Supporting Korean American Children in Early Childhood Education
Perspectives from Mother-Educators

Sophia Han (Author), Jinhee Kim (Author), Sohyun Meacham (Author), Su-Jeong Wee (Author)

9780807768662

Paperback / softback, published 24 November 2023

128 pages
22.9 x 15.6 x 0.6 cm, 0.272 kg

Early childhood professionals can use this one-of-a-kind work to better serve Korean American children in the United States. Four transnational mother-educators share the lived experiences of Korean American children and their families through candid and vivid narratives that counter stereotypical and prejudicial beliefs about Asian American communities. Topics include parenting beliefs and practices, naming practices, portrayals in children's picturebooks, translingual home practices, and responses to microaggressions. The text raises awareness about various dynamics within the Korean American community for a more nuanced discourse. The authors bring a wealth of hybrid positioning and experiences as former early childhood educators, first-generation Korean American immigrants, current teacher educators working with pre- and inservice teachers, and researchers in different states, as well as mothers of second-generation Korean American children.

Book Features:

• Shares original stories and experiences of Korean American children and families to dismantle prevalent narrow narratives.
• Offers practical implications and considerations for classroom teachers regarding family engagement, critical literacy, translanguaging, and social–emotional learning.
• Includes user-friendly features such as discussion questions, lesson ideas, and a list of appropriate picturebooks.

• Contents (Tentative)
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• 1. Our Stories Through Suda (수
  다
  )
  Introducing Suda (수
  다
  )
  Our Background and Her-Stories
  Our Positioning as Korean American Transnational Mother-Educators
  Looking Ahead
• 2. Parental Ethnotheories Raising Korean American Children
  Cultural and Historical Parenting: Tea-Kyo
  Developmental Markers in Context: An Example of Sleep Training
  Social-Emotional Lessons: Balancing Multiple Expectations
  Disrupting a Tiger Mom Stereotype: We Are So Much More
  Implications and Resources
• 3. "What'
  s Your Name?": Children'
  s Names and Naming Practices
  Children'
  s Names With Family and Cultural Values
  Juggling Concerns and Desires to Decide on Our Children'
  s Names
  Naming Practices by Others
  Children'
  s (Trans)Naming Practices
  "Hello, My Name is . . .": Rethinking Preferred Names in School
  Implications and Resources
• 4. "I Don'
  t See Me!": Picture Books About Asian Americans
  Scarcity of Children'
  s Picture Books on Asian American: Underrepresentation
  "Not All Koreans Are Same": Misrepresentation and Within-Group Differences
  Perpetuating the Tourist Approach to Asian Culture
  Implications and Resources
• 5. More Than English: Diverse Translingual Practices in Korean American Transnational Families
  The Value of Heritage Language Learning and Our Children'
  s Experiences
  "Do Your Children Speak Korean?": Microaggressions Based on Language and the Perpetual Foreigner Image of Asian Americans
  Challenging the Hegemony of English and Promoting Translanguaging Pedagogy
  Implications and Resources
• Chapter 6. Navigating Invisibility and Microaggressions as Korean American Children and Families
  "Where are the Asians?": Our Children'
  s Experiences of Marginalization and Invisibility
  Our Children'
  s Experiences of Being Visible: Microaggressions and Racial Bias
  From Guilty Parents to Active Advocates
  Implications and Resources
  Departing Thoughts about Our Suda (수
  다
  ) and Supporting All American Children
• Appendix
• References
• Index
• About the Authors