Mums but not “tigers”? Discourse on parenting by immigrant parents in Asian city-state Singapore

• In Event: Parents, families, mobilities

Proposal

In North American sociological and educational literature, the so-called “model minority” phenomenon, and more specifically, the academic overachievement of second-generation Asian immigrants has long been noted (e.g. Lee & Zhou, 2015). One explanation offered for this phenomenon is the “tiger mum” (or “tiger parent”) thesis – in no small measure made popular by authors such as Amy Chua (2011) – which argues that certain deeply rooted parenting/educational ideologies in Asian cultures account for the intensive parenting that second-generation immigrant children receive, and hence their above-average achievement. In academia, this argument has been critiqued for its simplicity and cultural essentialism by sociologists such as Lee and Zhou (2014, 2015), who argue instead for a more nuanced analysis that pays attention to both the cultural/ideational dimensions as well as the social capital and more tangible economic resources behind Asian-American immigrant children’s educational success. This notwithstanding, the imaginary of Asian “tiger mums” remains a powerful one and continues to arouse debates around immigrant education, in and beyond the North American context.
In this paper, we further question and interrogate the notion of tiger parenting, by drawing on preliminary data from an ongoing study of immigrant parents in a context that has seldom featured in relevant scholarly fields – the Asian city-state of Singapore. Despite the significant presence of immigrants in Singapore society (the majority of whom are also from other Asian countries, notably China and India), so far there has been surprisingly little research into immigrant parents’ influences on their children’s education, and the educational and sociological implications thereof. Funded by the Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE), our study seeks to investigate comparatively parental influences on children’s education (in primary to pre-tertiary schooling stages) across several major group of immigrants in terms of their national origins and cultural backgrounds (specifically: China; India; Philippines; Indonesia; and others). The study conceptualizes parental influences broadly in terms of parental ideologies, expectations, and involvement, and uses mainly in-depth qualitative interviewing to elicit insights from research participants.
For this paper, we draw on early-stage data arising from interviews with ten research participants, comprising five mainland China-background immigrant parents, three Indian-background parents, and two who hailed from the Philippines. Our findings reveal that these Asian immigrant parents’ experiences and approaches towards parenting are more context-contingent, dynamic, and nuanced than is implied in the “tiger mum” imaginary. While all research participants took their parenting duties seriously and were generally highly involved in their children’s education, they seemed to consciously distance themselves from the “tiger” parent stereotype, instead describing their parenting philosophy and styles as more balanced, and even liberal in certain senses. This is notwithstanding admissions from some parents about their high expectations of their children and/or behaviours such as sending them to tuition and/or extra-curricular enrichment classes, but in such cases, parents tended to talk about their actions with some regret while also attributing said behaviour to the pressure or norms found in the broader Singapore educational environment. Overall, parents in our study seemed eager to portray themselves as relatively liberal and open-minded parents who were respectful and supportive of their children’s interest, opinions, and individual characteristics.
In addition, home-country context played a notable role in how immigrant parents in our study perceived the receiving-country education system, and consequently their parenting orientations and strategies. The Chinese-background parents typically characterized education in Singapore to be less stressful than in China, and generally considered this a positive feature that afforded them to be less demanding of their children academically. However, some dissonance could be gleaned when a few of these same parents implicitly harbored concerns that a less stressful environment might be inadequate to prepare their children for a successful future, and consequently sought to fill this perceived gap through various measures. In contrast, those immigrant parents not from China tended to characterize Singapore’s education system as more stressful compared to that of their home countries, citing examples such as high-stakes exams that mark students’ educational journeys in Singapore (e.g. the Primary School Leaving Exam, or PSLE). For these non-Chinese immigrant parents in our sample, thus, encountering education in Singapore was somewhat bifurcating: on the one hand they appreciated the high standards of education locally, but at the same time they also bemoaned the academic pressure their children are under, which sometimes compelled them to send their children for supplementary classes—couched as a necessary evil–just to keep up with the competitive culture.
Overall, our initial findings with the ten immigrant parents in Singapore – which obviously should not be taken as representative – do not support or fit with the immigrant “tiger” parenting narrative, in spite of anecdotal discourses to the contrary effect in Singapore society. Instead, our preliminary data suggests immigrant parenting as situated and dynamic processes that reflect the encounters and negotiations between immigrant parents and the host system, which may be experienced differently by different groups of immigrants. Furthermore, our study also reveals an interesting juxtaposition, if not tension, between the immigrant parents’ discursive distancing from “tiger parenting” on the one hand, and their pragmatic acceptance of certain intensive educational and parenting practices that are considered normalized and/or necessary in the local context.

References
Chua, A. (2011). Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother London: Bloomsbury Publishing plc.
Lee, J., & Zhou, M. (2015). The Asian American achievement paradox. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Lee, J., & Zhou, M. (2014). The Success Frame and Achievement Paradox: The Costs and Consequences for Asian Americans. Race and Social Problems, 6, 38-55.

Author

• Peidong Yang, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore