Page 48 - IJPS-11-4

International Journal of
Population Studies Education fever in South Korea

beyond the control of Korean students in their day-to- and struggles. Korean social and cultural norms grant
day up-or-out bubble, put up by their parents and amid parents firm control over their children’s access to resources
the existing educational arrangement. Therefore, a new and capabilities, allowing them to shape their children’s
system-wide institutional arrangement should be pursued. constructed values, emotions, and functioning. As a result,
This study describes the social and cultural setting in children’s own views of their skills and prospects, their
which Korean mothers, with over-ambitious expectations will, and their autonomy are disregarded. The emphasis on
toward their children, play a pivotal role in subjecting the cognitive performance, coupled with parental control over
children to excessive cramming, mental burnout, and risks children’s bodies and minds and the splintered nature of
of “experiential stunting” and other long-term harms. The the educational experience, leads to uneven development
study contributes by adopting the children’s perspective, in children, exposing them to undue burdens and long-
drawing on existing theories from sociology and social term harms.
anthropology, and providing new evidence in the The rest of the article is organized as follows: Section 2
Korean context. The study eschews detailed descriptions provides the context of education in Korean society and
of the Korean educational and career management proposes a more nuanced re-conceptualization. Section 3
systems or the experiences of mothers in the patriarchal presents the implications of this approach in relation to
male-breadwinner culture and under prevailing value social stakes, the meaning of successful matriculation,
systems, instead focusing squarely on the developmental and the side effects of the current norms, drawing
experiences of children. implications for students. Section 4 discusses public policy
Our study begins by observing that during their considerations.
adolescence, Korean children are almost universally 2. Context and re-conceptualization of
enrolled in private after-school academies (Hagwon, also Korean Education
known as cram schools or shadow education) and spend
a substantial proportion of their free time there. Shadow Existing literature contextualizes the significance of
education is so prevalent in South Korea that parents fear children’s education in South Korea vis-à-vis social
their children will fall behind if they do not engage in it. institutions and individual norms. We build on the extant
These privately run after-school institutions teach English, narratives to advance a more nuanced conceptualization,
Korean language, and mathematics, which constitute taking into account the role of education as the means of
a large portion of the major subjects in the university social initiation and self-validation.
entrance examinations. Often, private classes prepare In a society built up on Confucian traditions, individuals
students for the following academic year, allowing them place high value on collective experiences and knowledge,
to stay ahead of their school schedule and peers. This particularly at the level of one’s kin and extended family.
system produces a vicious cycle in which many students Yet, in spite of this collectivist value system, families have
have already learned course material before it is covered in practiced the individualization of spheres of influence and
public school, leading them to study harder at the private the structuring of experiences attained by each family
institution than at their regular school. member.
Our key thesis is that children’s mothers derive a sensation South Korean family relations are patriarchal, based
of entrepreneurship, existential security, self-worth, and on clear age and gender roles and responsibilities. Under
prestige from managing their children’s advancement of Confucianism, adolescents are prescribed a rite of passage
capabilities, social initiation, and academic achievements to become righteous citizens (Seth, 2012), involving the
(Lee, 2011; 2014). Children serve as avatars living the lives discovery of both the external world and the self, through
their mothers may not have been able to live themselves, reading, writing, and demonstrating filial piety by working
through which mothers aspire to and experience their own hard (Yang & Shin, 2008). Mothers have traditionally been
(imagined) life dreams. The status quo is socially harmful; responsible for raising children, and this role has been the
as children attain improper developmental outcomes, sphere of their individual influence and an intrinsic part of
parents gain a false sense of social status with significant their value system. In a society where women are often forced
side effects, and the educational system becomes unduly out of the labor market at the time of marriage (signifying
strained. their commitment to childbearing) and struggle to return

The values espoused in many Korean families, and by upon their last child’s successful enrolment in university –
extension in the Korean education system and society at resulting in a notorious M-shaped career life-cycle pattern
large, internalize children’s academic involvement and – Korean mothers struggle to be recognized for their
achievement while externalizing children’s intrinsic values individual achievements (Kwon & Doellgast, 2018). Their

Volume 11 Issue 4 (2025) 42 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.2955