Constructing Morality: Why Parents Seek Extra Education for their Children

• In Event: 069 - Section on Asia and Asian America Paper Session. New Frontiers in Stratification and Inequality

Abstract

Key to immigrant educational achievement has been their use of extracurricular education. What explains the growing pursuit of “hyper education,” that is extra educational options for elementary and middle-school age children who already are doing well in good schools? Spelling bees, math learning centers, and the like are of growing attention, with children spending hours a week, even per day. If we can understand why families do this, we can understand a growing trend in education, that people are seeking educational content outside of the school all the more. This trend contributes directly to educational inequality. Asian Americans figure prominently within this practice, but they are not alone. This study takes from in-depth interviews and observations of Indian Americans, U.S.-born whites, and others living in affluent suburbs whose children pursue some form of hyper education. This paper argues that more is motivating families than a desire for cultural capital or human capital, as expressed within the literature on concerted cultivation and Asian American academic achievement. In addition, the answer has much to do with the fear of assimilation, of losing a morality relative to suburban whites. What’s more, the U.S.-born white families engaged with this similarly understand their hyper education as a way to avoid a cultural assimilation akin to their neighbors. We cannot understand either the commitment of immigrant families to extra education or the popularity of extra education without recognizing its symbolic role in cultivating a way of life, not just a degree of capital.

Author

• Pawan H. Dhingra, Tufts University