International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
For example, one of the virtues of family hierarchy, filial piety, portrays the relationship between parent and
child. Filial piety is an expression of respect from the child toward parent and elderly. In Confucianism, this
virtue is associated with a person’s citizenship and leadership in the society. Asians believe that children who
respect their parents will become good citizens and leaders (Terry, 2005). Therefore, filial piety is highly
valued. In daily life, filial piety is reflected in children’s respect and obedience on parental demands and
authority. In most cases, children do not have many choices but to comply with parents’ expectations.
Rebellion against parents’ authority is unacceptable and will result in harsh consequences. Being “unfilial” was
considered a crime in the traditional Chinese society. As Terry (2005) indicated, it could result in death as a
punishment. The virtue, filial piety, is interwoven with family’s educational practice on a daily basis.
Additionally, Confucianism promotes social harmony in human relationships, including family relationships
(Chang & Holt, 1991). To reach harmony within the context of family, it often relies on considering parent’s
authority, conformity, and role and responsibilities of each individual (Lu & Shih, 1997; Miller & Yang, 1997).
Thus, the decisions children make regarding education are associated with family harmony as well. Asian
children learn more behavioral rules than Westerner children do. Asian children are comfortable following
instructions (Moneta, 2004). Today, parent’s authority can be observed in educational decision-making and
behaviors in homework, exams, school selections, career choices, and so on.
Because of this emphasis on filial piety and harmony of the family, Asian families are able to demand
academic excellence. However, Asian families tend to be less supportive of children’s social needs or other
interests the children may want to pursue. For example, Lulu, Chua’s younger daughter, wanted to learn tennis
and she had to battle her mother in order to pursue this interest (Chua, 2011). Yet once Lulu pursued her desire
to play tennis, she drew from the discipline she had acquired by working with her mother on academics and
playing classical musical instruments, so that she was successful at tennis also.
Conclusion
We speculate that the ideas drawn from Confucianism---a high value placed on education, filial piety, family
hierarchy, and family harmony---are many of the family parenting traits that lead to the high academic
achievement Asian American youth exhibit. These traits then are reflected in the parenting style literature
(ethnic minority parenting style) as high demandingness and high responsiveness especially toward concerns
related to school and education. We further speculate, as Amy Chua’s parenting illustrates (Chua, 2011), this
kind of parenting tends to develop self-discipline in the children over time.
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