ElmCore Journal of Educational Psychology October, 2014 | Page 24

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the students for their motivation was to make parents
and relatives proud. These Kenyan students grew up
being cheered on by parents and relatives and they
internalized the expectations of the people around
them to do well. It was apparent that Kenyan parents
used all available tools to motivate their children to
succeed in school. They used material rewards as well
as words of encouragement and folk stories that
provided the high-achieving Kenyan students a frame
of reference so that they can appreciate the
opportunities that have availed to them so far.
Parental Engagement
Parental engagement was a common characteristic
among the high-achieving Kenyan immigrant students.
The parents participated and were engaged in the
education of their children both at home and away
from home. During their high school years the parents
were actively engaged in the education of their
children but as they grew older they became
selectively engaged in the education of their children.
The engagement of the parents while they were still in
Kenya was a common feature in all of the participants.
Some students reported that as they got older and
moved to the United States for college their parents
reduced the level of their involvement in their
education but then increased their engagement with
their younger siblings. Often, the reason for decreased
engagement was because students had grown older,
had moved away from home and were thought to have
become responsible individuals that did not need
direct supervision. For example, Traveler, whose
parents were actively engaged with his school in the
elementary school years, indicated decreased parental
involvement in college. The students believed that
they did not need as much monitoring in college
because they were more mature.
Home Structure and Routines
Other factors that emerged about the highachieving Kenyan immigrant students were the
structure and routines in their homes. They revealed
during interviews that they had routines in their
younger years. They had clear expectations regarding
homework and when it would be completed. Even
when parents did not establish routines, their children
created one based on the parental expectations. One

ElmCore® Journal of Educational Psychology

student said that the parents never set any schedule or
rules for them when they were growing up. They knew
what was expected of them. They came home and
gathered around the table and did their homework.
Institutional Factors
Overall, the students reported that they had supportive
teachers, with the exception of Ndege, who had mixed
experiences. Even though most of her teachers were
supportive, she reported the case of one teacher whom
she perceived had low expectations of her. She made
sure that the teacher understood that she valued
education and that she had performed great in her
schooling so far. Some of the high-achieving Kenyan
students attended institutions where there was a high
student-guidance-counselor ratio or where guidance
counselors seemed unresponsive to their needs. Yet,
these students found ways to get around the problems
by reaching out to counselors not assigned to them and
by pushing their counselors to meet their needs.
Challenges of High-Achieving Kenyan Immigrant
Students
High-achieving Kenyan students experienced peer
teasing, name-calling, parental pressure, and academic
difficulties in college as a result of under-preparation
in the Kenyan high schools they had attended. They
devised coping strategies to help them tackle these
challenges. However, three students experienced
teasing at the hands of their peers due to being too
smart, too young, too skinny, too dark, African, and
for acting White. Other experienced teasing about
their names, academic achievement and their style of
clothing.
Although the students were teased and had
other difficulties, they were able to devise effective
strategies to cope. All the students were involved in
extracurricular activities, which enabled them to build
social connections and social capital with other peers
and professionals outside o