Multicultural Teacher Education in Korea*: Current Trends and Future Directions

Abstract

This study examines current trends in multicultural teacher education in Korea and offers directions for improvement. Curricula of pre-service teacher education and professional development programs for multicultural education are analyzed. The results of this study are as follows: first, pre-service elementary teacher education programs mostly offer lower-level survey courses for freshmen and sophomores as electives and as part of general education courses; second, most of the courses in the secondary teacher education programs are introductory courses similar to those found in elementary teacher education; third, professional development programs focus on the children from multicultural families. Suggestions offered for the future direction of multicultural teacher education include offering more advanced courses as requirement in pre-service education focusing on majority group students in terms of multicultural citizenship education.