Loading...
Local culture and early parenting in China : a case study on Chinese Christian mothers' childrearing experiences
Yan, Jun
Yan, Jun
Author(s)
Contributor(s)
Collections
Files
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Online Access
Abstract
With the increase of Chinese Christians born in the "post-70s" and "post-80s" generations, the issue of early childhood education in Christian families deserves attention from an academic standpoint in these days. This study aims to interpret the meaning of Christian families’ childrearing experiences within the social and cultural contexts of China. In this study, I did not intend to speak for the mothers; rather, I was eager to learn about subjective reality from those who construct it. Accordingly, the primary goal of the study was to explore the educational philosophy of Chinese Christian families and to examine how it influenced their childrearing activities through the detailed description of Chinese Christian mothers’ childrearing experiences. Five case studies of Chinese Christian mothers’ childrearing in a central city of Northern China were used as key texts. Data was collected utilizing qualitative methods including document analysis, participation observations, and in-depth, open-ended interviews with five Christian mothers and their extended families over one year. The study will contribute to the body of knowledge on Chinese Christian families’ experiences, which have received little attention from researchers. Additionally, it is my hope that the effort will yield results that will strengthen theorizing of philosophy for Chinese Christian parents and early childhood education. Consequently, I found that the religious education of Chinese Christian families was implemented within the secular extended family and weaved in the secular daily life. Specifically, (1) the educational philosophy of Christian mothers was presented as the "Dual Educational Theory of Perennialism and Constructivism," which I further named the "cross-shaped parenting philosophy" because of the dialectical unity of the two. Moreover, the process of socialization within and outside the home is continuously conducted conveying a dual cultural orientation of "Sinicization" and "Christianization." (2) Christian mothers deeply believed in Bible-based parenting while in the real life they fulfilled it according to their specific situation. Besides family, they also borrowed the force of Christian community and Bible-based preschools. Overall, the nonreligious family education setting was of an open-climate. (3) Christian fathers played more supportive and cooperative roles in relation to the mothers’ childrearing compared to the non-Christian fathers. The latter might create obstacles or even cause conflicts for mothers’ faith education. The influence of grandparents for Christian family’s childrearing was found to have both positive and negative aspects (pp. 13-14).
Note(s)
2nd edition. Originally published in 2015
Topic
Type
Book
Date
2019
Identifier
ISBN
9782889313068
9782889313075
9782889313075
DOI
10.58863/20.500.12424/667728
Copyright/License
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International