Struggling with Identity

Yesterday I heard from Dr Josephine Kim, a graduate from a Korean international school (ICS-U) who now teaches and counsels at Harvard University.

This was a fascinating presentation and narrative that highlighted many issues that affect international students, particularly Korean students in international schools. It would take many pages to fully and effectively summarize the presentation, so I have highlighted some of the major points in the bullets below:

• One positive experience with a teacher can impact a student for life
• When Korean students study abroad they try to lose their Korean identity to try to fit in - when they return to Korea they find it difficult to know what their identity is
• Many Korean students suffer from 'perfectionism'
• Western cultural norms are very different, and sometimes in contrast to Korean cultural norms (individualism vs collectivism)
  
• At school we encourage critical thought and expressing ideas and opinions, but these are not traditionally encouraged in student-parent relationships

MS students are in a stage of their lives when they are struggling to find their personal and social identity - when you add in a cultural identity struggle as well things become very complicated.

It is important for educators and parents to be aware of these challenges that our students are facing, and to be understanding and supportive as we nurture our students and children through these difficult years. It is imperative that parents and teachers work together to help each other understand the cultural differences we are dealing with - this will enable us to more effectively support our students as they find their cultural identity.