Project by: Alice Kresberg (11th Grade)
Project Advisor: Joy Piedmont
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Catherine Zhong
Description of the Project: This project contains research on the stigma South Koreans have on things like single mothers/fathers, abortion, adoption, and more. I wanted to research these opinions on these issues because as a Korean adoptee, I’m curious about my birth culture and my adoption. I want to know the reasons for these stigmas and how they’ve changed. I want to spread my experience of being an adoptee born from a country with such opinions on those things because I feel that it’s important for people to know the hard parts/complications about being adopted since adoption isn’t something one can necessarily see just from looking at someone.
Final Product (e.g., documents, images, video, audio, poster, display, etc.):
Click the image below to explore my Prezi presentation in which you click on the circles of text to get more information about the subject:
Final Reflection on Learning:
This two trimester long project really awed me with how much I learned. I did realize at the end when I was making my final product that there was too much information to fit into it. As a result, I condensed the information into what I thought connected most and was most important. I enjoyed working on this project and while I don’t have a certain answer to my research question, I know more than I did before I had started this project. I hope that I can keep digging deeper into this research and maybe one day come across the answer to my research question for myself. This project was just part of my journey of being a Korean adoptee trying to get closer to and understand my birth culture. I also wanted to use this project to spread adoptee awareness. While this particular project focuses on Korean adoption, many other international adoptees may face some of the same issues.
Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3 (include any photos or video if relevant):
After a lot of talking with my mentor, I have come to a decision about how I’m going to display my research. At first I was going to have it in a slideshow format but this didn’t seem to work with what I wanted to show so I thought of printing pieces out and pasting it to a big poster board. After further thought, I figured this wouldn’t be realistic in the little time I had. I’ve finally decided to learn how to use Prezi and use the zoom in features it offers to better display my information. I believe I have all the information I need or that I am going to use and that the only part left is moving information from my notes and slideshow to the new format.
Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6 (include any photos or video if relevant):
During these weeks, I was working on laying out a format for my Prezi presentation. I did a lot of research and decided to narrow it down into small categories. I drew out a small diagram of what topics I wanted to include which were: my story and why this topic interested me, why there are so many Korean adoptees, effects that come from being a Korean adoptee, other facts, and source credit. Within the topics, I used Prezi’s zoom feature to store the more detailed information.
Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant):
These last weeks were used to work on the Prezi presentation. I used the organized notes from the two google slides I made the trimester before and pasted the information into my format.
TRIMESTER 2 UPDATES:
Description of the Project: As a Korean adoptee, I was very interested in exploring the topic of adoption in Korea. What is interesting about Korean adoption, is that while recently the Korean government tried to restrict the number of international adoptions, due to a steeply declining birthrate, Koreans generally frown upon adoption as a way to build a family. In Korea, the family tree is extremely important. I wanted to research this topic because the ambivalence of Koreans and the Korean government towards international adoption has an impact on me. My impression was and still is that international adoptees are judged negatively for not being completely fluent in Korean language and culture. I personally fear this judgement, and so when I started this project, I hoped that, I would gain an increased understanding about Korean’s attitudes and what forms them, so that I can reconcile my feelings on the topic.
Final Product (e.g., documents, images, video, audio, poster, display, etc.): Since I am continuing this project in T3, it’s not completely finished.
Google slideshow (not complete): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1I7tJck56otS2YgtgWv1MOYFWfQqsX-UEurXAxI9b36s/edit#slide=id.p
Final Reflection on Learning: Reading articles that include the experiences of other Korean adoptees and their experiences in being an adoptee really made me feel less alone. While finding more articles, I also found incredible adoptee stories that were heartwarming to hear. I was surprised to learn about the various organizations set up to help people like single mothers or to spread awareness for limiting international adoptions from Korea. I was also surprised when I found out there’s not only organizations for single mothers, but for single fathers too. Through my research, I discovered the stigma Korean single fathers face since Koreans have doubts about a child being raised without a mother.
Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3 (include any photos or video if relevant):
By this time in my research, I have collected quite a few articles and have started to answer my main questions as well as list information about my smaller topics of interest which are:
- How is social change made in Korea?
- Where did this obsession about blood/family structure come from?
- The idea that their parents usually view their own child’s success as their own and compete/compare them to other families’ children in terms of smartness and achievement.
- Conditions that lead to Korean birth mothers placing their infants for adoption.
- Reasons why the Korean government has sharply curtailed international adoption.
- Attitudes of various demographic groups within Korea towards domestic and international adoption and adoptees./The influence of Confucianism.
- Acceptance of Korean adoptees who return to Korea to live.
I started the layout on google slides to help organize my information and make it easier to understand. I have talked with my mentor about making a google form to send out to Korean adoptees.
Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6 (include any photos or video if relevant):
I transferred all my information I’ve collected so far from the messy google doc I used to the google slides layout. I also have been working on making questions for my google form. I’ve been trying to find even more information to answer all my questions/topics and to find information in different forms. So far, I have a lot of articles but I started to look for journals and other sources like videos. I think finding one or two blogs could be really helpful as well. I have yet to find an “answer” for my research question which is: To what extent can Korean adoptees find a respected place in Korean society?
Link to google slideshow (not finished): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1I7tJck56otS2YgtgWv1MOYFWfQqsX-UEurXAxI9b36s/edit#slide=id.p
Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant):
So far, I have done a lot of research using videos, articles, and some database sources to collect information on this topic. I put this information into a document and then transferred it into google slides. I started making a survey that I might send out to some Korean adoptees I know to gain more knowledge of personal experiences with being an adoptee from Korea. Through my research, I had more questions – some of which are unanswered. While I have done a lot of research, it was not enough to answer my research question. I think that in order to answer it, I’d have to ask people in Korea about their views and use those statistics and their replies to answer my research question but I’m unable to do that. However, I think exploring these new questions I’ve thought of along the way would be beneficial in helping deepening my understanding on this topic.
