Page 47 - IJPS-11-4

International Journal of

Population Studies

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Education fever in South Korea: Rite of passage

versus children’s rights

Hwayoung Kim and Vladimir Hlasny *
1
2
1 Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Katholieke Universiteit
Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
2 Department of Economics, College of Social Sciences, Ewha Womans University, Seoul,
South Korea

Abstract
From enrolment in elementary school until acceptance at university, South Korean
children pursue a uniform, arduous goal assigned to them by their mothers,
community, and popular culture. Where this personal struggle will lead adolescents,
and how, why, and at what cost? This study conceptualizes education as the rite of
passage, not only for the children’s social initiation but also in their mothers’ pursuit
of self-validation and self-worth. This social ritual aims to raise successful workers and
righteous citizens but also inflicts various harms on the children, posing significant
costs to them, their parents, and their teachers. We document evidence that youths
endure various hardships and even long-term harms from being blindly and
unidirectionally steered during their adolescence by their ostensibly emotionally
cold “manager moms.” We assert that giving children their own voice, shifting the
*Corresponding author: prevailing social norms, and reforming the educational and career-access systems
Vladimir Hlasny would help children attain better outcomes with lower collateral damage.
(vhlasny@ewha.ac.kr)
Citation: Kim, H. & Hlasny, V.
(2025). Education fever in South Keywords: Education fever; Initiation rush; Liminality; Tiger mothers; South Korea
Korea: Rite of passage versus
children’s rights. International
Journal of Population Studies,
11(4): 41-52.
https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.2955 1. Introduction
Received: February 18, 2024 From enrolment in elementary school until acceptance at university, Korean students
Revised: May 30, 2024 strive toward a uniform, arduous goal set by their mothers, society, and popular culture.
The similarity lies not only in the intensity and endurance of their struggle to climb the
Accepted: June 20, 2024
social ladder but also in the immediate day-to-day urgency of the pursuit and the lack
Published online: August 1, 2024 of guidance on where this personal struggle will lead adolescents, how, or why. Many
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). students are rewarded only with disillusionment once they see the landscape from the
This is an Open-Access article plateau of the social scaffolding they have climbed – their social role and status may
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution differ from their prior naïve expectations. Their choices then include acceptance of
License, permitting distribution, their fate, climbing another social pillar to yet another platform, or jumping down in a
and reproduction in any medium, desperate call of protest.
provided the original work is
properly cited. The reality for Korean students can be described as a blind struggle of uncoordinated
Publisher’s Note: AccScience individuals for their interaction with their environment and culture, the organization of
Publishing remains neutral with society, and the role of the state in shaping and controlling this nexus. This calls for critical
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional introspection before setting off on a life path and a systemic reconceptualization – or
affiliations. a popular rebellion – against the established social conventions. These responses are

Volume 11 Issue 4 (2025) 41 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.2955