ERIC Number: EJ955928
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011
Pages: 5
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1068-3844
EISSN: N/A
In Context: Multicultural Education in Korea--Lessons for American Educators
Park, Gilbert C.; Watson, Sunnie Lee
Multicultural Education, v19 n3 p2-6 Spr 2011
Today's global community encompasses interconnectivity between societies, where a development in one country affects and informs something similar in other countries. Multicultural education is not exempt from this pattern. Multicultural education was first started by concerned activists and educators in the United States as a way to secure social justice for African Americans. Today, educators in different parts of the world use multicultural education to better serve their own marginalized students, including immigrants. This article looks at multicultural education as conceptualized and practiced by Korean educators for cultural others who face both academic and social marginalization in that country's schools. The authors' goal is to suggest implications for American multicultural educators. First, they describe how Korean multicultural education aims to foster the integration of children from immigrant, biracial, and multicultural families into mainstream Korea. This is followed by the argument that this approach overlooks a fundamental problem facing the immigrants in Korean schools where the narrow construction of real Koreans excludes nonethnic South Koreans. Lastly, they argue that a similar process takes place in American schools where the idea of a "real" American is constructed to mean English-fluent Whites. They call for multicultural educators to problematize this to better serve their American cultural others.
Descriptors: Social Justice, Multicultural Education, Foreign Countries, Immigrants, Cultural Context, Disadvantaged, Whites, North Americans, Cultural Differences, Social Integration, Educational Objectives, Comparative Education, Asians, Teacher Role
Caddo Gap Press. 3145 Geary Boulevard PMB 275, San Francisco, CA 94118. Tel: 415-666-3012; Fax: 415-666-3552; e-mail: caddogap@aol.com; Web site: http://www.caddogap.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: South Korea; United States
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A