ABSTRACT
Korean parents’ educational involvement is an indispensable factor influencing the academic success of Korean students. Several studies on the sociology of education and educational inequalities have shown that the cultural and parental educational capital are closely related to students’ academic success. However, parental involvement has often been excluded from the inquiry into Korean students’ academic success. This chapter introduces strategies adopted by Korean parents to involve themselves in their children’s education.
First, Korean parents make their home environment optimal to facilitate their children’s learning. It is fundamental for them to adapt the family schedule to the child’s studies. Second, many Korean parents directly guide their children’s learning and teach them the curriculum content and other learning strategies. They often discuss with their children to come up with effective studying strategies. Third, Korean parents strive to find and invest in effective shadow education. Korean parents acknowledge that more appropriate educational opportunities lie in shadow education spaces that can meet their children’s academic abilities and purposes. Fourth, Korean parents collect information necessary for study and entrance exams of schools and universities while participating in parent meetings, online community activities, and school activities. As such, Korean parents use material, psychological, and relational techniques to help their children study well by getting involved in their education. Such educational involvement is different from the Chinese tiger parenting, which has been conceived as a characteristic of Asian parents.
