Abstract

This exploratory study was to investigate the demographic characteristics of Chinese and Korean immigrant families living in the Greater Rochester Area of New York in the United States (US), and these families’ perspectives and needs for support concerning their children’s growth and development. A total number of forty Chinese families and twenty Korean families participated in this research. Descriptive data were analysed to report the demographic characteristics of the Chinese and Korean immigrant families. The results of the data analyses indicated that the Korean families used their primary language of Korean more often at home than the Chinese families using Chinese, while the participating Chinese families had higher annual gross incomes and more Chinese parents had been in US longer. Among the Chinese participants, the study investigated their use of Chinese language in general, but did not specify the language being Mandarin, Cantonese, or other dialects. Qualitative data analyses were used to report the families’ perspectives and needs. The paper also discussed how educational professionals can use the information on their culturally and linguistically diverse students and their families to enhance the students’ learning experience via culturally responsive teaching approaches.