What teachers should know about why these students perform so well: An examination of Korean-american achievement through student perspectives of East Asian parenting beliefs, styles and practices

Abstract

It has been widely reported that Korean-American students as a group outperform most other groups of students in terms of academic achievement due to having parents with especially high academic expectations due to traditional Confucian values. To examine this achievement, this study examines the common factors across the indigenous East Asian parenting ideologies, styles, and practices based on the perceptions of high-achieving, Korean-American primary school students through the East Asian Parenting Model. Perceptions about child development and learning, the mother-child relationship, authoritarian parenting style, and specific East Asian parenting practices are patterns explored in this study. These findings may inform teachers, pre-service teachers, and others involved in the education of Korean-American students about differentiating factors (i.e., specific East Asian parental and/or teaching practices) that may be influential for explaining and improving the academic achievement for the children in this group.

Keywords

• Korean achievement
• Asian achievement
• Korean parenting
• East Asian parenting mode