How to Smash the Vicious Cycle of Racism, Low Self-Efficacy, and Dependency: Immigrant Mothers' Passive Involvement in Their Children's Education in South Korea

• In Event: Educational Discourses on Crossing Borders and Continents

Abstract

This study intends to understand marriage immigrant mothers’ involvement in their interracial children’s education in South Korea. In contrast to the popular stereotype of foreign mothers and their interracial families–that they are uninterested in their children’s education–most foreign mothers showed high aspirations and expectations regarding their children’s education and future. However, as in previous studies, not all of the high maternal aspirations are actualized through their daily involvement in their children’s education. This disconnect between aspirations and behavior has not yet been explained substantially in the literature: that is, a vicious cycle of the low self-efficacy, limited maternal involvement in their children, and the ensuing misunderstandings of foreign mothers.

Author

• Heejin Park, Korean Educational Development Institute