Our country is changing into a multicultural society where people with various multicultural backgrounds live together. This makes locals to break a tradition of homogeneous country and to demand the communalism development as a global citizen. Howeve...
Our country is changing into a multicultural society where people with various multicultural backgrounds live together. This makes locals to break a tradition of homogeneous country and to demand the communalism development as a global citizen. However, government policy still claim to support multiculturalism outwardly but in reality they pursue assimilation, and the policy itself is more focused on “Koreanizing” emigrants than changing the awareness of locals. In multicultural society, “Koreanizing” emigrants does not realize the multiculturalism or unification of society. Majority and minority group need mutual understanding and come to a harmony as “we” and realize unification of society at last. Therefore, our society needs to improve the awareness of locals and promote multicultural capability so that emigrants are accepted as “friendly neighbors” and not as “immigrants.”
In 2006, the government announced the change of immigrant policy based on multiculturalism. Multiculturalism is an idea that respects each other and acknowledges the “difference” and realizes minority’s active lives in society of majority in this diversified society. This is brought up to majority to resolve prejudice and discrimination towards immigrants. Realizing this through education is multicultural education. Therefore, target of multicultural education is not immigrants but locals, and it is to promote improvements of locals’ awareness and multicultural capability. Local’s awareness needs to be improved and immigrants can maintain their identity and live freely in this society of majority. For this interpretation, pushing forward assignment for locals, “Promoting understanding of multiculturalism” among current other policies is reviewed and in result, there are only 19 assignments (12.7%) of 149 detailed assignments from immigration policy and 10(18.8%) assignments of 53 detailed assignments from multicultural families support policy. Given these realities, it is certain that they are not executing the policy based on multiculturalism.
Multiculturalism is not opposable and avoidable change of the society, on the other hand, close-minded nationalistic view still exists in us. Thus, immigrants are still foreigners from our society, and their children are treated as foreigners at school as their mothers are foreigners and as their language and color of skin are different. The reason that Korean people cannot escape from petty minds is the influences from the Japanese colonial period, Korean War, and other invasion from other countries. Korean Government became exhausted and had not been able to relief people’s exhausted and negative prejudice thoughts towards anything. Rather, People could not break free from closed-minded thought, because we have been emphasizing superiority of our nation through education. This phenomenon has stayed the same as a current multicultural society. Without considering social phenomenon caused by international marriage, in the condition of no system and no policy, they had no choice but to pioneer their own life and get accustomed to it. Currently, certain degree of laws, system and policy are organized, the government mainly carries forward the women marriage immigrant and they justify it as the cultural difference overcome and acculturation. For school education, they mainly carry forward the policies for multicultural students over local students and they may get reverse discrimination in near future, and it will be hard to build up the multicultural capabilities.
Hereupon, this research is to understand the importance and necessity of multicultural education in our multicultural society, and based on this, purpose of proposing the plans for multicultural education at schools is to improve the awareness of the students who will live in global society and nurture the multicultural capability.
First, currently, only at policy research institution and with schools as center carry out the understanding multicultural education and this should be carried out at every school and bring up the students with improvement of awareness and multicultural capabilities.
Second, train the teachers with multicultural sensitivity and education capability.
Third, in order to nurture multicultural capability, place of exchange must be made for local and multicultural students. The quickest way to feel good feelings emotionally and to understand other cultures is experiencing it directly.
Forth, currently, multicultural contents are only applied to subjects of Korean, math, social study, and family study, and this is to be applied to all subjects.
Fifth, it is important to teach culture in foreign language classes, but view and manner towards other cultures need to be learned.
Sixth, education of understanding multicultural to promote multicultural capability of local students and their parents should take a place at the same time. Currently multicultural policy applies to married immigrants and their children, local students, teachers and public officials, and you cannot find parents of local students on the list. Schools partially influence gaining of student knowledge and development of values, but parents, especially home training from mothers influences their children in developing values greatly, and thus role of parents is important. As we look at it in this sense, mothers need more urgent reformation of awareness than schools and teachers. Therefore, at the same time with children, parental multicultural capability promoting policy needed to be prepared.
If they put their shoes in their position, they can feel the pain and agony, and through other culture they get a chance to look back their own culture, thus the contents of understanding others situation need to be applied to text books, experience and cultural exchange activities.
Multiple cultures are composed of different cultures and they need to aim mutual understanding through experience and cultural exchange. When learning foreign language, they study abroad to learn their national language and culture, and interact with local people to have mind to understand them. Our nation need to make cultural exchanges and in the process of interacting and getting into conflicts with immigrants they will gradually form one united community. In this repetition of process will be shortcut to improve awareness of people.