Acculturation and Korean Parents’ Involvement in American Schooling

• In Event: Poster Session 19
  In Poster Session: Equity, Stereotypes, and Acculturation

Abstract

This study presented the cases of three Korean mothers in the United States and examined how their experiences and perspectives on their children's schooling were mediated by individual agency and acculturation. As part of a large ethnographic study, data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observations, and school-documents during one academic year. Findings suggested that the three Korean mothers constructed distinct ways of parent involvement based on their experiences and understandings of education in the United States: cultural broker, team worker, and outsider. Each type of involvement reflected how the mothers engaged in complex negotiations across cultural contexts. The mothers created unique coping strategies by drawing on their personal agency and cultural participation in the home and host societies.

Author

• Minjung Lim, Chung-Ang University