Immigrant Parents’ Perspective on Their Children’s School and Education in the Era of COVID-19: A Case of Vietnamese Mothers in South Korea

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools in South Korea were forced to shift from the traditional way of teaching and learning, face-to-face, to online learning. The purpose of this study was to explore how Vietnamese immigrant mothers in South Korea felt about their children’s schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. To do this, the qualitative data collection method, qualitative research interview (QRI), was applied. Six Vietnamese immigrant mothers who had children attending elementary school were interviewed, and Colaizzi’s descriptive phenomenological method (DPM) was used to analyze their stories. The results indicate that the Vietnamese mothers had mixed feelings regarding how schools responded during the pandemic. There did not seem to be technological barriers to their children’s online learning, but the mothers did not indicate that they were satisfied with the online learning provided by their children’s school during the pandemic. They seemed to have low expectations for the online learning environment itself and thought that their children were not getting enough attention from their teachers in the distance-learning environment. In addition, the immigrant mothers did not have enough access to information about their children’s education. They were strongly concerned about the reduction in opportunities to socialize caused by distance learning. These findings imply that establishing a trusting and meaningful relationships to create a healthy school community is more important to Vietnamese immigrant mothers than academic achievement or developing efficient online learning content.

1. Introduction

On 5 May 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) finally rescinded the COVID-19 emergency declarations. The COVID-19 pandemic is no longer a global public health emergency. Many countries, including South Korea have transitioned to an endemic phase. The pandemic has changed nearly every aspect of our lives since the WHO declared the COVID-19 as a global pandemic on 11 March 2020. The pandemic completely disrupted the daily routine that people had been accustomed to. For many people it was two years of lost time. Despite the damage caused by the pandemic in countries around the world, this unusual experience gives us a chance to look back on our lives and society to prepare ourselves for a post-COVID-19 world. Therefore, studies on issues related to the COVID-19 era are being carried out in various fields.

Some of these studies include how school administrations responded to the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., [1,2]), the classroom experiences of children and teachers during the pandemic (e.g., [3,4,5,6,7,8]), and the academic achievement gap caused by the pandemic (e.g., [9,10,11,12]). Although these studies provide valuable insights into educational experiences in the COVID-19 era, most of these studies limited their focus to teachers and students only. Studies on parents, who are one of the major stakeholders in children’s education, are rare. In particular, studies showing the perspectives of immigrant parents on their children’s education and schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic are hard to find. The meaningful involvement of parents in their children’s education is a difficult task—especially when the parents have immigrant backgrounds. This implies that more research on immigrant parents is necessary.

Therefore, this study explored what immigrant mothers expected from their children’s school, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic through a ‘descriptive phenomenological’ approach. The results of this study will give us a chance to understand what the fundamental value of school is and what role school should play for immigrant families. Moreover, as parents’ thoughts on education strongly influence students’ school life, investigating immigrant parents’ perspective on their children’s school and education can contribute to establishing and promoting efficient and effective educational policies for immigrant families in the future.

2. Schools in South Korea during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in South Korea was reported on 20 January 2020. January is the winter-break period in South Korea, so no one knew how much impact this would have on the educational system in South Korea at that time. In February, the cases of COVID-19 pandemic grew steeply. Although the new academic year in South Korea usually starts on 2 March, the South Korean government announced on 23 February that the opening of all schools would be delayed by one week due to the spread of COVID-19. After two more delays in March, the new academic year finally started in April. However, instead of in-person instruction, schools shifted to conducting online classes. Third grade students in middle school and high school started on 9 April. Students from first to third grade in elementary school started on 20 April, and all other grades started on 16 April. Since then, the classes have been conducted partly online and partly in-person. For instance, high schools started in-person instruction on 20 May, and middle and elementary school started a few weeks later. Yet, the second wave of COVID-19 in the summer caused schools to return to distance teaching on 26 August [1]. Although schools offered in-person instruction during the autumn, the schools were closed again and went back to distance teaching on 15 December as the third wave of COVID-19 hit South Korea. These patterns were repeated several times during the pandemic.

