Harnessing the Power of Family Leadership for Immigrant Students

Members of Education Community Action Forums for Excellence (Education CAFEs), which began in the immigrant communities of South Texas, are working with school-university-community collaborations to model a new kind of family engagement focused on family leadership. The Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) developed the Education CAFE approach through its groundbreaking work in family leadership in education and serves as an intermediary with the school-university-community collaborations. This chapter describes three education action projects developed and carried out by immigrant families. The chapter concludes with critical lessons learned and recommendations for the future.