The purpose of this study was to develop and introduce an anti-bias education program based on elementary integrated subjects to cast away the student's bias and to improve public awareness about multicultural society. A 12-session anti-bias education...
The purpose of this study was to develop and introduce an anti-bias education program based on elementary integrated subjects to cast away the student's bias and to improve public awareness about multicultural society. A 12-session anti-bias education was developed in this study, in which the biases against four different domains of multicultural family, race, appearance and culture in regard to the multicultural society in Korea were dealt in the 2007 revised national elementary school integrated subjects of 'Disciplinary Life', 'Intelligent Life' and 'Pleasant Life', with the topics familiar to the lower grade students by introducing those anti-bias contents at the very first session.
The frist domain, which is multicultural family, consisted of 2 sessions of appreciation of related literature and presentation to improve the student's awareness of family type, its diversity and their openness towards foreigners. The second domain, race, included 3 sessions of appreciation of literature and video pieces and role playing to improve ability to express oneself while recognizing other races. The third domain, appearance, included 3 sessions of appreciation of literature and video pieces, musical and physical activities to improve the student's receptivity to their appearance and to overcome their bias against appearance. For the last domain, culture, 4 sessions of constructive activity, musical activity and research, were included to find out how the student recognize a variety of diverse cultures.
The developed anti-bias education program was applied to 25 first grade students of K elementary school in Seoul and, their response and educational effects were analyzed both in quantity and quality by pre-, post survey using questionnaires, class reports, results of class activities, etc. When we calculated the degree of bias against multicultural family, race, appearance and culture after the program, the result was 4.03 on average and this result was significantly higher than the one we calculated before the program, which was 3.02 (p<0.001). Those students begun to recognize diverse family forms as normal family, pay more attention to other races, respect themselves and overcome the prejudice that judges more for appearance than personality. We also observed their refusal against discriminatory practices and acceptance for variety and relativity of diverse cultures.
Overall, the anti-bias education program developed in this study could widely used as it has a very positive impact on how the lower grade students overcome their bias and understand the diversity. In future studies, the anti-bias education program using elementary integrated subjects for lower grades need to be developed on the anti-bias against capability, age, belief, social class and gender.
Keyword: anti-bias education program, integrated subjects, multicultural family, race, appearance, culture
* A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education.