This paper presents excerpts from a conversation I had last summer with a mother from India who lives in California.  I was deeply impressed by her enthusiastic outlook on family-community-school relationships, her uncanny ability to describe nuances surrounding things that matter most in understanding these relationships, and how these relationships impact on achievement of children in schools.  I will identify this mother as 'Channi'.  Channi, I believe, in Punjabi - one of north Indian languages - means a loving person and sometimes it also means that soothing light from the moon that shines on Mother Earth.  This conversation was about her involvement in the education and schooling of her four children.  It is a success story which provides many insights which may be useful for parents and various stakeholders interested in the educational success of children, particularly in the context of school, family and student engagements.  I try to present aspects of my conversation with Channi in the context of current research orientations (discourses) in the sociology of education.  These discourses make use of such concepts as "social capital" and "cultural capital", and other related concepts.  This variety of sociology of education orientations focus on explaining school and college achievement and occupational attainment among some Asian immigrant children and other minority group immigrants in North America.  Below I provide a very brief and selected review of research in sociology of education, describe the background in which my conversation with Channi took place, and then present the excerpts from that conversation. Finally, I draw attention to some elements in Channi's story which invite us to reflect on the role Asian American Indian grandparents could play in their grandchildren's academic, social and cultural lives.

Various stakeholders in the education of children - parents, families, teachers, the state; religious and social institutions representing interests of various cultural, class and gender groups; neighbourhoods and communities; school boards and other local authorities; educators, reformers, social scientists of all stripes; mass media, popular cultural groups, business and other interest groups - show concern with raising children's achievement in schools and the effectiveness of schools as public institutions in increasing the achievement levels of children of various social and cultural backgrounds who attend them.  Unfortunately, research study after research study, as well as observations by the lay public, especially parents, point to the unequal levels of achievement among children who attend schools.  Two explanations are generally offered, among others, to account for unequal levels of achievement in schools.  One explanation focuses on what happens within the walls of schools - that is, such things as negative student - teacher interaction, lower teachers' expectations, bigger class sizes, teachers' lack of training, infrequent testing of students, etc. - as factors associated with unequal student achievement.  The second explanation is that families' and communities' networks matter more in the raising of children (children's socialization) and in motivating them to engage schools in their neighbourhood and teachers in them for high academic achievement.  To be sure, such explanations do not ignore findings of many studies in sociology of education which show that a student's social-class background and neighbourhood attributes still remain the main predictors of achievement in schools.  However, social class-based explanations of school achievement fail to fully explain the high level of achievement among students who face high barriers to schooling, such as youngsters from working-class families and ethnic groups in American schools and, also, in schools in other countries.  The studies making use of the concepts of social capital and cultural capital (Bourdieu & Passeron 1983, Bourdieu 1977, 1983, Coleman 1990, 1988, Fuller & Hannum 2002) - the two concepts which have lately come into vogue - help explain the mechanism involved in the class reproduction (as well as individual being exceptional: exceptionalism) when children from those backgrounds do get ahead in schools.  Thus, Wong (2002, p. 161-62) stated that:

"the past ten years have seen a surge of research how non-standard forms of capital affect various sociological phenomena, including educational inequalities, labour market outcomes, and voluntary associations in community..."
 

"while the relevance of these two forms of capital (especially social capital) is still open to debate --- , they have been incorporated into a unified neo-capital theory that combines various theoretical traditions such as Marxist class theory, neo-classical microeconomic theory, social network analysis, and social reproduction theory... In sociology of education, the rising interest in cultural and social capital reflects a desire to go beyond conventional measures of socio-economic background to gain a better understanding of the quality of social environments that parents provide to their off-springs, as past research shows a weak relation between conventional indicators and the quality of family environments C The weak relationship suggest that besides tangible material resources, the family provides more elusive forms of resources that can foster cultural and social skills, motivations, and commitment to learning."

"past research has found that parental social networks and their involvements with teachers, students, and other parents have important implications for educational outcomes in the United States...".

