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Multicultural education in Korea: its development, remaining issues, and global implications

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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the origin and evolution of multicultural education in Korea, remaining issues, and global implications that the Korean case may provide to educators in other contexts, especially to those in Asia–Pacific countries. To address these topics, this paper analyzes government documents, various survey data, and research literature related to historical, theoretical, and practical aspects of multicultural education in Korea. Major findings show that, despite substantial achievements in a short period of time, significant structural barriers against minority groups still remain, while an assimilationist approach tends to dominate multicultural education in Korea. It is also suggested that reforming teacher education programs to produce culturally competent teachers is crucial for the further development of multicultural education in Korea. Based on the Koran case, this paper calls for collective efforts among educators in the Asia–Pacific region to explore more diversified approaches to multicultural education, as theories and practices based on Western experiences may have limited application to this region.

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Notes

  1. Refer to https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ks.html for details.

  2. The sex ratio has held steady at approximately 100 (female): 101 (male) for the total population (National Statistic Office data). Therefore, this imbalance may not be the primary cause of the growing number of mixed marriages in Korea.

  3. The total number of enrolled students in elementary and secondary schools was approximately 7.57 million in the same year.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, #332 Faculty Hall, 270 Imun-Dong, Dongdaemun-Gu, Seoul, 130-791, Korea

    Won-Pyo Hong

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Correspondence to Won-Pyo Hong.

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This work was supported by Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Research Fund of 2010.

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Hong, WP. Multicultural education in Korea: its development, remaining issues, and global implications. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. 11, 387–395 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-010-9089-x

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