Researching Korean Children’s Schooling Experience Behind The Model Minority Stereotype In China: An Ethnographic Approach

Abstract

The ethnographic study reported in this chapter documents an ethnic Korean elementary school student's schooling attitude and practice behind the model minority stereotype in a bilingual Korean school in Northeast China. It highlights the importance of giving children a voice perceived as a complicated phenomenon revealing the interplay between objective environment and subjective agency. The chapter enquires the new sociological perspective of school children and research on school children. It describes how the ethnographic enquiry, from which the case study participant's experiential data were collected, and depicts the context of the case study participant's school experience in a bilingual Korean school. Then, with a focus on the Korean student's experiential account on her schooling experiences behind the model minority stereotype, the chapter ends with reflections on ethnographic research on school children, especially ethnic minority children in the multicultural context. Keywords: ethnographic study; Korean elementary school; model minority stereotype; Northeast China