Another related study by us and many other researchers has shown that students consider their parents, grandparents and other members in families and their communities (such as teachers, church and religious leaders) as their academic significant others.  Positive social and cultural expectations held by significant others help students cultivate high/positive social and academic self-concepts.  Positive self-concepts, including positive self-concept of academic ability, helped students to achieve high in schools (Singh 1977, 1984, 1986; Brookover & Erickson 1969).  Further, in the context of Asian Indian families, our research showed that grandparents were deeply concerned with the education of young people in their communities and in homes.  In general grandparents were "sponsored" by their younger family members already living in North America to join them and, thus, were part of the "first wave" of Indian immigrants in North America. These elderly (grandparents) themselves did not grow older in the context of North American society but strongly believed that formal higher education was the main route to social mobility for their youngsters in North America.  They also believed that young people in their community needed to be involved in their religious institutions so that they could strike a balance between their material aspirations and spiritual needs. These elderly thought that in traditional Indian family and community settings they had a relatively better chance to influence young people in spiritual and educational matters, because of the connections the elderly had developed with larger religious and social institutions available to them at the time they immigrated to Canada or the United States.  (Singh 2000).  As their sons and daughters grew older in various North American social and cultural contexts and began to have their own young children, the elderly believed that their status in families and communities had also changed(Singh, Martin & Singh 1991).  With this change, they believed, the value of the social and the cultural capital which they once held had decreased.  Many "first wave" Asian Indian elders now say that they have been regularly subjected to various types of abuse by their sons, daughter-in-law and other care-givers in their families( Singh, Mutta, Kaur and Singh, 2004).  On the other hand, the new generation of older parents, who are getting older in North American social and cultural context, seem to have more extended and locally rooted networks in their communities, neighbourhoods and in larger North American society.  This is so partially because this group of aging people are relatively more educated and most of their education has been in North American schools and universities.  They seem to be in a better position to use the social capital and the cultural capital to help their children to succeed educationally and socially in North American contexts.

However, helping their children to improve social status through educational attainment via the use of the social and cultural capitals one possesses is not that straightforward, because there is sharp distinction made between the concept of social capital and cultural capital.  The latter focuses on particular values, attitudes, or knowledge that families hold and pass on to their children.  In contrast, the concept of social capital focuses on the trusting and positive qualities of the existing networks families have managed to create in their communities and neighbourhoods which are useful for the child's social or cognitive development.  It is the schooling-focused relationships that are important.
 
In everyday practice what the social capital focused research, the significant others/self-concept/achievement research, and the roles of elderly in families really means is that mothers, fathers, grandparents and other "significant others" must learn to use the schooling-focussed networks effectively; just the existence of any set of networks is not sufficient in improving their children's position in the social stratification system.  In today's society improving one's position in the social stratification generally means getting well-paid jobs and other things which are considered by a society as worth having at a given time.
 
Coleman and others (1988)  have elaborated on these two concepts - the social capital and the cultural capital - in much detail.  Points made by them further clarify the importance of parental networks and their involvements with various educational stakeholders in improving the educational outcomes of children and schools.  For example, Coleman (1988, S110) pointed out that "if human capital possessed by parents is not complemented by social capital embodied in family relations, it is irrelevant to a child's educational growth."  Bourdieu (1983, p. 248) defined social capital as "the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintances and recognition - in other words, memberships in a group."  Bankston III and Zhou (2002, p. 15) explained that:

"Coleman defines social capital in terms of network closure.  Social capital exists, in Coleman's view, when there are close and closed networks among a set of individuals, promoting advantageous behaviour.  When parents, for example, maintain close contacts with their own children and with other adults who affect the lives of their children, parents and other adults in the parental networks can impose consistent norms and standards to direct the behaviour of young people."   

"the commonly used familial closure version of social capital does not provide an adequate explanation for the school achievement of children in immigrant families.  Instead, we suggest that extra-familial institutions, notably immigrant religious institutions, contribute to the school performance of children."
 