During the pandemic, the Ministry of Education and related organizations expanded remote instruction platforms to support teachers and students. For instance, the Educational Broadcasting Service (EBS) added more channels and offered ‘EBS Live Class’ online. The Korea Education and Research Information Service (KERI) added over 5000 pieces of public content and 3000 of private content to their e-learning site. Moreover, approximately 500 schools were designated to develop and share online learning content and practices to improve the capacities of teachers online.

Despite the South Korean government’s efforts, various problems have occurred. An annually conducted nationwide assessment, National Assessment of Educational Achievement (NAEA), revealed that the number of students at the ‘below-basic academic achievement level’ (BBAAL) grew considerably in 2020 [13]. For instance, in mathematics, 13.4% of middle school students and 13.5% of high school students in South Korea were reported as BBAAL in 2020. These results revealed the rise of the number of students at BBAAL compared to the 2019 nationwide assessment result in which 11.8% of middle school students and 9.0% of high school students were reported as BBAAL.

Moreover, the academic achievement gap among students has become wider since the pandemic. An online survey conducted by Park [12] found that parents in higher socioeconomic status (SES) families are more actively guiding and helping their children while their children are taking classes online. On the other hand, children in lower SES families have less chances to get help. Even if they do not understand the instructional contents of the online class, they just try to solve the problem on their own or give up rather than trying to get help from teachers or parents.

In addition, there is a crucial difference in parents’ spending on Hagwons, which are private institutions to which children go for extracurricular classes after official school hours, depending on their family’s SES background. The different incomes among households increased inequalities in children’s education during the COVID-19 pandemic. South Korea is a country in which the private education industry is huge. In 2021, the total amount of expenses for private education such as Hagwons and after-school tutoring for elementary, middle, and high school students amounted to approximately KRW 23.4 trillion Korean [14]. High-income households spent five times more on private education than low-income households.

An online survey conducted by Son [7] revealed similar results. While most students have devices that are efficient enough for distance learning, students from lower SES families consider their devices to be inefficient for distance learning as the devices are outdated or have slow processing speed. Soon after switching to distance learning, South Korea introduced a system for students who do not have devices for distance learning. Students can borrow the devices from schools without any cost. For instance, Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (SMOE) established a service through which approximately 80,000 students, including 50,000 low-income students, can borrow online learning devices from school [15]. Yet, the study of Son [7] shows that students in lower SES families still have some technological barriers.

Son’s study [7] also revealed that most students complain about their school’s schedule and instructional method because they have no input into these matters. Son [7] argues that schools should pay attention to students’ voices because the process of decision-making influences their satisfaction and motivation. A nationwide online survey conducted by Gye and her team [11] revealed similar results, although they found that groups in primary and secondary schools have different perspectives. While 32.57% of elementary-school students chose a lack of interaction with teachers and classmates as a disadvantage of long-distance learning, only 17.17% of students in secondary school chose the lack of interaction as a disadvantage. Another interesting point in Gye’s study [11] was that more parents in primary schools felt pressure to help their children with online leaning than parents in secondary schools. She [11] states that learners in primary schools have less ability to manage learning tasks without the help of other, compared to learners in secondary schools. Thus, learners in primary school need much more help from their parents with online learning, and this causes the parents of primary school students to feel more pressure.

The COVID-19 pandemic has also had an impact on teachers. Many teachers face challenges that can be stressful and overwhelming. According to Park et al. [5], even though South Korea has been making continuous efforts to adopt its E-learning system since 2010, the technology-driven teaching and learning system has neither been well established nor widely applied in the majority of schools. As a result, teachers have had to learn new strategies and techniques for distance learning and have experienced various trials and errors. Kwon [6] conducted interviews with elementary school teachers to learn more detail about the challenges that teachers face.

