Re-considering the Position of Student in the Tripartite Relationship between Family, School, and Student

• In Event: International students and family experiences

Proposal

Literature has emphasized the role of guide for students’ college admission and college choice. Traditionally, it has been explained in two ways. A first strand of research explicates that the socioeconomically advantaged students are supported by their parents with bachelor’s and advanced degrees and counselors in their high-achieving schools. On the other hand, a second strand of work demonstrates obstacles and hurdles of the relationship between school counselors and the socioeconomically disadvantaged students. According to this approach, despite the fact that these students have no choice but to depend on school counselors in that their parents generally have not attended college, the socioeconomically disadvantaged students are less likely to get help from school counselors because they have difficulties to make a connection with counselors or the quality of counseling service in their public school is not high.

In this regard, the current study seeks to find a third way to interpret the relationship between students and school counselors by exploring the process of selective college admissions among Korean ‘early study abroad (ESA)’ students in America. In this project, the concept of “Korean ESA students” denotes Korean international students who graduated from American high school and then entered American college. Given that many of their parents are not good at English and do not have knowledge about American education system, Korean ESA students have initial difficulties in the process of academic competition toward the goal of selective college admissions. Thus, cases of Korean ESA students who were not satisfied with the quality of counseling service in their high school but achieved the goal of selective college admissions can provide a concrete example to go beyond the existing dichotomous explanation.

In this context, by using interview data from 44 student participants in public and private Research 1 universities in America and 15 parent participants in Korea, the current study scrutinizes the process of Korean ESA students’ selective college admissions. For the student participants, three institutions are purposely selected based on the selectivity of college: one public flagship university (BU: Blue University), one private research university (GU: Green University), and one Ivy league institution (RU: Red University). With regard to the selectivity of institutions, GU and RU belong to the higher selectivity group than BU. In this project, 20 student participants were recruited from the public university (PB) group and 24 student participants were recruited from the private university (PR: 10 from GU, 14 from RU) group.

Additionally, based on parents’ educational and occupational levels, research participants’ social classes are divided into two categories: the lower-and upper-middle-class. While a fourth of the PB group belongs to the lower-middle-class group, only one student in the PR group is categorized in the lower-middle-class group. And, even in the upper-middle-class group, the PR group students are more affluent than the PB group students generally.

Interviews were conducted between fall 2013 and spring 2017 in three different cities in America. It took about two hours for each interview, and interviewees could choose a language for interview between Korean and English. As per IRB requirements, issues of confidentiality, anonymity and privacy were explained. Every interview was audio-recorded with all interviewees’ consent. All names of participants and institutions in this project are pseudonyms.

Analysis determines that Korean ESA students generally do not depend on school counselors and thus are less likely to be influenced by the institutional habitus of their high school. Instead, Korean ESA students voluntarily collect information via online and offline student communities, purchase private counseling services in the education marketplace, and require their parents to support them financially. The quality of private counseling services is different, depending on the price. And, the private service includes various activities such as recommendation on colleges and universities, feedback on his or her essay, long-term strategies for college preparation, and consideration on college transfer.

With regard to this strong motivation, students’ identity establishment and sociocultural pressure from Korean society are identified as two main reasons. In other words, Korean ESA students take the virtue of academic prowess as a pivotal principle of their own identity establishment process in their transnational learning journeys and seriously consider about the reputation of college in Korea as a criterion for college choice. For instance, respondents criticize that school counselors just know about the institutions within the state or recommend low-ranking four-year universities. In particular, many of the PR group students underline that only top 30 or 50 universities can be their options for college choice and that it is meaningless to go to a college out of the top 50, considering the investment for their ESA experience.

Findings from this study suggest to re-consider about the role of student in the process of college preparation and college choice, based on the tripartite relationship between family, school, and student. More specifically, this approach recognizes students not only as a passive beneficiary but also as an active agent who collects information and evaluate the quality of services in order to achieve the goal of selective college admissions. To put it another way, instead of regarding them as a key partner or specialist, Korean ESA students regard school counselors as one of information sources. Especially, in this regard, the growing influence of education marketplace within and between national borders is emphasized as an effective alternative. In conclusion, this project opens a new set of conversations related to the impact and limitation of student-counselor relationship, and request to expand the conversation about the current and potential relationship between school and education marketplace.

Author

• Hyunmyung Jo, SUNY University at Buffalo