The Conversation with Channi
 
Background information

As background information, Channi and her husband have been living in the United States for more than thirty years.  People enter into marriage relationships in many different circumstances and in different ways.  My parents always told me that marriages are made in the heaven and, at best, can be appreciated as chance events.  The word in an Indian language is "SANJOG", I was told.  That is to say individuals get married by chance, but it a spiritual chance.  This way of seeing marriages may look odd to mainstream individuals living in North America, where the emphasis is on knowing each other before one gets married.  Many mainstream North Americans talk about dating, dating relationships, date rapes, rapes in marriages and living together  for years before committing to legal marriage or common law marriage.  After all this, people still have to face the possibility of separations, divorces, custody of children and the well-being of children and families.  To day there are many forms of families that are legally recognized in North America.  A great number of relationships carefully crafted, arranged or not arranged, go sour everywhere.  Indian families are no different. Contrary to stereotypical beliefs, in Indian families conflict in marriages is always there and separations and divorces are now a common scene in Indian households. Channi's marriage was an arranged marriage.  It is still a very much common practice in India.  In most well educated middle class families this practice is rampant.  However, in North America, some still see Indian style arranged marriages as exotic and repressive for women.  So many movies have been made and novels written lately on the subject of Indian style arranged marriages.  These films and novels have become part of the popular global culture, fetching big sums of money for successful movie producers and writers.  Channi holds college degrees from India and got married to a man who holds a graduate engineering degree from the University of Chicago. After marriage she immigrated to the United States.  They were married more than thirty years ago and are still happily married.  They have four children.  All of them were born in the United States.  At the time when the children were young, only Channi's husband worked.  His position was relocated by his employer several times and as a consequence the family was made to move to various parts of the United States.  Channi found this situation very stressful.  She realized at the very early stage of parenthood that constant moving the family from one place to another place was dysfunctional for children's schooling and growing up.  Although each move fetched more income for the family, Channi decided that this should not be the main concern of the family.  The first concern should be the well being of the children and the whole family.  So she was instrumental in convincing her husband and children to move to California.  The husband accepted a less well paying job with the State of California.  This is not to say that economic capital was not a concern for her and her husband.  The point is that as a mother and partner to her husband, she had the foresight to think of the value of other forms of capital B social and cultural - as being important for her family, particularly for her young children.  The move to California was well coordinated.  She and the family looked at many neighbourhoods, surveyed the schools in the surrounding areas, the mix of the population and availability of religious and social institutions suited to the tastes of a young and growing Indian family in the American context.  The children went to local schools.  In time they all earned good scholarships to further their education.  As the time went by, the children grew up in the chosen community and the couple themselves became middle-aged parents.  As things stand now, one daughter received scholarship to attend University of California at Berkeley and graduated from there with a B.Sc. degree in biology and is now working with a famous health organization.  The older son is studying at Stanford on scholarship.  The next younger daughter is studing medicine in Granada.  The youngest son is finishing high school and has already published a book in the area of computer technology for children.  This sort of achievement for a family is remarkable from any standard.  However, it is not solely because it is an Asian family, as many families of diverse backgrounds excel in this direction.  We are not talking here about Asian American as a "model minority". According to Kaufman (2003, p. 143) this theory:

"argued that Asians should serve as a model to other minority groups of how to succeed in US society.  Asian success was attributed to hard work, a high value on education, and a propensity to not engage in political movements that challenged racism.  Asian Americans were portrayed as politically passive and economically successful."

"the myth of the model minority implies that while members of other minority groups have agitated for their liberation, Asians are doing fine simply by keeping their noses to the grindstone and not complaining.  This ignores both the extent to which Asian Americans have agitated for their rights and against discrimination, and the extent to which they have benefited from the agitation of other groups."  

"the idea that members of other groups of people of color should act like Asian Americans in order to succeed in the United States ends up working to divide people of color and pit them against one another."

The actual conversation started when one morning I drove with Channi to drop her son at the local high school.  She happened to say that this was a high achieving high school in the area.  I just asked her, simply out of curiosity; what makes this school a high achieving school and how come her children had proven themselves to be high achievers.  She articulated answers to my questions in a form of an on-going conversation during my two-day stay with the family.  While driving through the neighbourhood during the early rush hour she kept responding to my queries.  She spoke in the first person using such phrases as AI do CA, AI have done this CAI believe CA and AI thinkCA.  I listened to her with great interest.  When she was away teaching during the day, I reflected on the long conversation and made some notes.  During the process of making notes I discovered the salient points she was trying to make.  I jotted down ten points which I believe she made.  They provide us with some insights into the operation of the social capital and the cultural capital in the context of an Asian American family.  More specifically, it provides insights into an immigrant Asian mother's role in the high academic and social achievement of children in a two-parent family setting. 
 