Her study found that teachers face several challenges, such as unpredictable schedules, the ignorance of administrators and policymakers about the actual circumstances of schools, the complaints of parents, and limited resources for online learning. One interesting finding in her study was that teachers do not explore new strategies and materials because they are highly concerned about criticism from parents. They are worried about the possibility that they will be victims of parents’ gossip, or they would receive complaints from parents if they experiment with new strategies. Therefore, they pursue a safe and easy curriculum, instead of trying new strategies. Kwon [6] states that although parents express their dissatisfaction with the low quality of distance learning, parents’ lack of respect for teachers and excessive complaints would be one of the primary causes of non-interactive and low-quality distance learning.

3. Historical Background of Multicultural Families and Studies about Them

In South Korea, there is a new legal term, ‘multicultural family’. According to the Multicultural Families Support Act [16] which was designated in 2008, the new legal term ‘multicultural family’ refers to a household consisting of at least one family member who is an immigrant. The number of marriage-based immigrants has increased significantly since the early 2000s. The influx of marriage-based immigrants started in response to the shortage of potential brides for male farmers. Local governments in rural areas promoted farmers to find brides from outside of South Korea. Yet, international marriage today is no longer limited to rural areas. For instance, among marriage-based immigrants who came to South Korea in 2020, approximately half (89,351 out of 168,594) settled in Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province [17].

Moreover, the number of children of multicultural family has rapidly grown. According to the Ministry of Education [18], as of 2021, there are 160,056 students from multicultural families. They make up 3% of the total number of students in South Korea. In 2006, the number of students from multicultural families nationwide was less than 10,000. This means the population of students from multicultural families has multiplied 16 times within 15 years. Among students from multicultural families, 111,371 are in elementary school. They make up approximately 70% of the total number of students from multicultural families. The proportion of students from multicultural families is expected to gradually increase in middle and high schools since a significant number of multicultural students currently enrolled in elementary schools will enter secondary schools in the future.

As the number of children of multicultural families has rapidly grown, several policies that support students from multicultural families have been developed and applied in schools. For instance, the Ministry of Education has been disseminating content related to multicultural education in the national curriculum since 2007. Researchers have also paid attention to students from multicultural families and their parents. However, they focus on barriers more often than other issues. For instance, according to Goo, Yoon, and Lee [19], the average monthly income of multicultural families was KRW 2.68 million in 2017, which is about KRW 1 million lower than the income of native-Korean families. Another example is the study conducted by Shin and Park [20]. According to Shin and Park, since over 80% of internationally married spouses are woman in South Korea, it is quite common that only mothers belong to a different culture and speak a different language among family members of multicultural families. This can lead to a sense of isolation for the immigrant mothers and even create conflicts with the rest of the family. It might be true that immigrant parents are likely to have more obstacles in raising their children than native-born parents. However, we should not overlook the harm that highlighting the harsh conditions and difficulties encountered by immigrant mothers during the involvement in their children’s education can cause by leading us to believe in the concept of ‘cultural deprivation’. In addition, many studies over-emphasize statistical indices since they are demonstrated by quantitative research for generalization, and although immigrants come from many different countries, studies on immigrants are often conducted without considering the cultural characteristics of their country-of-origin. According to Kim [21], the notion that immigrants are a homogeneous group can create a distorted image. With these previous studies’ limitations in mind, this study investigated Vietnamese immigrants, which is the largest immigrant group in South Korea. The purpose of this study was to depict what immigrant mothers who are from the Vietnam expected from their children’s school during the COVID-19 pandemic. The overarching research questions of this study were:

• What do Vietnamese mothers think of the educational system in South Korea in general?
• What do Vietnamese mothers think of the response of their children’s schools during the COVID-19 pandemic?

4. Materials and Methods

4.1. Data Collections

The qualitative research interview (QRI) method was applied for data collection. QRI is less formulaic and more flexible, and allows participants to express themselves [22]. With QRI, researchers can hear in-depth stories and insights of participants. Researchers can even gain surprising information or discover new patterns which were not previously predicted or expected to be of relevance. Since the purpose of this study was to explore and depict Vietnamese immigrant mothers’ expectations of their children’s school and teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic, QRI was the most appropriate method for this study.

