Using Bourdieu’s (1986) field-capital-habitus lens, this qualitative case study aimed to understand how transnationalism and cultural capital affect Chinese astronaut families’ (sole parents residing in Canada with partners remaining in China) investment strategies in their adolescent study abroad children’s English as a second language learning and schooling experiences in Canada.
Canada has witnessed drastic increase among its Chinese newcomers a unique group of families which are “astronaut families” with mothers (called pei du mothers) residing in Canada while fathers work outside of Canada, resulting in an intensification of parenting responsibilities and the priority to ensure the linguistic and educational success of their children. Past studies have not explored parenting strategies on bilingual learning among this unique group of families whose transnational arrangement requires simultaneous negotiation of multiple sets of social relationships, schooling, and language practices transcending boundaries between the host country and their home country (Levitt & Schiller, 2004). Framed under Bourdieu’s (1986, 1991) field-capital-habitus lens, this qualitative case study aimed to address an overarching question: How do recent Chinese pei du mothers invest in their adolescent children’s Chinese and English learning and negotiate new schooling experiences in Canada? Data for this research included semi-structured interviews with fifteen pairs of parents and their adolescent children (in middle or high school) from middle-upper or upper-income backgrounds. Following Miles, Huberman, & Saldana’s (2019) thematic analysis methods, the data revealed that the mothers’ transnational living was an educational strategy for their children to get a western education (Water, 2005). The majority of the mothers see ensuring the children’s academic success as their “career” in Canada and leveraged their own financial and social capital to support their children in acquiring English, maintaining Chinese, and achieving academically in school. Their traditional parenting habitus brought from home, however, has served a as barrier to their communication with schools.
