all phases of their children’s schooling. Unlike in the United States, where students
expect to do“fun things”in class, Chinese and Korean students see education as a seri-
ous undertaking centered on“hard work.”This is, in part, a result of the Confucian
influence that persists in both nations and results from the status and material benefits
acquired through education. Each year, graduating high school students in both nations
take a single exam that largely determines the course of their adult life. In China, the
gaokao(high exam), lasting two days, is administered at the conclusion of the school
year. In June 2015, over 9.4 million Chinese students participated in the exam. Korean
high school seniors take the College Scholastic Ability Test (suneung), an eight-hour
exam administered in the fall. The importance of these nationally administered tests
cannot be overstated. The exam scores determine which university a student will
attend, and the institution attended is the single most influential factor in a student’s
future success—the more prestigious the school, the more success in life. This procedure
is highly reminiscent of the ancient Chinese imperial exam system that was based on
knowledge pertaining to the Confucian classics.^33
During the years of schooling leading up to the modern-day exams, Chinese and
Korean parents become actively involved in the education of their children, often
functioning as at-home coaches and teachers. After scheduled classes Chinese and
Korean students regularly attend private cram schools for a few hours before returning
home, where they continue to study. As the exam date draws near, family life centers
on creating an environment conducive to study. Many students are escorted to the
exam center by a parent or grandparent, who then goes to a nearby temple or shrine
to pray for success. In status-conscious China and Korea, parental involvement is also
motivated by the fact that a child’s accomplishments (or failures) also reflect on the
family as a whole. Pressure on the students is enormous; they shoulder the future for-
tunes and social standing of their families. This high value placed on education car-
ries over to Asian Americans, who spend more on education than any other ethnic
group in the United States. Their dedication to scholastic achievement has resulted
in Asian Americans having a larger representation among students at elite universities
than they do in the U.S. population as a whole. This is easily seen in the University
of California system, where Asian Americans represented 30 percent of the 2013
enrollment but only 14 percent of the state’s total population.^34
This comparison of educational attitudes and class deportment should convince
you that culture is a very influential factor in your value of and approach to educa-
tion. Moreover, it also offers a preview of the level of competition for jobs in the
globalized workplace.Language and Education
Language is an important and requisite dynamic in multicultural education. As was
brought out in Chapter 8, language, an integral part of all social interaction, allows
you to share your experiences, feelings, and acquired knowledge with others. In an
ideal setting, the use of a common language helps foster mutual understanding by
enabling the construction of shared meanings with others. However, in the United
States and many other nations, the increase in population diversity has eroded the
use of a common language in the community collective. This same diversity also
exists in the growing multicultural classrooms. At the beginning of this section, we
mentioned the many different languages and dialects used in a San Diego school.Language and Education 361Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).