| 1. |
- Göransson, Kristina, et al.
(författare)
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Ambiguous aspirations: Parenting strategies around young children’s education in urban South Korea and Singapore
- 2020
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- South Korea and Singapore are widely recognized for their competitive education systems and for consistently topping international student assessment tests. They also share a ballooning private tuition industry, fueled by parents’ anxiety over their children’s academic achievements. This paper is based on a comparative ethnographic study on parenting strategies around young children’s (aged 4-12) education, and how these strategies intersect with class, gender and generation. Our findings indicate that there is a predominant assumption among parents that a child’s chances of succeeding in school and future professional life is directly dependent on addressing possible ’learning gaps’ in early childhood. Parents fear that their children will fall behind academically if these learning gaps are not addressed, and moreover, that the failure to perform academically would have a life-long negative impact on the child’s self-confidence. At the same time, this paper points to a more complex and ambivalent diversification of parental involvement in education, which can be conceptualized as a tension between the ambition to secure conventional career paths (academic achievements) versus the nurturing of the child’s own needs, interests and emotional well-being. We propose that parents’ attempts at balancing these seemingly paradoxical aspirations must be understood in relation to an expertise-based approach to parenting and a shifting perception of children, in which children are seen as vulnerable to all sorts of risks (cf Faircloth 2014). By comparing and contrasting South Korea and Singapore, this paper seeks to understand and contextualize urban middle-class parents’ ambiguous aspirations in relation to notions of risk, fear and responsible parenthood.
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| 2. |
- Göransson, Kristina, et al.
(författare)
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Doing responsible parenthood: Parental involvement in young children’s education in urban South Korea and Singapore
- 2021
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Questions around parental involvement in education, not only in in East Asia but also in a global context, are significant, given the increased concern in ‘population quality’ and the ever-growing education market. South Korea and Singapore are widely recognized for their competitive education systems and for consistently topping international student assessment tests. They also share a ballooning private tuition industry, fueled by parents’ anxiety over their children’s academic achievements. This paper explores how Korean and Singaporean parents navigate and prioritize their children’s education, in relation to notions of caregiving, childhood and academic performance. Based on ethnographic data it casts light on the multitude of strategies parents employ to handle, sometimes conflicting, ideas of proper parenthood and childhood, and the ways in which parents’ moral, emotional and material investments in their children’s education and development are intimately entangled with ideas about responsible parenting.
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| 3. |
- Göransson, Kristina, et al.
(författare)
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Navigating conflicting desires: Parenting practices and the meaning of educational labor in urban East Asia
- 2021
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- South Korea and Singapore have established a reputation as top performers in international student assessment tests and rankings, which is usually understood to be the result of competitive education systems and a distinct parenting culture. They also share a large private tuition industry, fueled by parents’ anxiety over their children’s academic achievements and future. In an attempt to contest simplistic interpretations of contemporary parenting in Asia and beyond, this paper explores the emotional and moral dimensions of middle-class parents’ educational labor, and how they cope with complex and sometimes contradictory demands in raising their young children. Based on multi-sited fieldwork in Seoul and Singapore, it demonstrates how parents indeed were deeply concerned about their children’s education and future. But their concern was not just about grades; it was also about their child’s emotional well-being. While previous studies have tended to frame these two desires as conflicting, this paper suggests that they are intimately intertwined at a meta-cognitive level. In particular, our analysis draws attention to parents’ moral imperative to raise children to ‘want to learn’ and ‘enjoy learning’, so as to reconcile the ambivalent desires to upskill the children while cultivating their emotional well-being.
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| 4. |
- Göransson, Kristina, et al.
(författare)
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Navigating conflicting desires: parenting practices and the meaning of educational work in urban East Asia
- 2022
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Ingår i: Ethnography & Education. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1745-7823 .- 1745-7831. ; 17:2, s. 160-178
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Today parents are faced with increasing expectations to attend to their young children’s learning and cognitive development. South Korea and Singapore are well-known for their competitive education systems and for consistently topping international student assessment tests. They also share an inflated private tuition industry, fuelled by the assumption that parents are compelled to invest substantial resources and time to support their children's development and education. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Seoul and Singapore, the article explores how middle-class parents of pre- and primary school children negotiate seemingly conflicting aspirations of academic achievement versus emotional well-being and resilience. The findings unveil how parents strive to cultivate positive attitudes towards learning through management of time and space in everyday life. In particular, it draws attention to the moral imperative to raise children who enjoy learning, as a way to reconcile parents’ twofold aspiration to upskill their children and cultivate their emotional well-being.
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