assist PI through potentially enabling more specific and deep discussions between the teacher and parents about the mathematics programme and supporting parents with information and resources so that they can help their child themselves.

The narratives reveal that some East Asian immigrant parents expect and need more up-to-date, specific, and meaningful information regarding their children’s mathematics learning from their child’s teacher, and about the mathematics curriculum from the Ministry of Education, to support their PI in their child’s mathematics learning. While this study focussed on East Asian immigrant parents, parents more broadly may face similar challenges in relation to PI and have similar wishes, even if they learnt mathematics within the New Zealand education system themselves, particularly given the curriculum and pedagogical changes made since their own school study.

Discussion and Conclusion

Understanding New Zealand parental perspectives can assist in informing policy and practice towards maximising the opportunities afforded by PI for supporting children’s mathematics learning. A strength of this research is that all interviews were conducted in the parents’ own language, enabling them to feel comfortable to be able to express themselves to someone who shared their cultural background. The small sample size, recruitment method, single data collection method (interviews), and the nature of participants (all female and some teachers) lead to the necessity for care in considering study findings. The views of participants, particularly those who were teachers, were likely to be influenced by their experiences of PI in the countries in which they learnt or taught, where the intentions and expectations of PI may differ from New Zealand, and the difference between their relatively in depth knowledge of the mathematics curriculum in the counties they studied in, compared to the New Zealand curriculum. The teacher participants may have held clearer and more specific expectations of their children’s teachers than non-teachers. The study was conducted by a sole non-parent researcher with mathematics coaching experience but without school teaching experience, and it is possible that nuance in the interview data may have been missed. Despite the study limitations, findings provide positive and concerning aspects about school-parent communication worthy of consideration.

The results show that what the participants believed their parental roles to be, activities they thought would be helpful for their children’s mathematics learning, their belief in the importance of mathematics, and their own learning experiences were all the important contributors to their beliefs about and decisions regarding parental involvement in their child’s mathematics learning. In line with Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s (1997) view that the parent’s view of their role is important for the PI process, the results show that the parents’ decisions about what they expect to do or want to do, in relation to their children’s education and learning progress, were contributed to by their construction of the parental role.

Consistent with characteristics of people of East Asian Confucian cultures (Banks, 2012; Kim, 2020), the participants held high aspirations towards their children’s mathematics learning. Their attitudes and aspirations are linked to their role as caring parents, their own learning experiences and cultural background, and are likely to have influenced and to continue to influence their motivations in relation to PI.

The results indicate that there is much room for improvement in relation to maximising the potential of PI of East Asian immigrant parents in their children’s mathematics learning in New Zealand. Most participants identified a lack of clear communication from the teacher or the school about the national, school and classroom mathematics curriculum. They were not aware of the New Zealand mathematics curriculum document, and those who were, found it difficult to understand. There is evidence that some parents are not receiving the specific information about the curriculum and their child’s mathematics progress that they want, nor are they receiving ideas from the teacher regarding how to support their child’s mathematics learning, instead turning to examples they can find and to mathematics tuition for their child. There was evidence of parental agreement with some of the ways they understood their children were being taught mathematics, but concerns regarding how students would be able to remember the mathematics learnt without parents themselves providing extra support. Sadly, ‘Learning at home’ (Epstein, 2010) for many of the participants, was driven by their own initiative finding mathematics activities for their child.

‘Communication’ from teachers to parents (Epstein, 2010) was the most regular form of school-initiated PI for most parents. However, the meetings did not satisfy the parents’ communication needs and not all parents understood written reporting from teachers. Consistent with Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s (1997) discussion, the findings showed dissatisfaction, negative emotions, and a lack of willingness to communicate and collaborate with the teacher were present when information from the teacher was not clear or not aligned with parental expectations. Given these results alone, it may not be surprising that participants had difficulty understanding the concept of ‘Partnership’ (Epstein, 2010) in enacting the curriculum and none talked of having experienced this in relation to their child’s mathematics learning.

These findings provide a glimpse into possible practice for groups of ethnicities different from the teacher and across all learners. Just as was called for by Kim (2020), this study indicates that research is needed to establish how to make the communication between teachers and parents more effective to enable the positive attitudes and success, positive mental health, and positive school climate which can result from strong PI (Epstein, 2010; Hornby & Lafaele, 2011; Peressini, 1998) to be in place and for all areas contributing to PI (Wilder, 2014) to be maximised. More effective communication may also assist teachers to be alert to any parent–child stress related to mathematics homework or achievement (Weerasinghe, 2020), enabling potential monitoring of the child’s wellbeing or intervention. Teacher practice can be informed by the results of this study, through teacher and school leader awareness leading to necessary positive changes in teaching and communication practices. Future studies could delve deeper into further ways that strong teacher-student communication about mathematics teaching and learning can be enjoyed between teachers and East Asian immigrant parents and immigrant and other parents more widely, and whether these findings and strategies are also pertinent and suitable for other curriculum areas. Previous research has focused on investigating Epstein’s (2010) six types of PI. These results add to the literature by demonstrating that understanding the perspectives of parents from different cultural backgrounds is important for understanding how to develop these PI types for individual children and their parents across varying heritage cultures.

Although this is a small study carried out in one city, the findings suggest that the aspirations of parents in relation to PI for their children’s mathematics learning and the intentions of the curriculum may not be being met. Findings suggest that the mathematics learning of East Asian immigrant learners may not be being maximised and East Asian immigrant parents’ expectations and hopes for their child’s learning and their involvement within it are unfulfilled. Evidence that some participants experienced race-based attitudes in the ways they were treated by their child’s teacher or school is particularly concerning and unacceptable.

In conclusion, many aspects of Epstein’s (2010) model may not being fully utilised in New Zealand schools. While some parents indicated they were keen to use opportunities for PI, some were frustrated by a lack of information and engagement with the teacher to help them do so. Stronger teacher and school PI initiatives are needed to realise the aims of policy relating to PI in relation to mathematics learning in New Zealand schools for East Asian immigrant parents, and potentially many others. Such moves are vital to help maximise the mathematics learning, achievement, and wellbeing of learners, parents, schools, and society.