How to Share Korean Language and Culture with Pre-Service Teachers in the United States

Abstract

Many teacher educators believe that pre-service teachers should be aware of their future classroom environment including students who have linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds. This paper is a description of how two teacher educators helped pre-service teachers develop their multicultural awareness in preparation for careers in Early Childhood Education. 74 pre-service teachers participated in the 8-week-long intervention, learning about 8 different topics of Korean language and culture during the 2012 Institute of Early Childhood Education Forum. The authors’ and presenters’ reflections, and participants’ survey data were collected, analyzed, and summarized for the intervention. The study results indicated that considering a variety of instructional strategies could help teacher educators prepare a forum to teach about Korean language and culture in Early Childhood Education and that pre-service teachers could receive benefits from the information offered.