Family, Parent-Child Relationship, and Academic Achievement in Korea

Abstract

enrollment reached 99% for middle school in 1985 and for high school in 1995 (Korea Educational Development Institute, 2003). By 1983, Korea had the highest percentage of adolescents wishing to obtain a university degree (85%), followed by the U.S. (81%), Thailand (69%), Japan (62%), England (50%), and France (38%) (Korea Educational Development Institute, 1983). In 1998, 98% of Korean parents wanted their children to obtain at least a college degree (Im, 1998). Korean parents wanted to educate their children for the following reasons: Education provides access to obtaining a desirable job (37%); it is a method of cultivating a moral character (35%); it helps children to improve their natural talent and interests (14%); it increases their chances of finding a good marriage partner (9%); and it can compensate for their own low educational status (6%) (Korea Educational Development Institute, 1995). Currently, adult literacy rate stands at 98%, youth literacy rate is 100%, and more than 80% of students enroll in a col-lege or university (Korea National Statistics Bureau, 2005). The purpose of this chapter is to examine factors that influence aca-demic achievement of Korean children and adolescents. In the first part section, the authors review the results of international studies of academic achievement. In the second section, the authors trace the changes in the traditional parent-child relationship. Although the structural features of the family have changed, the basic features of parental socialization that emphasize sacrifice, devotion and educational aspirations remain strong. This type of socialization practices instills a sense of indebtedness, respect, and emotional closeness in their children and it is responsible for high academic aspirations and achievement. In the third section of this chapter, the influence of Confucianism and educational system is reviewed. In the fourth section, a series of empirical studies that used indigenous methodology to examine the relationship between parent-child relationship and academic achievement is reviewed. These results challenge traditional psychological and educational theories emphasize biology (i.e., innate ability, intelligence), individualistic values (e.g., intrinsic motivation, ability attribution and self-esteem) and structural features (e.g., high educational spending, small class size and individual-ized instruction). Indigenous psychological analyses can provide a pow-erful and rigorous understanding of parent-child relationship and academic achievement in Korea. INTERNATIONAL STUDIES OF ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT In international studies of academic achievement of middle-school stu-dents (39-nation study of Grade 8 students, National Center for Educational Statistics, 2000, abbreviated as TIMSS) and in the 31-nation 422 Young-Shin Park and Uichol Kim Ch19.qxd 2/6/06 12:33 PM Page 422 study of Grade 9 students (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2003, abbreviated as PISA), Korean students are top achievers in mathematics, science, and reading literacy. In TIMSS (2000), Korean students are ranked second in mathematics and fifth in sciences. In PISA (2003), Korean students are ranked first in sciences, second in mathematics, and sixth in reading literacy. Students from the U.S. perform far below their Korean counterparts. They are ranked 19 th in mathematics and 18 th in sciences (TIMSS, 2000). In PISA (2003), they are ranked 15 th in reading literacy, 19 th in mathematical literacy, and 14 th in scientific literacy. Follow-up studies conducted in 2003 indicated a similar pattern of results (PISA, 2004; TIMSS, 2004). These results baffle many psychologists and educators since they are inconsistent with existing psychological and educational theories. Traditional psychological and educational theories that emphasize biol-ogy (e.g., innate ability, I.Q.), individualistic values (e.g., intrinsic motiva-tion, ability attribution, self-esteem), and structural features (e.g., high educational spending, small classes, and individualized instruction) can-not explain the relatively poor performance of American students and high performance of Korean students. First, although the U.S. government spends more than twice the amount per student than Korean government and the class size of U.S. schools are much smaller, Korean students perform much better than American students. Second, although American students perform rela-tively poorly in mathematics and science, they have high self-esteem for these subjects. They are ranked first in self-esteem for science and fourth for mathematics (TIMSS, 2000). By contrast, Korean students had rela-tively low self-esteem: 32 nd in self-esteem for mathematics and 21 st for self-esteem in sciences. Similar pattern of results has been found in sub-sequent studies (PISA, 2004; TIMSS, 2004) forcing researchers to question the validity of self-esteem measures and theories. Third, as to the motivation for studying math, 41% of U.