"I am raising Korea": Ethnographic interviews on mothering and marriage-labor immigrant families in Korea
Open Access
- Author:
- Kim-Bossard, MinSoo
- Graduate Program:
- Curriculum and Instruction
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 18, 2015
- Committee Members:
- Joseph M Valente, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Gail Louise Boldt, Committee Member
Kimberly Anne Powell, Committee Member
Christine M Thompson, Committee Member
Kyunghwa Lee, Special Member - Keywords:
- mothering
Korea
immigrant families
immigration
ethnographic interviews - Abstract:
- The recent surge in marriage-labor immigration to Korea has complicated long-held discourses of what it means to be Korean or a Korean mother, a meaning firmly rooted in patriarchal and hierarchal cultural beliefs and the practices of mothers and families (Song-Yi Kim, Chang, & Kim, 2008). Growing concerns about future generations in Korea have also intertwined with this marriage-labor immigration phenomenon, which includes social problems associated with low birth rates of native-born Koreans (Suzuki, 2003) and pressures to cultivate a citizenry that can compete successfully in today’s global marketplace (Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, 2006). Through a series of semi-structured ethnographic interviews, “go-along” interviews, and fieldwork in Korea in 2013, 2014, and 2015, I investigated the discourses about mothering that emerged from interviews with marriage-labor immigrants. This study draws from educational anthropology and reconceptualist scholarship in early childhood education as a theoretical and methodological framework for examining discourses on mothering and mothers from marriage-labor immigrant families in Korea. Employing a Bakhtinian textual analysis of semi-structured ethnographic and “go-along” interviews, this study looks at discourses on mothering and mothers through three ethnographic case studies with key informants Minh, Haejin, Gouba (Haejin’s husband), Sabai (Haejin’s sister-in-law), and Myungsoo. Next the dissertation provides a comprehensive analysis of the major themes that emerged during the interviews based on a Bakhtinian textual analysis. This dissertation concludes with a discussion of implications this study has for early childhood policy and possible new directions for research.