Insight number 1:  Get Involved with Your Children's Life in the Very Beginning of Their Growing up And Remain Involved.  This is what Channi said:

"I have been involved in my children's life activities, everything they have done -including their lives in the school, at the soccer field, football games, etc.  From early swim lessons to gymnastics and all the way up to high school soccer game, I have made it a point to sit through every single event of each of my children.  I was there when my children swam their first stroke or shot their first basket.  When they turned around to see if I were watching, our eyes always met, even if just for a moment, telling them that they were being given the 'thumbs up'."

"I have volunteered time for kids' school and for the community in many ways.  I volunteered unlimited hours in their classrooms; I drove on field trips, and I worked and helped on their school projects and made everything a fun event. When I found out that their school did not send a representative to the Spelling Bee, I organized a school-wide ... Spelling Bee Competition and made sure the tradition of sending a representative continued every year after that.  I was there when the children received awards or recognition B no matter how small it was."

"I have not neglected my family.  My family had always been and will always be my first priority.  We sat together several times during the week and discussed the happenings, time management and everything in our lives.  Planning is the best tool to put everything in place.  Planning makes organized events occur in a smooth way.  Sometimes after these discussions, certain events were let go of because of their lack of interest, time, or importance compared to other events."

"May be I have a need to be recognized - my contribution to the family appreciated. I feel hurt sometimes when other people look at our successful family and make comments such as, "The children have an intelligent father," or, Atheir father gave his all to the betterment of his family."  Even though this is partially true because my husband, J, has never restricted my involvement in our children's growth, I still do not agree with their comments.  I have done all the work, every single minute of every day.  I feel I need to be recognized in the way I want to be, like be given a trip to a place of my choice, when and where I want to go. Sometimes I simply want to buy an object of my choice."

"I have good communication with J, my husband, and children.  We talk and discuss things.  There have been times when I have felt that all of this is one-sided.  Whenever I have requested that my family provide me with more appreciation, they don't understand my desire.  For many years, they have seen only the receiving side B I spent time on them, listened to them, and did everything they wanted."

"I share my success stories with others.  I give others information freely and willingly, so that their children can reach their goals.  Families can do things they want to do for their children and for themselves."  Where I came from, anyone's successes and achievements were generally met with negativity.  In fact, the closer I was to anyone, the higher the level of negativity and put downs. Words such as, "Oh, she doesn't cook proper dinners and lunches and does not have much to do so she's doing all this useless stuff which is going to get her nowhere," or, "she will never get married because she doesn't have any homely or wifely traits," or, "she is from an average family, so she has to find the limelight somewhere else."

I am waiting for one more thing B when my children get married and bring me grandchildren.  I will be ready to run again. Right now, I am happy being myself.
 
Insight number 7:  Don't Be Timid, or shy Celebrating Each And Every Little Achievement of Your Family and Children.  Here is what she has to say:

"I have been celebrating things my children have achieved in their lives so far.  I have always believed in the saying, "Do unto others as you would others do unto you."  I have celebrated with joy and enthusiasm any achievement my family has gone through.  We had celebrations such as a picnic in the park, or a family barbeque in the backyard, or even baking brownies and giving a small gift. Sometimes we would have a huge party and sometimes we would have a religious get-together.  Every event, no matter how small, has been celebrated over the years.  We have celebrated Valentine's Day, Lost the First Tooth Day, Rode a Bike on One's Own Day, and Improved Scores on a Test Day.  The list is unlimited.  I always feel that a reward always increases the amount of fun one can have during any situation to the maximum level.  I can see the joy on my family's faces and that is my reward."

"I have always had positive attitude towards life, always wanted to be free to do things.  I wanted to be free from other people's negativity.  They (my children) now take great pride in cooking and sharing their knowledge with others.  In this quickly growing fast food lifestyle, they have learned that sharing time with family and friends and feeding them meals, cooked with pride and time, is unbeatable.  I have always listened to my family members, sometimes given advice, and sometimes lent my ear.  That is all they need B someone to talk to."

"In India I was not happy.  I couldn't do things I wanted to do.  There was too much judgemental interference by others in my life.  Here in the U.S., I feel free do what I want to do.  My husband, J, understands this.  We have good communication in this regard.  Here I am free from others' negativity.  Sunday mornings were always "getting ready for religious learning" time.  Everyone got dressed in traditional clothing and we drove to Gurdwara where our children had one hour of Sunday school, one hour of services, and the rest of the morning eating traditional langar (lunch) and socializing with other similar families."