Although the restrictions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic were almost lifted in South Korea, the process of recruiting participants was still not easy. Thus, the snowball sampling technique was applied for recruitment. A welfare worker introduced me to three potential participants. With their help, more participants were gathered by referral from the three participants. Six Vietnamese immigrant mothers who had children attending elementary school were recruited. The participants, including their pseudonyms, ages, duration of stay in South Korea, current residential area, and their number of children are briefly described in

Table 1. Research participants.

Pseudonym	Ages	Duration of Stay in S.K.	Residential Area	Number of Children
NH	33	3 years and 10 months	Gyeonggi Province	1
HYN	26	6 years and 11 months	Gyeonggi Province	2
NTN	33	11 years	Gyeonggi Province	1
NT	40	12 years and 6 months	Gyeonggi Province	2
NF	34	9 years and 3 months	Gyeonggi Province	2
NTT	36	12 years	Gyeonggi Province	2

.

Before the face-to-face interview, the participants received a letter that explained the purpose of the interview, as well as the anonymity and confidentiality of the process. The interviews were conducted at this researcher’s office or a place that the participant preferred, such as a coffee shop. A semi-constructed questionnaire was approved by the Human Subjects Committee at the institution of the researcher. The interview questions were designed to capture: (1) basic demographic information of participants, (2) participants’ overall view regarding their children’s school and the educational system in South Korea, and (3) participants’ perspectives on the response of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each participant was asked the same set of questions and given enough time to think and respond. The interviews were mainly conducted in Korean, although the participants could get help from a Vietnamese interpreter if they did not understand a question or had trouble answering it in Korean. Each interview took up to one and a half hours and was audio-recoded as the interviewees had agreed to do so. Field notes were also taken in order to aid in the understanding of the context of the interviews.

4.2. Data Analysis and Scientific Rigor

Colaizzi’s [23] descriptive phenomenological method (DPM) was used for analyzing the data. Firstly, this researcher read the transcribed texts of the interviews several times to become familiar with the stories told by interviewees. I also checked the field notes and listened to the recorded files to comprehend the situation better. Next, I identified ‘significant statements’ that were correlated to the phenomenon that I investigated. Then, the significant statements that were identified were formulated into specific meanings relevant to the phenomenon, and the formulated meanings were aggregated into sub-themes (see

Table 2. Example of the process.

Sub-Themes	Formulated Meanings	Significant Statements
Lack of information	Conversation among parents about their children’s education being moved online	…These days we can’t meet, so we just talk in a group chat room… we talk a lot less

).

Next, this researcher incorporated the sub-themes and condensed an inclusive description of the phenomenon. Lastly, ‘member checking’ was applied to make participants’ stories more clearly comprehensible as well as to establish trustworthiness. Member checking was not the only method applied to establish trustworthiness. Throughout the study, dependability, confirmability, credibility, and transferability were considered. For these criteria, an ‘audit trail’ was maintained throughout the whole study. ‘Peer debriefing’ was also applied. One social worker and a professor in the educational field examined this researcher’s interpretation of the data to help the researcher avoid bias.

5. Findings

The stories that the participants told shed light on what role school should play for minority families. In this section, this researcher briefly addresses the participants’ overall views regarding the educational system in South Korea. Then, I address their perspectives on the response of their children’s school during the COVID-19 pandemic in more detail.

5.1. Participants’ Overall Views Regarding the Educational System in South Korea

In general, the participants were satisfied with their children’s school as well as the educational system in South Korea. NH said:

Perhaps Vietnamese schools have changed nowadays, but when I was younger, schools were often faraway from where students live. Long-distance commuting was required. Compared to Vietnam, schools here are very close to where we live. My daughter does not waste time on commuting.

