Differences of Educational Attainment in China and The United States
Long has there been stereotypes about Asian families and how they are "different" from American families. There has been a variety of literature that has been written about the subject, such as that in Asian families there is a belief in self-efficacy and/or that there is something that is inherently wrong with our own culture's lack of self-discipline. Looking at the dynamics of family life in both China and the United States, I have found that there are differences in gender education from the parents that effect whether children find that they are encouraged to academic achievement. In families that have had children that have gone on to graduate school, the importance has been that mother has focused more on domestic life versus the educational attainment of mothers being more important in the United States. In my paper, I hope to raise what may be a future discussion at looking at gender dynamics in Asian and Western countries, looking at what might necessitate some changes in the overall spectrum of both cultures.
The first dissertation that I look at was A study of factors affecting educational attainment aspiration for selected students in China by Joy Qian Zhao. She studies children and their families in Xinjian Uyghur Autonomous region, of which there are many families in poverty, to see if the educational attainment in these families is hindered by the lack of wealth. Two scholars named Yuan and Yang found the "role of social capital as a family resource, in shaping student's future plans and aspirations" (Zhao 29) – that the families that desire a higher education have more of a relation to their environment. Since China is a collectivist society, it only makes sense then that a rich network of support around individual families would encourage self-efficacy and the desire to obtain a higher education. The results they have found is ninety-five of these students wanted to pursue higher education and sixty-two wanted to attend graduate school.
A fact that may be particularly surprising to Westerners about Zhao's study is that "more fathers obtained college and graduate degrees than mothers; mothers had more high school and middle school" (Zhao 45). The implications of this mean that in China – a mother focusing more on her family life and less on educational attainment for the self is statistically more likely to have children that are going off to college. This implication is confirmed by another aspect of this study, that students "had lowest aspiration within the group of fathers with graduate or higher levels of education, and those from the group of with mothers that had only middle school displayed higher aspiration" (Zhao 79). Zhao believes that this means that families from poorer backgrounds have more educational desires, but it could also be inferred that there is an inherent pressure to confirm to traditional gender roles in order to have a successful future family life. It must be explored then the families that do not conform to the societal norms of China.
Jun Chen, Yan Gu, and Cui Chen study single mothers in their article Family Resource Management Style and life Adjustment of Low-Income Single Mothers in China. The researchers are mostly convinced that "economic reform and western ideas" (959) have led to the "increase in divorce rate and higher educational levels among women" (960). Already, the implication of the study is clear – women who are single in China are seen as unacceptable in Chinse culture (967) and have the pressure on themselves to manage their own family resources (963) without the added benefit of interaction past their immediate relatives (960). It is concluded, rather harshly through their reference to scholar McAdoo, that "the lower their education level, the better life adjustment" (968). One is left with the feeling that single mothers are a cast out lot – with little that can be expected out of them that little can be done but to manage their resources, live simply, and to work once-more on "feminine" qualities that would enable them in finding a new mate.
The Effects of Parental Education and Family Income on Mother-Child Relationships, Father-Child Relationships, and Family-Environment in the People's Republic of China by Xiao Zhang tells us that gender roles are not just applicable as a means of family dynamics in a child's sense of self, but also as a contributor of resources via the family that increase educational attainment. The researchers studied the effects of socioeconomic status (parent's education and family income), children's relationships with the father and mother, and family recreational environments. They found that the father's higher education has led to family cohesion and "intellectual-cultural / active – relational environments" (Zhang, but that also the mother's higher education leads to conflict in mother-child relationships. However, Zhang admits that the mother's higher education also leads to closeness in mother-child relationships, family cohesion, and intellectual-recreational environments. This could perhaps imply that women are still better off in China when they are high in educational attainment, rather than blindly following gender roles.
Economic attainment is a crucial aspect of a child's readiness to education. Despite the idea brought out in Communism of all the classes having a sense of equality, Zhang found through his research that "financial prosperity increases the investments (standard of living, learning stimulation) that parents make in the lives of their children – leading to academic and social success on their children" (Bradley and Chwyn, 2002) (Zhang 484). Conversely, a mother and child relying on their father for economic success effects "perception of financial problems, maternal depression / sensitivity ... and has an adverse effect on a child's development in the first 3 years of life' (484). It's not that Zhang is completely supportive of western idea, as he finds that "western individualistic values and ideologies reduce relational obedience and independence" (He, 2005) (Zhang 486), but that economic attainment is still crucial in it's own effect on families. In summary, complete reliance on social institutions in China is not a guarantee of success, that there has to be independence within interdependence that makes certain individuals rise whereas other people do not.
