Multicultural Education in a Korean Early Childhood Classroom: Based on the Educational Community Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the multicultural education in a Korean early childhood classroom based on the educational community perspective. The study participants included a teacher in charge of the Sunshine classroom for age 5 and 21 preschoolers at a child-care center located in the city of Pusan, South Korea. Data were gathered by observing their classroom and by interviewing the preschoolers and the teacher, and the collected data were analyzed. The results were as follows; The situation of the class as a place of multicultural education, that was largely categorized into two: the reality of multicultural education and the limited contextual classroom factors both internally and externally. The multicultural education was subcategorized into three: the prior understanding of the teacher, the implementation of multicultural education, and the difficulties of the teacher. As for the limited internal and external factors of the classroom context, the preschoolers looked at their peers from multicultural families in a negative way, and there was lack of interaction between internal and external classroom components. Based on these results, the implications were also discussed.