NTT said:

Korean schools provide some social welfare programs such as free tuition and free lunch. When I was in Vietnam, I commuted to school by bicycle. It took about 30 min. After five hours, I had to come home for lunch. But, schools here provide free lunch. It is convenient for children and moms.

Their satisfaction was not merely limited to welfare programs or facilities, but they were also satisfied with the curriculum. NH said:

Although such subjects as physical education, art, and music are taught in Vietnam, the classes are held only once a week or so, whereas here in Korea, they are held more frequently. School provides many afterschool programs related to these subjects…or, kids can go to Hagwon for various subjects.

NF said:

My kids’ school provides many afterschool programs… My son said he didn’t want to apply for the afterschool program at first. I told him that he can attend it only once, and he can stop if he doesn’t like it. He followed my suggestion. He decided to continue taking the program because he said that it was fun.

Even though the participants were generally satisfied with the educational system in South Korea, they had some concerns. One of the concerns that participants had was intense academic competition. The participants were aware of the zeal for education in South Korea, in which the college enrolment rate is one of the highest in the world. The participants said, however, that the zeal for education was also very strong in Vietnam. For instance, even though fewer than half of students who take the university entrance exam would be accepted in Vietnam, 70% of Vietnamese students in 12th grade want to continue their studies in university [24]. Both nations seem to have a strong zeal for education.

It seems that the social atmosphere in both nations, which greatly values education, affects Vietnamese mothers. Higher education was clearly valued by the participants. All participants wanted their children to have a college diploma. They regarded higher education as a valuable element for social and economic mobility. However, they said getting a diploma was not essential. If their children wanted to take up, or were interested in, other careers instead of going to college, they are willing to support their children to achieve their own dreams. NF mentioned:

I want to send my children to college. But I don’t want to force them. I don’t put a burden on them. All moms and dads want their children to go to college, but if the children say that they want to do something else, there is nothing the parents can do about it. I hope my children go to college, but if they don’t want to, I won’t pressure them to go. If they want to, I will do my best to support them.

5.2. Participants’ Perspectives on the Response of Their Children’s School during the COVID-19 Pandemic

While the participants’ overall satisfaction regarding the educational system and schools in South Korea were high, they showed mixed feelings about the response of their children’s school during the COVID-19 pandemic.

5.2.1. Responding to Technological Issues

According to Haythornthwaite [25], in the online learning environment, digital capacity and accessibility were the challenges that had been broadly identified. In South Korea, approximately 75% of households have personal computers and 99% have internet access [26]. Yet, in the beginning there were problems with the connection because all students across the nation simultaneously logged-in to the online learning platform. News media strongly criticized the server crash. Thus, I asked the participants what they thought about the sever crash, but they did not criticize it because the problems did not last long. According to the Ministry of Education [27], the two main online learning platforms, Korea Education and Research Information Service’s (KERIS) e-Learning Site and the Education Broadcasting System’s (EBS) Online Class Platform, can currently host six million students simultaneously as extra servers were added. The participants did not seem to be worried about technological issues such as access to technology and consistent high-speed internet.

5.2.2. Doubts about the Online Learning Environment Itself

Before conducting an interview, I assumed that the part that participants would be most dissatisfied about would be the instructional contents of online lectures. However, the participants did not complain or criticize the curriculum of online lectures much although they thought that their children learned less in distance learning compared to in-person learning. NT said:

I think the academic contents provided by my kids’ school were not great, but it was understandable. Teachers did not have enough time to replace face-to-face lectures with online lectures. The virus itself has changed several times into many variants. Whenever a new wave broke out, school switched to online class.

HYN stated:

I could observe my son’s online class while I was doing house chores. The ways of delivering contents to students is quite simple. Teachers explain the material and my son watches it.

The participants doubted the effectiveness of online leaning itself rather than the instructional content of online lectures provided by school. They pointed out that their children’s levels of motivation and interest were lower in online learning compared to in-person learning. NH said:

My daughter complained that online learning was boring because she only looked at the computer monitor at home. She did not look like she was concentrating on what teachers were saying. NH compared her Korean language class with her child’s class.

