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Navigating conflicting desires: Parenting practices and the meaning of educational labor in urban East Asia

Göransson, Kristina LU and Kang, Yoonhee (2021) American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting
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... (More)
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. (Less)
Abstract (Swedish)
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... (More)
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. (Less)
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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to conference
publication status
published
subject
conference name
American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting
conference location
Baltimore, United States
conference dates
2021-11-09 - 2021-11-13
project
Parenting strategies around children's education in urban China, South Korea and Singapore: A comparative ethnographic study
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
0dc37616-093f-46e3-a8fb-bc2b81c91cf2
date added to LUP
2022-03-17 15:03:21
date last changed
2022-04-04 16:07:17
@misc{0dc37616-093f-46e3-a8fb-bc2b81c91cf2,
  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.}},
  author       = {{Göransson, Kristina and Kang, Yoonhee}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{11}},
  title        = {{Navigating conflicting desires: Parenting practices and the meaning of educational labor in urban East Asia}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}