"I was a soccer mom B I organized treats for soccer and basketball games. I networked with other parents.  I set up carpools and school trips.  I was involved in the Parent Teacher Associations (PTA), the district educational policies, and the improvement of activities in our school and place of worship.
I also set up neighborhood play groups so mothers could get time off from their children for an afternoon of shopping or other methods of treating themselves.  I also organized small multicultural dance and drama groups in my neighborhood for children.  I facilitated the children, adorned with different colorful clothing, to perform for local retirement homes and hospitals."

In the sociology of education research, an understanding of individual educational attainment is gained through the analysis of the role of achievement, aptitude, and expectation, as well as race, gender, and socioeconomic status. However, studies conducted in this tradition often have focused on individual attributes at the expense of negating the role played by the educational organizations and parent-school-community relationships in individual educational attainment.  Recent and earlier works (Brookover et. al. 1979) in these areas suggest looking at the organizational culture and climate, as well as schools' organizational structures, resources, and contingencies present in given situations.  Cultural theorists suggest looking at the interaction between structure and a group's habitus.  This idea points to beliefs and values a group holds based on its class position in a society (McDonough 1998, 181-182).  Solorzano & Villalpando (1998, 220-221) pointed out that "from critical race and critical pedagogy theoretical perspectives, both the public and higher education systems in the United States reflect the structural and ideological contradictions that exist in the larger society."  For example, even though most colleges recognize the importance of multiculturalism and diversity on campuses and have provided educational opportunities to students from non-white cultural groups during the last three decades, these students are still stratified based on their color and race.  (Hurtado 1990)  In this context, students from marginal groups develop valuable "navigating skills" which lead them to success in educational institutions.  Some students and families decide to benefit by acquiring dominant cultural capital and completely conforming to this contradictory environment.  On the other hand, some families and students resist and oppose expectations of the dominant group for total conformity and still succeed in attaining higher education.  Studies done by educational anthropologists suggest that pedagogy is linked to the cultural beliefs, practices and training of teachers.  In this way the idea of pedagogy differs from the term "instruction".  In the framework of pedagogy, culture, class, gender, race has a great deal to contribute to our understanding of teaching.  Teaching and teacher education has been traditionally dominated by psychology.  The psychologically driven paradigm see instruction by teachers merely a technical undertaking.  Thus, teachers just need to acquire requisite skills to be successful.

Channi and her husband had to consider this maze of factors, work hard and "navigate" school success for their four children.  Obviously, with the input by her family and, through her involvement in her children's activities, she is successful in linking family-schools-community interaction networks.  So far, in her own ways, directly or indirectly, she has done very well in helping her children's social, cultural and academic success. Now she says " ... my need for appreciation [ by her family] is growing as I get older" and " I am waiting for one more thing - when my children get married and bring me grandchildren. I will be ready to run again. Right now, I am happy being myself." It remains to be seen how her American born children "navigate" in carving out their life styles (attaining jobs, getting married, having children, educating them, and so on) and their general well-being through the maze of contemporary post-9/11 American society as Asian American citizens.  As well, it remains to be seen what role Channi would be able to play as grandmother as her children set up their own households, whether her and her husband's status change in the extended family structure as they age in the United States, whether it would be different from Indian people who grew older in India and are now living with their North America born grandchildren.  Unlike those Indian grandparents who experienced the aging process in India before they moved to North America to join their children, Channi's social and cultural capital include well established parental social networks.  She and her husband are highly educated and experiencing aging process in North American contexts.  Given all this, is it more likely that Channi and her husband will be able to provide schooling-focussed relationships to their grandchildren in changing North American social, political and cultural context in which her children are becoming adults? These are the questions not only for Channi and her husband to reflect on, and not only for Asian Americans, but also members of other cultural groups, including the non-mainstream cultural groups,  who are anticipating to be grandparents soon, and are looking for culturally competent practices, skills, interventions and evaluations at this stage of their lives (Fong & Furoto 2001). A healthy inter-generational relationship in Asian American Indian families will go a long way to encourage grandparents to remain active in their children's education. This is another lesson we can learn from Channi's story.
 
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*I wish to thank Dr. Joan Oldford for reading this paper and for providing useful feedback.
This paper is based on Channi's story. In this sense she is a co-author of this paper. The author extends thanks to her for her willingness to contribute to the on going discourses on family-school-community involvement in children's education and academic achievement.