NH said:

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Korean language class that I am taking offers online learning lessons as well. It has some advantages. Since I can take the online lessons from the location of my choice, I can save time. For adults, online learning might be helpful, but for kids, it is less ideal because elementary school kids do not motivate themselves to study.

NT mentioned:

I admit that alternative educational strategies were needed in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, and online learning was inevitable. But, speaking of satisfaction, I am not satisfied with the online classes that my kids’ school provided. I do not the blame teachers. But, it seemed quite impossible that my kids could learn subjects on their own, without a teacher in person.

5.2.3. Concerns Regarding the Lack of Social Interaction among Stakeholders in Schools

The issue that participants were worried about the most was the reduction in opportunities to socialize caused by distance learning. In particular, they addressed the lack of social interaction among stakeholders in schools as the most fundamental problem of schooling in the time of COVID-19. Some participants said that the teachers did not seem to understand their children very well and cared less about them in online classes. NTT stated:

Before the pandemic, I could visit school for parent–teacher consultations, but now teachers tell me to have parent–teacher consultations by phone. The face-to-face consultations in the past were much better. I could learn about my children’s behavior and progress in school. But now, the teachers don’t know their students very well, so the quality of consultations were not good. I don’t think it was helpful.

HYN said:

It seems like that even if children did not concentrate on the online lecture, teachers continued to conduct class because the online lecture had to be finished on time, and children did not ask questions or comment on anything. They seemed to be in a hurry.

NH said:

A couple of days ago, my daughter’s school had an open house. Children were learning in the classroom, and parents were invited to see the face-to-face lectures through Zoom because visiting my kid’s school was not allowed nowadays. I was very disappointed with the open house.

The participants believe that interacting with other mothers is also important. They said that they could share information about their children’s school and education. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the interaction continued in a limited manner. NTT said:

In the past, we (mothers in school) had meetings about twice a month, but these days we can’t meet, so we just talk in a group chat room in Kakao Talk. I can get some information about school in the group chat room. But, we talk a lot less. I hope that the pandemic is over soon, so we can meet and talk about our children.

The COVID-19 pandemic which requires physical distance among people seemed to cause immigrant mothers to be more concerned about interaction. It also led them to get more information on child-rearing. NTT continued to say that:

Now, my kids stay at home more. We talk and interact more. I think my kids are starting puberty. They have become sensitive and do not listen to what I am saying sometimes, especially the eldest one. Talking with them is still fine now, but I think it would be difficult to talk with them in a few years.

NTN made a valuable suggestion:

Since I’m a foreigner, I am curious about how to raise my child well in Korea… I hope school arranges some meetings to interact with other parents at school.

6. Discussion

The results of this study show that the Vietnamese mothers were satisfied with the educational system in South Korea and their children’s school in general. Yet, they showed mixed feelings regarding how schools responded during the COVID-19 pandemic. Like schools in other countries, schools in South Korea switched to online learning. According to the United Nations [28], approximately 830 million children worldwide do not have access to a computer. However, at least in terms of technological infrastructure issues, South Korea had relatively less difficulty in the implementation of online learning. Of course, in the beginning, South Korea also had some technical problems, such as server crashes on online learning platforms. Yet, the participants considered the response of the Ministry of Education and school officials to be somewhat efficient because they solved those technical problems quickly.

Moreover, the participants did not criticize or complain about the instructional contents and materials of online learning that their children’s school provided, but this does not mean that they were satisfied with the contents. They appeared to have low expectations for online learning. Fundamentally, they doubted the effectiveness of the online learning environment itself. The Vietnamese mothers believed that even if high-quality online lectures were provided by school, it would still be less effective than face-to-face learning.