The United States, in contrast to China, is a place of individualistic values. There has been a move towards collectivism, but there still is a lack of social interdependence between people and a lot of isolationism between groups. Connecting Families at the Middle School Level: A Single Case Study is a look at what happens when there is a disconnect between the educational system and family involvement. According to the researcher, "family engagement is believed to be essential to student's academic and social success" (Clark, 2002; Epstein, 1987; Henderson and Map, 2002; Miedel and Reynolds; Swap, 1993), but there is also a "50% decrease in family engagement from elementary to middle school" (Manning 2003). He took faculty members that were on the fence with their job security at a middle school notorious for disengaged families, and implemented "technology strategies, printed materials, opportunities to come to school, strategies to come to school, strategies to assist with homework, and transition strategies from 5th to 6th and from 8th to 9th" (126). Families felt that there was more "provocative personal communication from teachers" (Anderson), but faculty still felt frustration trying to get involved disengaged families with very little concern for their child's success" (Anderson 149). Anderson concludes in this study that the school did everything they could to get families involved, that they made much more opportunities for these parents to concern with their children's education, but still that there must be an engagement strategy on the family level to encourage educational efficacy on the students.
Another look at social involvement issues in the United States involving education is A Better Life for Me and My Children – Low-Income Single Mothers' Struggle for Self-Sufficiency in the Rural South which looked at single African American mothers attempts to gain a higher education while having children. Studies have shown that in the Delta counties that "56% of high school education is completed in the Delta compared to 65% in the rest of the United States" (422). Mothers in Magnolia County had significantly completed their high school education, while mothers in River County who had not completed their high school education saw education in a more negative light. The researchers in this article believe that an increase in economic resources would help the women "conceptualize their goals and keep their ability to maintain these goals" (427), but that systematic racial inequality and lack of job opportunities are keeping educational attainment from happening. Again, social and financial support is seen as necessary, and poverty that is not improved is seen as begetting another cycle of poverty that is ignored by higher institutions.
Looking at the differences between educational attainment in China and the United States, one can see that there is a lot of social and financial support that families in China have that make a difference in their educational attainment versus American families. Factors between the cultures such as traditional gender roles and financial success are equal in the road to a child's educational attainment, but there are still lacks of opportunities for the holistic wellbeing of single mothers and families. A woman's place in the world does not have to be completely forsaken for complete adherence to a woman's "traditional" role, but also must not be completely forsaken to the idea of commercial attainment. Families in China could see more success if they more readily advanced the idea of economic attainment, while families in America would benefit from letting go of the individualistic pursuit of wealth attainment to embracing the ideas of collectivism and socialism. A future research topic on this subject would be what happens when the transference of western and Asian ideas influence each other in positive ways, as it seems that a balance between collectivism and individualism as well as a free exchange between cultures would lead to more rapidly beneficial marital, familial, and educational outcomes.
Works Cited
Zhao, Joy Qian (2008). "A Study of factors affecting educational aspiration for selected students in China." Berned School of Education, University of Pacific Stockton.
Chen, I-Jun; Gu, Yan; Chen, Cui (2012). "Family Resource Management Style and Life Adjustment of Low-Income Single Mothers in China." Soochow University.
Zhang, Xiao (December 2012). "The Effects of Parental Education and Family Income on Mother-Child Relationships, Father-Child Relationships, and Family-Environments in the People's Republic of China." Family Process, 51, 4; ProQuest pg. 483.
Dill, Bonnie Thorton (July 1998). "A Better Life for Me and My Children – Low Income Single Mothers' Struggle for Self-Sufficiency in the Rural South." Journal of Comparative Family Studies; July 1998; 29, 2; Social Science Premium Collection, pg. 419.
Anderson, Andrew D.C. "Connecting Families at the Middle School Level; A Single Case Study" (May 2008). Johnson and Wales University: School of Education.