Problematizing the paradoxical pedagogical gestures of ‘embracing diversity’: The case of multicultural education policies in South Korea

Abstract

The multiculturalist agenda of ‘embracing diversity’ in schools has been criticized for its paradoxical effects of othering ‘diversity-relevant’ students, particularly minorities with an immigrant background. This study aims to critically scrutinize the meaning of ‘diversity’ as a policy problem formed within the policy discourse on multicultural education in South Korea from 2006 to 2020. We argue that the three meanings of diversity—i.e., diversity at-risk, productive diversity, and endurable diversity—indicate a way that identifies ‘multicultural students’ with ethno-racial differences as objects of ‘conditional’ embracing. Thinking with Jacques Derrida's notion of hospitality, we provide insights into a more responsible pedagogical mode of hospitality toward all diverse students, which ruptures the power hierarchies that attend each specific gesture of embracing diversity.