Although the immigrant mothers had some concerns about the sudden forced transition to online learning, the strongest concern was the lack of opportunities to socialize in person. This concern was echoed by all the participants. From their perspective, school is not just a place for acquiring academic knowledge and skills but also a place to understand social roles and build relationships with others. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many educators and authorities focused heavily on establishing online learning platforms and developing online instructional content. In other words, they focused on how to provide academic knowledge and skills efficiently and safely during the unexpected pandemic period. Many studies published during the last three years also limited their focus to merely academic issues, such as the widening achievement gap and nationwide test-score drops caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This phenomenon might be natural because many people link the role of school to acquiring academic knowledge and skills.

Yet, schools have many roles in the lives of children, other than simple transmission of knowledge. For instance, Reimer [29] states that custodial care, social-role selection, indoctrination, and development of skills and knowledge are roles that school must fulfil. In addition, the perception of school’s main role varies from person to person. Considering the fact that the Vietnamese mothers in this study were most concerned about the lack of social interaction, they seemed to focus more on social competence than academic knowledge. These kinds of reactions of immigrant mothers might be natural since early childhood is an important period of social–emotional development. According to Hamer and Pianta [30], socially and emotionally developed children are often better off in most social fields in their life. Children need a long time to develop such skills as understanding the emotions of others and social engagement. Thus, schools are one of the most important places in which children develop their social and emotional competence through everyday social interactions.

In addition to the fact that their children are attending elementary schools, the parents' immigrant background may have been another factor that made them worried about the lower level of social connectedness during the COVID-19 pandemic. In general, immigrants have limited social networks. Individuals make connections with others to build social networks, and the membership of networks determines the quantity and quality of resources that individuals can access. Yet, the different appearances, cultures, and languages of immigrants often are a barrier to fully becoming inner group-members. The situations of schools are not so different from other social institutions. Several educators [31,32,33] argue that students from immigrant backgrounds do not feel fully welcomed or accepted by teachers and their peers as they have different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Although the participants in this study said that they and their children had not experienced any poor treatment, it can be easily noticed that the schools do not have a welcoming environment. The most satisfactory parts of the school experience for their children during the COVID-19 pandemic was the facilities. Only one participant mentioned something associated with a caring school environment. In addition, judging from the interview with immigrant mothers, it appears that their children did not have many friends. Even more problematic was that their children’s weak social circles were further damaged as the COVID-19 pandemic enforced social distancing.

The Vietnamese mothers seemed to have a great desire for information about their children’s behavior at school as well as effective parenting strategies, but they did not receive enough information. During the pandemic, parent–teacher consultations were often cancelled or conducted via phone only. Furthermore, due to distance learning, teachers did not know much about their students’ needs, academic performance, behavior at school, or strengths and weaknesses in learning. Thus, several immigrant mothers in this study said that they felt that parent–teacher consultations had become practically useless. Interactions with other parents also continually decreased. This means the weak social network of Vietnamese mothers have further shrunk due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result, they wanted schools to provide some parent–teacher conferences as well as parent-education programs, so they could gain some practical information and improve their parenting skills. It seems that their narrow social networks made them more desperate to gain information for their children’s education. Providing such opportunities as parent education programs and parent–teacher conferences would be helpful for parents supporting their children’s education, but it is not enough. There are two different ways of developing and establishing relationships in a social network [34,35,36]. They are ‘bridging’ relationships and ‘bonding’ relationships. The method of bridging relationships is oriented around sharing useful information between different social classes, religions, and racial groups. As different groups are gathered together to gain useful information, they are often weakly connected. On the contrary, bonding relationships are formed based on strong ties and emotional intimacy. The bonding relationships are often found within a homogeneous group. Their main purpose is for public good, not private good. Schools are places in which many different groups coexist. Thus, bridging relationships are more common than bonding relationships, and therefore the relationships between different groups at schools become further weakened in unexpected circumstances such as the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the relationships at schools do not always have to be this way. One participant in this study, NF, had a very supportive experience despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Her children had transferred to a new school because her family business moved from Seoul to Gyeonggi Province. She was very concerned that her two children would not be able to get involved and would not adjust well to the new school. Yet, her worries vanished because of the teachers in the new school. NF said:

