Multicultural Education in Korea: Its Origin, Status, and Direction

Abstract

This study seeks to identify the development process of multicultural education in Korea. Concerning this issue, this paper focuses on two interrelated processes: one is the Korean society’s transition as a major source of multicultural education, the other is multicultural education policy and related research development process. With regard to this point, this paper looks at how Korean society shifted into a multicultural one, the concept of multicultural families in Korean society, and the research and policies concerning multicultural education. On the basis of such theoretical discussions and by addressing the issues they set forth, this study aims at discovering a direction for the development of multicultural education in Korea.The prevailing concept of multicultural education in Korea opens up various discussions. The first issue is that in Korea, the main focus of this kind of education tends to be on teaching how to understand other cultures. Another point of discussion is that it is basically targeted on a small group of minorities. Furthermore, there are voices calling for a Korean-type multicultural education, reasoning that Korean theories on this subject are different from that of other countries. When it comes to Korea’s multicultural education policies, most programs, aside from teacher training, are for multicultural families. In addition, they focus on teaching these families to adapt to Korean society rather than promoting a general understanding of and respect for other cultures. It was found that even at schools, a majority of these programs involved teaching about culture. This study suggests new directions for the development of multicultural education.