The high educational achievement among East Asian nations in ILSAs like TIMSS and PISA is widely known. However, a comprehensive review of the research literature is lacking. The current study reviewed the literature in English between 1967–2020 with the aim to identify underlying explanatory factors and their relative importance with regard to educational achievement among East Asian schoolchildren (Grade 5–10) in Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore. N = 99 studies, and seven main themes with 53 corresponding sub-themes for these years were discerned. N = 56 studies emphasized cultural and educational quantity variables as pertinent for achievement among East Asian nations and populations. Cultural and educational quantity sub-themes such as more annual study hours, higher effort, and family expectations dominate as the explanatory variables, often emerging as a cross-national theme among East Asian countries. Another theme of significance are non-cognitive abilities such as math self-concept and math resilience. Other themes include higher-than average cognitive ability levels, although that has partly been contested, as well as curricular themes. 

Educational achievement among East Asian schoolchildren 1967–2020: A thematic review of the literature

Abstract It is well established that socioeconomic status, cognitive ability, and non-cognitive abilities such as self-efficacy are substantially associated with academic achievement. However, the specific relationships of these variables remain a relatively unexplored topic in regard to more recent and representative samples. The current study examined such relations by taking advantage of two cohorts (total N = 12,315) of Swedish students at the elementary (Grade 6) and lower-secondary school levels (Grade 8) in the compulsory school. The regression models showed that all three variables explained a substantial portion of grade variance, with cognitive ability having the strongest relationship, followed by non-cognitive abilities, and SES. Longitudinal associations, which accounted for previous academic achievement, showed that the three variables did still explain a substantial amount of grade variance. 

/pdf/correction-to-the-influence-of-ses-cognitive-and-non-fmbnubnq.pdf

Correction to: The influence of SES, cognitive, and non-cognitive abilities on grades: cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence from two Swedish cohorts

Studies have suggested cognitive flexibility as an enhancer of academic performance. However, this link has not been confirmed across diverse samples of countries, which requires a cross-cultural reinvestigation with a consideration of possible contextual moderators such as societal culture. Specifically, we consider the moderating role of societal flexibility (vs. monumentalism), a dimension from Minkov-Hofstede's cultural model which emphasizes humility, adaptability, and desire for self-improvement. Using international survey data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018, this study examines the relationship between adolescents' cognitive flexibility and academic performance in diverse sociocultural contexts. Results from multilevel analyses of 378,087 adolescents from 57 countries show that adolescents' cognitive flexibility is positively associated with academic performance in a global context. An interaction term, however, reveals that the academic benefits of adolescents' cognitive flexibility are significantly greater in more flexible societies. In addition, we identify individual and cross-national characteristics that influence adolescents' academic performance such as gender, socioeconomic status, national wealth, and educational level. These findings reveal the role of individual factors on adolescents' academic performance and emphasize the importance of the interaction between individual and sociocultural factors. 

Cognitive flexibility and academic performance: Individual and cross-national patterns among adolescents in 57 countries

Although it is well known that children of East Asian immigrants show higher academic achievement than native-born North American children, the social-cognitive determinants of this difference remain poorly understood. Given the importance of executive functions (EF) for academic achievement, and evidence that EF develops more quickly in East Asian compared to North American cultures, it is conceivable that differences in academic achievement might be rooted in EF differences between these groups. We examine this possibility by reviewing evidence of cross-cultural differences in EF development but find core concepts and findings limited in several key respects. To address these limitations, we propose a framework for relating EF, culture, and academic achievement that draws on new theoretical ideas about the nature of EF and its relation to social context. We conclude by discussing avenues for future research on the relations between culture, executive functions, and academic achievement.

/pdf/culture-executive-functions-and-academic-achievement-229lhzxi.pdf

Culture, executive functions, and academic achievement

Abstract Women, in the past and to different extents in the present, have typically constituted a vulnerable although heterogenous social group. After the foundation of a “new” sovereign post-Soviet Union Ukraine in 1991, large numbers of women in poverty were exposed to human trafficking, prostitution, and labor. Since Russia’s war in Ukraine in 2014, many internally displaced persons and migrants have left their places of sojourn for other cities in Ukraine or to go overseas. This situation is exacerbated after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. The current situation constitutes a double-edged sword: on the one hand opportunities to seek more profitable work environments in wealthier cities and countries, but on the other hand a risk of being exploited. Others want to leave but cannot not due to constraining factors such as financial difficulties. With the aid of proculturation theory, N = 5 Ukrainian women were interviewed. Their discourses highlight a negotiation between the Ukrainian and the European in regard to familiar/unfamiliar spheres. 

/pdf/vulnerable-women-negotiations-among-migrant-women-in-the-58elk45x.pdf

Vulnerable Women: Negotiations Among Migrant Women in the Aftermath of the Ukraine War

Abstract The term acculturation is important for describing and analyzing how for example migrants gradually become accustomed to a new host society. The term proculturation is similar but emphasizes the real-life experiences of migrants, as well as the fusion between familiar and unfamiliar ideas, things, and experiences. However, so far there is a dearth of studies which have aimed to explore such a construct empirically. The current article used a limited but meaningful example, the lived experiences of a Kazakh migrant in Sweden whose occupation is being a psychotherapist. The aim was to understand the cultural identity of this individual as regards processes of migration from A (Kazakhstan) to B (Sweden), as well as related proculturation processes. Moreover, the focus was also on the specific and precarious work conditions for a person who does not have the possibility to work officially as a psychotherapist during an extensive residence permit application process. Information derived from a semi-structured interview indicates that basic cultural identity markers (woman, Kazakh, Russian-speaking, Muslim) remained constant after residing in Sweden for more than 5 years but that some elements of the more secular-liberal Swedish culture (e.g., the Swedish language, increased alcohol consumption) were appropriated. The person used social media apps like WhatsApp as a technological tool to practice the profession as a psychotherapist in a transnational setting, which constitutes a different strategy than how Swedish as well as Kazakh psychotherapists generally perform this profession. 

/pdf/the-adaptive-proculturation-process-of-being-a-19zn9asl.pdf

The Adaptive Proculturation Process of Being a Psychotherapist as a Kazakh Asylum Seeker in Sweden

ABSTRACT While contemporary South Korea is fairly westernized but represents a lag in the spheres of culture and politics, it is expected that the current Korean wave or Hallyu 4.0 – popular cultural content, diffused as of 2016 – are cumulatively signified by feminist themes, merged with more traditional Korean and East Asian cultural elements. Five representative Hallyu 4.0 dramas are examined here, based on cultural globalization theory (e.g., hybridization), along with a review of some earlier studies of Korean dramas and relevant strands of feminist scholarship. The findings suggest that much of the moderately modern elements found in earlier waves of Korean drama are still present, while liberal or neoliberal feminist elements are manifest in all five shows, although to different degrees. This ideological shift, in part, reflects recent sociocultural changes.

Feminist themes in Hallyu 4.0 South Korean TV dramas as a reflection of a changing sociocultural landscape

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