The purpose of this study is to explore how Turkish mothers who live in South Korea try to adapt to the Korean culture, their experiences of child rearing in Korea, and what they learned from their experiences. With this aim in mind, Narrative method... The purpose of this study is to explore how Turkish mothers who live in South Korea try to adapt to the Korean culture, their experiences of child rearing in Korea, and what they learned from their experiences. With this aim in mind, Narrative method of Clandinin & Connelly (2000) which requires deep examination of human experiences by cooperation between researcher and participants was used as being considered the most suitable research method for this study. In depth interviews were done with five Turkish mothers who currently live in Korea and have children under the age of eight. The interviews were done between August 15 and September 30, 2015 to analyze mothers’ child rearing maternity experiences. According to the research questions, the results of this study are summarized as below: Interviews with the Turkish mothers who live in Korea demonstrate that every mother has a different child rearing experience. The study shows that the participants face several problems in rearing their children as they have to adapt to a new and different culture including difficulties such as choosing a school for their children, having difficulty in finding halal food in schools, and not having a parent’s support. Moreover, their children have problems in making friends in Korea. However, the study demonstrates that these problems can be solved by time. It is shown that the Turkish mothers make a big effort to adapt to the Korean culture and learn the Korean language as they feel the need to do it. The study shows that the Turkish community helps the Turkish mothers to exchange their knowledge and experiences such as obtaining information about child rearing, exchanging information related to the Korean culture, and help each other in finding halal foods in Korea. However, Turkish mothers feel the lack of not having an opportunity to meet with Koreans to exchange information and experiences about maternity and they agreed that they need it. The research shows that the Turkish mothers who live in Korea focus more on the advantages of living in a foreign country. They consider Korea a chance for their children to gain new experiences, learn new languages, and widen their viewpoints to look from different perspectives. Secondly, the study examines the four aspects of what it means to have a child rearing experience for a Turkish mother in Korea. 1. The interview data illustrates that the Turkish mothers in Korea have a big bonding with each other to share experiences about child rearing. Also, with the support of the Turkish community they can adapt to the Korean language and Korean culture. In addition, this big bonding between the Turkish mothers in the Turkish community help them to cooperate to find solutions related to child rearing, language barriers, and help them overcome some psychological problems including loneliness. The collaboration between the Turkish mothers makes them to be more involved the activities and be more active and outgoing. 2. The research result shows that even though the Turkish mothers experience the difficulty of being different, they think more deeply and become more aware of the diversities in Korea as a single race nation. They become conscious of the diversities by considering it as a cultural richness. Also, they attach great importance to tolerance and understanding which are expected behavior of others when there is an interaction between people from different cultures. Accordingly, Turkish mothers give a great importance to teach tolerance to their children considering that as one of the most importance values to take a firm stand on issues related to discriminations and biases and show more tolerance and understanding to others when interacting with people from different backgrounds. Moreover, the study demonstrates that this perspective of the mother affects the child behavior to be more flexible and develop a skill of understanding others. 3. Although the Turkish mothers struggle with child rearing in Korea as they do not have any support from their parents, they see this as an opportunity to evaluate their maternity and their relationship with their children. As a result of this evaluation, they feel many changes in their child rearing practices and mothering with the power of maternal thinking. 4. Lastly, the interviews with the participants illustrates that experiencing the Korean culture made the Turkish mothers to gain freedom from the dominant good mother myth ideology which is a prevailing ideology for the Turkish mothers. As time goes by, Turkish mothers develop their own way of child rearing by comparing the child rearing culture in Korea and the child rearing culture in Turkey. In addition, it is obvious that experiencing a foreign culture gives them an opportunity to reexamine their own cultural values and have a chance to think deeply about maternity. Keywords: Turkish immigrant mothers, child-rearing experience, motherhood, child-rearing culture, Turkey.
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