Model minority, self-perception and schooling: multiple voices of Korean students in China

Abstract

Koreans have been successful in nesting their educational achievement in places like China, where they have earned the title of the “model minority”, due primarily to their educational success. Drawing on data from ethnographic research on fourth-grade Korean students in a bilingual Korean school, this article examines the relationship between student self-perception and attitude towards schooling underlying the model minority stereotype. Research results lead us to argue that ethnic Korean students in China do not have a shared self-perception, and so do not share a homogeneous attitude towards schooling, contrary to the stereotype of them as a monolithic group with high educational levels and shared attitudes towards learning. This article emphasizes the need to re-examine the model minority stereotype and its cultural ecological theory, and to include the voices of ethnic Korean students in the analysis of the model minority stereotype at a time of transition and change.