School-Immigrant Family-Community Collaboration Practices for Youth Integration

Abstract

We examined “school-family-community” collaboration in a context of ethnocultural diversity to identify and analyze collaborative practices involving immigrant families. Interviews were conducted in Québec with 11 education stakeholders, 10 community representatives, and 7 members of immigrant-origin families. Our conceptual framework was inspired by Bronfenbrenner’s ecosystems model (1979) and Epstein’s overlapping influence approach (2001). Thematic analysis brought forth two dimensions favoring collaboration: leadership and the child’s perception of the integration process. Our results nevertheless show that school-immigrant family-community collaboration remains hindered by the trust issues and reluctance of certain partners, thus calling for additional resources and investments by every level concerned, particularly government decision makers.