Multicultural Education in Asia and the Role of Language Teaching: Focusing on South Korea

Abstract

Asian countries have discussed for decades the necessity of implementing multicultural education as their societies are becoming more global. With the dramatically increasing number of foreign and multiracial/biracial populations in South Korea, public education has a great need for multicultural education and Korean language teaching. However, current assimilation-centered curriculums and a lack of understanding of multiethnic students, their cultures, and their histories have created numerous difficulties in the education practice for both teachers and multiethnic students such as dropping out of schools. Moreover, it hardly narrows the disparities between multiethnic students’ academic gaps and daily life problems in Korea. This study examines general multicultural education in public education in Asian countries with the goal of building more sustainable and inclusive education systems for all learners in South Korea. First, the study focuses on three East Asian countries: South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan to compare the differences in multiculturalism and multicultural education. Then, the study summarizes their characteristics and approaches to multicultural education. The analysis shows that the three countries have common limitations such as building inclusive curriculums and granting the privilege of using a specific language. Next, this study reviews the critical role of language teaching and learning in multicultural education. Finally, the purpose of this study is to raise awareness about multicultural education and the importance of developing and implementing a better system based on language education.