Copyright by Yi Jeong Kwon 2012 The Dissertation Committee for Yi Jeong Kwon certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Empowerment/Disempowerment Issues in Immigrant Parents’ School Involvement Experiences in Their Children’s Schooling: Korean Immigrant Mothers’ Perceptions Committee: ____________________________________ Stuart Reifel, Supervisor ____________________________________ Diane L. Schallert ____________________________________ Cynthia S. Salinas ____________________________________ Marie-Anne P. Suizzo ____________________________________ Luis Urrieta Empowerment/Disempowerment Issues in Immigrant Parents’ School Involvement Experiences in Their Children’s Schooling: Korean Immigrant Mothers’ Perceptions by Yi Jeong Kwon, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2012 Dedication My family, who have prayed for me, & The Lord, who has guided my life toward Him Acknowledgements There was a time that I believed doing a dissertation was my own share, irrelevant to others. However, I did not realize how many people have prayed and cared for me. Now, I am the happiest person in the world to know that I have those people who love and support me. I owe a profound debt of gratitude toward the following people who have made the completion of this endeavor possible: To my thoughtful supervisor, Dr. Stuart Reifel, you are the most faithful teacher whom I have ever met in my life. The patience and trust that you have showed me was a big support whenever I was discouraged. You showed me the image of what the scholar should be. I will follow your teachings, so that, hopefully, I come to resemble you. To my committee members: Dr. Diane Schallert, you are the Wonder Woman. I learned passion for study and mother-like-loving for students from you. Dr. Cynthia Salinas, your encouragement--“You are awesome!”-- gave me power like a magic incantation whenever I was lacking self-assurance. Dr. Marie-Anne P. Suizzo, your comments about my dissertation were very helpful for polishing it. Dr. Luis Urrieta, you saved me when I struggled with analyzing entangled data by giving insightful comments. I love you all. You are the best team to ever support a doctoral student. To someone who has, sincerely, been my friend, Mary Lu Walter, you are one of the greatest supporters of my grad courses. You always read my writing with pleasure and gave comments for academic writing. Thank you for sharing your precious time and effort! v To my graduate friend, Miai Kim, your sisterly support was a big help for me. Because you always went ahead of me in the grad courses, you made it easy for me to get on the path to just follow you. Thank you for your long-distance calls and hearing my rambling with patience. Also, thank you for giving advice. To my friend, Youngmee Lee, your encouragement gave me the power to sit on a chair and write. You will be a good professor to encourage your students. To my graduate colleague, Holly, you are awesome co-worker. I learned mature personality from you. You taught me how a person respects others. Also, thank you for your supportive encouragement. The chatting with you after class was a tonic for my lonely life in Austin. To my sisters in the Lord, Chunhee, Eunhye, Jin, Youngsun, Suhee, Judy, Jayoung, Eunyoung, Sanghee, Seunghye, Seungeun, Yejin, Cherry, Juyeon, Seunghyun, Sara, Minyoung, and Jihyung, thank you for your support with your prayers. Also, to my other sisters and brothers in the Lord, Sungil Lee, Haejung Lee, Bumjoo Moon, Haeyoung Moon, Jyu-yeol Lee, Sunhee Lee, Kitae Yeo, Heehwa Yeo, Jaeyeol Shim, and Sunhee Shim, thank you for your support with your prayers and your encouragement with vision whenever I was depressed. To my pastor, Ho Kwon, you helped me to understand God’s purpose for my life and to have a vision for God’s world throughout my studies. To the five participants in this study, thank you for generously sharing your experiences with me. Every interview with you was precious moments to share your concerns and your victorious experiences. To my parents, Dad, Eukoo Kwon and Mom, Kwangsook Oh, you have been the greatest supporters in my life. I appreciate you for your trust and sacrifices for me. vi Whenever I was exhausted from the harsh world, you were my emotional shelter, where I could recharge. Mom, this degree belongs to you. Dad, thank you for your enormous love for me. To my precious children, Taehoon John Kim and Gio Lauren Kim, you are the best gift from God. Thank you for praying and waiting for your busy mom. Whenever I wanted to give up, your little hands praying for me gave me the power to stand back up and keep trying. To my earnest husband, Junyoung Kim, you taught me a sincere attitude. You lead our family with your devotion, love, and prayers. As a partner in life, you are the best husband to ever go along with a wife. Finally, to the Lord, thank you, Father, for choosing me and leading me toward You with great patience and love. Thank you for using me for Your world. I want to listen and follow You in any situation. vii Empowerment/Disempowerment Issues in Immigrant Parents’ School Involvement Experiences in Their Children’s Schooling: Korean Immigrant Mothers’ Perceptions Yi Jeong Kwon, Ph. D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2012 Supervisor: Stuart Reifel Using Delgado-Gaitan and Trueba’s (1991) empowerment/disempowerment definition as a framework, this dissertation investigated how Korean immigrant mothers perceived and practiced parental involvement in their children’s schooling, and how an empowerment/disempowerment process occurred during their involvement. To inquire into the research questions, this study used the qualitative case study method, and five Korean immigrant mothers were the cases. The interview method was used to gather data, and an unstructured interview protocol, as well as a semi-structured interview protocol, was used for the interviews. Each mother was interviewed three times. From this study, I found these things: For the concept of schooling, all the Korean mothers in this study agreed that schooling is all activities relevant to acquiring abilities related to having a better school life, and that the concept of parental involvement includes all the activities to support their children’s schooling, regardless of activity types. In a comparison of their beliefs and their practices for involvement, they show accord in terms of the comprehensive nature of parental viii involvement. However, there were also discrepancies between their perceptions and practices of involvement. To get an understanding of the discrepancy issue, their involvement experiences were explored, based on an empowerment/disempowerment framework. The Korean immigrant mothers showed distinctive features in empowerment and disempowerment while they were involved in their children’s schooling. First, they felt contradictory feelings—guilt and pride-- toward their identity, and this influenced their empowerment and disempowerment. The second feature was the struggles that the Korean immigrant mothers reported: cultural differences, exclusion, and a lack of English skill for involvement. Last, the most salient feature to influence their empowerment/disempowerment was the standard they were using to evaluate their involvement. These findings were discussed in terms of the features of empowerment/ disempowerment and the factors that influenced their empowerment and disempowerment. The Korean mothers’ standard of evaluation was discussed in depth, since it was determined to be the most basic issue to impact their empowerment/ disempowerment experiences. Based on the findings, this dissertation concluded with presenting implications for teachers, educational administrators, and Korean immigrant mothers themselves, and with suggestions for future research. ix Table of Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................v Abstract ............................................................................................................... viii List of Tables ...................................................................................................... xiii INTRODUCTION 1 Chapter 1 Introduction ......................................................................................1 THE NECESSITY OF STUDY ....................................................................................1 RESEARCH PURPOSE .............................................................................................5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS .........................................................................................7 THIS STUDY .........................................................................................................7 LITERATURE REVIEW 9 Chapter 2 Review of Relevant Literature .........................................................9 PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT ................................................................................9 EMPOWERMENT ..............................................................................................19 The Concept of Empowerment Adopted in This Study .......................25 KOREAN IMMIGRANT PARENTS .......................................................................28 RESEARCH METHOD 35 Chapter 3 Methods ...........................................................................................35