Rural children’s work and school education in the context of rapid economic growth in South Korea

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how children’s work, defined in a broad sense, and the related values and attitudes concerning childhood have evolved in the context of rapid economic growth in South Korea. It discusses how ideas about children’s activities and their status and relationships within the family have changed and how children’s roles and responsibilities are seen by members of different generations. It interrogates the changing ideas of work in contemporary children’s lives and presents data from a relatively under-researched part of the world.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on semi-structured interviews with a mixed age group of people, including children, in a rural community in South Korea.

Findings
In decisions over their work and schooling during their childhoods, most adults did not appear to have shown any apparent agency with this passivity reflecting the cultural norms of the times. Conversely, rural children today often choose not to work but may not be able to exercise similar agency over their schooling. The research suggests a distinct generational change in the schooling experience with this going from being relatively unimportant, and sometimes unaffordable, to becoming universal and essential.

Research limitations/implications
Interviewing adults and children about what they do now or did in the past poses methodological problems. As the researchers found “child- friendly” or “child-centred” methods impractical in the particular research context, relaxed and semi-structured interviews were used with the children. The adult interviews presented different challenges: a lack of other sources of data meant that primary sources of evidence had to be recollections of past events. This means such recollections of childhoods may be mediated by an “adult” perspective and susceptible to bias. Current life circumstances may also determine the interpretive contexts through which they tell their stories and influence how they view the past.

Originality/value
Internationally published research on South Korean childhoods is limited, with most focusing on the education system and the associated issues. Research of this type also rarely examines children's own views, their lives outside of school and the choices they make in their family contexts. This paper examines these under-researched areas.