Exploring migrant parenting experiences and collective resilience in early childhood education through a collective narrative approach. A qualitative study

This study critically interrogates the experiences of 40 migrant parents whose children attend a state-supported early childhood education institution in Italy. Through their participation in the Tree of Life, a collective narrative practice rooted in the Dulwich Centre’s approach, parents reclaimed storytelling as an act of resistance against systemic marginalization, institutional neglect, and the pressures of assimilation. Discussions during the practice were recorded and subjected to a critical, inductive data-driven analysis, revealing seven main interwoven themes. Cultural heritage and identity emerged as contested sites of both strength and erasure, revealing how parents navigate the violence of assimilationist pressures while striving to preserve their cultural legacies. Family dynamics and parenting challenges highlighted the tensions between safeguarding one’s identity and raising children in an exclusionary system that often pathologizes migrant families. Parents spoke of resilience, resistance, and support systems, demonstrating how communities, spirituality, and connection to the land function as acts of defiance against systemic violence. The theme of community and social connections further laid bare the absence of adequate institutional support, underscoring the urgency of dismantling structural barriers rather than merely adapting to them. Discussions on intergenerational relationships and legacy revealed a deliberate insistence on transmitting cultural values as an act of survival against cultural erasure, while reflections on gender roles and societal expectations exposed both the reproduction and subversion of traditional family structures within new socio-political realities. Finally, personal growth and self-identity emerged as a deeply political act, rejecting narratives that frame migrant parents solely as subjects of hardship rather than agents of transformation. By disrupting dominant integration discourses, this study foregrounds migrant parents as political actors actively resisting erasure and reimagining belonging. It positions the Tree of Life as more than a research tool—it is a radical praxis of visibility, agency, and collective resistance against exclusionary educational structures.