I am very satisfied with my sons’ new school. My sons’ teachers gave me a call before I called them, and they told me their phone numbers and told me I can text or give a call whenever I have a question. So, when the school provided online classes only, I talked to the teachers on the phone almost every day around 5 p.m. I guess I called too frequently (laughing). Now as classes were more often carried out face-to-face, I talked to the teachers on the phone once a month… In the previous school, it was hard to reach teachers. I was frustrated because I couldn’t reach the teachers when I had a question about my kids. But here, I could reach the teachers very easily even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers here are very kind and helpful. The homeroom teacher of my oldest son even introduced me to another Vietnamese mother… My kids’ school even provides a book club for parents. I think in the book club, parents can share information about children’s education. Although I could not attend due to my work, I hope to join the book club someday.

Perhaps for the majority of schools and teachers, it is hard to emulate the school that NF’s children attend. For instance, there would be privacy concerns about offering teachers’ phone numbers in many schools. Moreover, being a teacher is a very busy job that includes not only teaching students but also a variety of components such as planning lessons, assessing students’ work, and doing paperwork. Teachers, especially teachers in large schools, can experience burnout due to an overwhelming workload. Fortunately, the school that NF’s children were attending was a small-sized school. The relatively small number of students in the school meant that teachers were able to pay more attention to the students, and even to their parents. However, if the teachers did not have a willingness to make valuable relationships with their students’ parents, the school would be the same as other schools. Parents’ attitudes are also important. NF respects her children’s teachers, and she is eager to listen to the teachers’ suggestions. The story of NF shows that healthy social interaction among stakeholders in schools can minimize the possibilities of damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

7. Conclusions

In general, the Vietnamese mothers in this study were satisfied with their children’s school as well as the educational system in South Korea. Yet, the COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly changed the school life of their children. The Vietnamese mothers in this study regarded the reduction of networking opportunities as the most serious downside during the COVID-19 pandemic. From their perspective, providing the chance to interact with each other and build valuable relationships with others is a more important role for schools than simply teaching some academic knowledge and skills. In addition, for parents, school is a fundamental place in which parents can build a network with others for their children’s education. They want to hear about their children’s behavior at school from their children’s teachers. They also want to share some useful parenting tips with other parents. Yet, according to the immigrant mothers in this study, the schools had not been so helpful in fulfilling these desires, and we cannot simply attribute this problem solely to the COVID-19 pandemic. What if all stakeholders at schools have ‘bonding’ relationships? Perhaps people might participate and interact with each other more even in virtual environments if they have authentic bonding relationships. This means that studies on how to establish a more trusting and meaningful relationship to create a healthy school community are more necessary than the studies on academic achievement or developing efficient online learning content.

Currently, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be transitioning to an endemic. The virus will be consistently present among us, and thereby there is still a possibility that schools will be closed again and switch to distance learning when a new wave of COVID-19 sweeps the country. The experiences of immigrant mothers in the past couple of years would be a valuable resource to prepare for another crisis that might happen. Therefore, more research of the kind undertaken in this study is essential. The study did, however, have a few limitations. As the study was intended to produce an in-depth description of Vietnamese mothers’ opinions, feelings, experiences, and expectations of the schooling of their children, the stories of a few participants were investigated in this study. In view of the limitations, some recommendations for future investigations are merited. Firstly, future studies should include more participants. Investigations with more participants would allow us to determine if the findings of this study can be generalized to the larger population of Vietnamese immigrants. Secondly, future studies should investigate other ethnic groups such as Chinese and Filipino immigrant parents. Those investigations would provide us with insight into how different ethnic groups may have different perceptions of their children’s education and schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic. They also would provide a chance to discover the perceptions and beliefs that all immigrant parents have in common. All these would provide us with a broader understanding and lead to a better school environment for all.