ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

This study explores how Korean and foreign exchange college students make meanings out of their life experiences, especially in relation to their career decision making and self-authorship, and how culture shapes the ways that Korean and foreign college students in a Korean women’s university reflect on their life experiences. We use a mixed methods approach for this research that combines analyses of quantitative data from questionnaire with qualitative data from semi-structured interviews. Our study uses data of 199 college students (Korean, n=113; foreign students, n=89) who enrolled in liberal education courses within a Women’s University in Seoul. The Korean female students and foreign students responded that the most important significant others are their parents, when it came to discussing their career decisions. However, differences were observed regarding how they accept their parents’ advice, and how they combine their parents’ opinion with their own opinion, when making their final decisions regarding their career path. The implication of research findings lies in the potential to guide the design, implementation, and evaluation of educational programs in higher education. Lastly, the current study is expected to stimulate further study on the development of self-authorship in Korean context and suggests how the critical concept of self-authorship may contribute to meeting specific challenges that college students encounter exploring their future lives.

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