East Asian Mothers’ attitudes towards their children’s education in England: dialectics of East Asian and English education

ABSTRACT

This study explores how middle-class migrant East Asian mothers approach their children’s education in England, where educational culture is perceived to be considerably different from East Asia. Based on dichotomous perceptions about East Asian and English education cultures, dialectical perspectives were used to analyse the life history interview data, particularly four dialectical frameworks developed by [Baxter, L.A. (1990). Dialectical contradictions in relationship development. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 7, 69–88. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407590071004]: selection, separation, neutralization, and reframing. In order to release tensions arising from the two-perceived different educational systems these mothers used different dialectical strategies. The paper argues that East Asian mothers’ behaviour towards their children’s education cannot be categorized using a uniform cultural framework and a diasporic space provides multiple possibilities for exercising divergent approaches for them.

KEYWORDS:

• Confucianism
• dialectical frameworks
• diasporic spaces
• East Asian and English education
• mothering

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).