Sungwook Kim
Yonsei University · Social Sciences
About the Lab
Professor Sungwook Kim's research lab specializes in educational sociology and family-school relations, with a focus on parental involvement, socioeconomic status, and educational outcomes in diverse cultural and socioeconomic contexts—particularly in East Asia and developing countries. The lab investigates the gendered dimensions of fatherhood in education, the impact of migration on family-school dynamics, and the role of socialization and structural inequalities in shaping student achievement. A central theme is understanding how cultural, economic, and policy contexts shape educational engagement and outcomes beyond Western, English-speaking frameworks.
Research Overview
Research Output Trend
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Selected Papers
15Extant research on parental involvement in education has been conducted largely without respect to which parent is involved. The implicit assumption is that family–school relationship frameworks function similarly for fathers and mothers. Although there is a growing body of research examining fathers’ involvement in education, this assumption has not been tested. In this meta-analysis, we examined the relative strength of the association between educational involvement of fathers versus mothers
Despite the multiple meta-analyses documenting the association between socioeconomic status (SES) and achievement, none have examined this question outside of English-speaking industrialized countries. This study is the first meta-analytic effort, to the best of our knowledge, to focus on developing countries. Based on 49 empirical studies representing 38 countries, and a sample of 2,828,216 school-age students (grades K–12) published between 1990 and 2017, we found an overall weak relation betw
Countless meta-analytic studies document the relation between parental involvement and achievement, but they mostly include studies conducted in the United States where parental involvement is framed as a policy issue. This is the first meta-analytic study focusing on East Asian countries characterized by high achievement levels, a comparatively standardized education system, and no policy encouraging family–school relations. A meta-analysis of 15 studies retrieved from an exhaustive search of t
This article explores how graduates of a junior high school in Dalian City, Liaoning Province, China, chose their high school and college major subject of study and the extent to which their majors fit with their work trajectories. We found that most interviewees considered the likelihood of a major and degree leading to better job opportunities more important than how the major fit with their personal interests. However, the unpredictability of the market economy in China made it difficult to a
Accumulating evidence points to the unique contributions fathers make to their children’s academic outcomes. However, the large body of multi-disciplinary literature on fatherhood does not address how fathers engage in specific practices relevant to education, while the educational research in the United States focused on parent involvement often excludes fathers. There is no theoretical framework up to date explaining the gendered nature of parental educational involvement. How and why might fa
Large-scale rural-urban migration in China has left rural schools with large proportions of left-behind children whose parents are away working in the city. This has a huge impact on family-school relations and poses a burden on teachers. This study draws on 42 interviews with teachers working in two rural schools. This article argues that teachers’ negative narratives about antagonistic family-school relations are driven by the gaps between their culturally embedded traditional models of family
Abstract This article draws on surveys ( N = 406) and interviews ( n = 48) of graduates of a middle school in Dalian City, Liaoning Province, China, who were part of the first generation of children born under the one‐child policy that began along with China's economic reforms in 1979 and were between ages 25 and 30 when they were interviewed in 2011–14. We compared how they said they had been raised by their parents with how they hope to raise their own children. We found that, while their pare
Research Article| June 01 2009 Eastphalia Rising?: Asian Influence and the Fate of Human Security Sung Won Kim; Sung Won Kim 1Sung Won Kim is an official in the International Legal Affairs Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Korea. David P. Fidler and Sumit Ganguly lead the Indiana University Center on American and Global Security. (Mr. Kim is writing here in his personal capacity only.) Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google David P. Fidl
In this mixed-method longitudinal study, we examined the continuity of son preference and daughter preference from adolescence to adulthood, and investigated how perceptions of gender equity shape these preferences among 2,273 youth born in Dalian between 1979 and 1986 under the one-child policy. The majority expressed no preference in adolescence or adulthood. Results from multivariate analysis and the narratives of 23 participants revealed that child gender preferences in adolescence were pred
In this article, we examine how a cohort of urban youth born under China’s one-child policy have developed flexible gender identities through their childrearing aspirations and educational and occupational narratives, choices, and trajectories between 1999 and 2014. Drawing on surveys of 406 respondents conducted in 1999, 2012–2013, and 2013–2014, and interviews of 48 of those respondents in 2011–2014, we argue that our female research participants were more able to produce flexible gender ident
This article examines how Chinese citizens perceived the relationship between wealth and achievement among their former middle school classmates. It draws on a survey of 503 respondents in their late twenties and early thirties (who have been followed since 1999, when they were eighth or ninth graders in Dalian City, China) and on interviews with 60 of them. Most believed their former classmates from “poorer” families “studied better” than those from “wealthier” families. Interviewees elaborated
Research Areas
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