This article explores immigrant mothers’ experiences and perspectives on early learning to identify the underlying principles of parents’ learning theories and their concerns about pedagogic practices at school. It employs data from interviews with nineteen immigrant mothers that reveal a discord between learning beliefs and practices at home and school. The paper argues that mothers’ cultural capital may shape their perspectives on learning, which may subsequently influence their children’s cultural capital and interests. Supporting children’s learning at school requires examining home learning beliefs so that teachers can establish a two-way exchange of knowledge, ideas and perspectives with common objectives of respecting differences and exploring possible reconciliation of differences. This paper urges educators to bridge home and school through engaging in dialogue with parents so that parents’ cultural capital and their understanding about play-based learning work to their children’s advantage. © 2015 TACTYC.

Cultural diversity pedagogy of play parent partnership home and school Sociocultural theories

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