A Case Study on Experience of Rearing Young Children for Parents in a Parental-Intermarriage Family in Korea
Yu Min, Cha
Department of Early Childhood Education
The Graduate School
Pusan National University
Advisor: Hea Soog, Jo. Ph. ...
A Case Study on Experience of Rearing Young Children for Parents in a Parental-Intermarriage Family in Korea
Yu Min, Cha
Department of Early Childhood Education
The Graduate School
Pusan National University
Advisor: Hea Soog, Jo. Ph. D
This study aims to deeply understand the experience of rearing young children for parents in a parental-intermarriage family. For this purpose, a case study method was used for a Korean wife and American husband including their in-depth interviews, partial observations and analyses of documents.
The research question is as follows:
How is the experience of rearing young children for parents in a parental-intermarriage family?
The study participants consisted of a Korean wife and a American husband raising two young children(a 38 months-old boy and a 7 months-old boy), and partially the wife's parents who were living with them in Busan, South Korea.
Data was collected for approximately 8 weeks, beginning from the forth week of July, 2015 and finishing on the forth week of September, 2015. The primary data used to analyze and interpret the findings was based on transcripts of collected in-depth interviews of the parents and additional information through e-mail.
The major findings of this study are as follows:
First, the parents' child rearing beliefs and behaviors were in harmony with each other. The father's rich personal resources and American cultural background, which had a relatively higher gender equality consciousness than Korea’s, made him participate in child rearing actively as well as helping to lead the mother to provide blueprint and guidelines for child rearing. Also, Korean patriarchal culture based on Confucianism affected the mother to follow the husband's lead. American culture is based on individualism so it encourages children to learn self-assertion and self expression. Because of that, the father interacted with his first child mostly through verbal communication in order to understand him. However, the Korean mother used non-verbal communication with her first child more often than the father. Her non-verbal communication and affectionate attitude comes from Korean ‘heart’ oriented culture, so she could sense her child’s emotions and interpret his hidden demands more easily through facial and behavioural recognition. Those two different methods of interaction were complementary in helping them to understand their child more effectively. Also, they both considered their child’s health, happiness, and interests to be most important. They tried to understand him through his own perspectives and, thus, distance themselves from Korean way of early private education fever. Besides, they both agreed on the necessity of a bilingual education for their child in order to build and maintain a bond with each parent. They attempted to collect information on bilingual education and implemented various methods depending on the situation and/or environment so that they could develop flexible capacity and competence.
Second, the American father and Korean mother were conflicted at times due to personal and cultural differences on how to properly rear children, but would eventually compromise. the American father saw children as 'independent individuals who need to be respected' but the Korean mother and her parents saw child ten as 'dependent little babies who need nurturing and care'. Those differences of cultural perspective lead to conflicts regarding rearing practices. Eventually they solved their problems by raising the first child using Western child rearing practices and the second child using Korean child rearing practices. At other times, the father used 'persuasive attitude', 'condoned attitude' or 'selective cooperation'. However, The American father was resolute when it came to his children’s safety, and often criticized Korean's insensitivity to the issue. His Korean family members, however, thought of him as being too sensitive in regards to his children’s safety. In order to solve this particular conflict of ideals the Korean family members had no choice but to accept the father’s personal views.
Third, whereas the child rearing conflicts within the family were compromised, it was impossible to compromise for the father to face being stared and discriminated as a foreigner by Koreans. The father, having experienced exclusion by Korean society, made the father have separation attitude towards Korea and Korean in acculturation. Moreover, as a family of mixed race the discrimination he, as well as his young children, faced became unbearable. This became the primary reason for their family’s decision to leave Korea for America, a multi-racial and culturally mixed society.
Fourth, the parents tried to overcome difficulties in various ways and cooperated with each other in order to be good parents. They met with other parental-intermarriage families to share child rearing experiences within Korea. Also, they tried to learn and have lots of conversations and discussions on child rearing so that they could become wise parents. Finally, as an alternative, they decided to settle down in America to provide their children with a better nurturing environment with more educational options and more parks.
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