Using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study, this study revisited rural-nonrural disparities in educational attainment by considering a comprehensive set of factors that constrain and support youth's college enrollment and degree completion. Results showed that rural students were more advantaged in community social resources compared to nonrural students, and these resources were associated with a significant increase in the likelihood of bachelor's degree attainment. Yet results confirmed that rural students lagged behind nonrural students in attaining a bachelor's degree largely due to their lower socioeconomic background. The findings present a more comprehensive picture of the complexity of geographic residence in shaping college enrollment and degree attainment.

This study examined teachers' perceptions and practices of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) education in South Korea, drawing on a survey of teachers in STEAM model schools. Results showed that the majority of Korean teachers, especially experienced teachers and male teachers, had a positive view on the role of STEAM education. At the same time, Korean teachers highlighted various challenges in implementing STEAM education, such as finding time to carry out STEAM lessons, increased workloads, and lack of administrative and financial support. Our findings suggest that sufficient support from the government, the reconstruction of national curriculum, and significant changes in the national assessment system are needed to better promote STEAM education.

The concept of cultural capital has proved invaluable in understanding educational systems in Western countries, and recent work seeks to extend those insights to the diverse educational systems of other geographic regions. We explored cultural capital in South Korea by investigating the relationships among family socioeconomic status (SES), cultural capital, and children's academic achievement using data from the 2000 Programme for International Student Assessment. South Korea was compared with Japan, France, and the United States to understand how institutional features of South Korean education shape the role of cultural capital in academic success. Results showed that family SES had a positive effect on both parental objectified cultural capital and children's embodied cultural capital in South Korea, consistent with evidence from the other countries. Moreover, parental objectified cultural capital had a positive effect on children's academic achievement in South Korea. In contrast to other countries, however, children's embodied cultural capital had a negative effect on academic achievement in South Korea controlling for the other variables. We highlighted several institutional features of South Korean education including a standardized curriculum, extreme focus on test preparation, and extensive shadow education, which may combine to suppress the effect of children's embodied cultural capital on academic achievement.

Studies of parental involvement and children’s education in a variety of contexts can provide valuable insights into how the relationships between parental involvement and student outcomes depend upon specific local contexts of family and education. Korean education is distinctive with its high prevalence of private tutoring, which not only imposes an economic burden on parents but also requires parents’ time and efforts to select the best kind of private tutoring for their children and to keep track of their academic progress by interacting with private tutors. Here, data from a longitudinal survey in Korea that has traced 7th-graders for two years were used to investigate the determinants and the effects of parents’ private tutoring–related activities in comparison to other types of home-based and school-based parental involvement. Multivariate analysis shows that parents’ efforts in selecting and monitoring private tutoring are significantly associated with increased math and English test scores. Features of Korean education in which private tutoring becomes an important strategy for parents to enhance children’s education are described, and the broader implications of the findings, beyond the local context, are discussed.

Drawing on a recent national survey of rural high school students, this study investigated the relationship between social capital and educational aspirations of rural youth. Results showed that various process features of family and school social capital were important to predict rural youth's educational aspirations beyond sociodemographic background. In particular, parents' and teachers' educational expectations for their child and student respectively were positively related to educational aspirations of rural youth. In addition, discussion with parents about college was positively related to educational aspirations of rural youth. On the other hand, there was little evidence to suggest that number of siblings and school proportions of students on free lunch and minority students are related to educational aspirations of rural youth, after controlling for the other variables. The authors highlight unique features of rural families, schools, and communities that may combine to explain the complexity of the role of social capital in shaping educational aspirations of rural youth.