Multicultural Teacher Education in Korea*: Current Trends and Future Directions

Enhancing Teacher Self-Efficacy in Multicultural Classrooms and School Climate: The Role of Professional Development in Multicultural Education in the United States and South Korea

“…In fact, teachers in Korea have stated that they struggle both to embrace students’ cultural diversity and stimulate the engagement of students from different backgrounds in classrooms due to the lack of knowledge and skills concerning multicultural education (J. Kim & Jeon, 2017; Mo & Lim, 2013). Moreover, some teachers also have cultural biases that are reflected in their classrooms, with many refusing to integrate multicultural perspectives into their teaching because they believe that multicultural education works only for immigrant students (Chang, 2017).…”

“…Scholars have also argued that the limited scope of multicultural education in Korea stigmatizes minority students as a vulnerable group (J. K. Kim et al, 2018). Thus, in response, the Korean government has identified multicultural teacher education policy as a key agenda item, mobilizing PDME to help teachers deal with the growing diversity in schools (Mo et al, 2010;Mo & Lim, 2013). However, the effectiveness of PDME has not been well documented in the literature in either Korea or the United States, leaving unanswered whether PDME serves as a vehicle for preparing teachers to teach in multicultural classrooms or improves overall school climate.…”

“…Scholars have noted that multicultural education has been widely institutionalized across the world, chiefly due to transnational isomorphism in multicultural education policy (Cha & Ham, 2014). The Korean government has also adopted PDME as a means of teacher training to respond to the increase in diversity in schools (Mo & Lim, 2013). However, after a rigorous review of the literature, we found that no study has provided insights into the relationship between PDME, TSMC, and school climate based on a comparative perspective.…”

Teaching for Social Justice in Multicultural Classrooms

“…Based on a survey of preservice elementary teacher education programs and professional development programs for teachers in Korea, Mo and Lim (2013) found few to focus on classroom practice, particularly practice directed toward all students rather than only toward children from multicultural families. In this article, I have suggested four hallmarks of multicultural social justice teaching practice that teachers can learn in preservice and professional development contexts: 1) explicitly treating culture as a foundation for learning, rejecting deficit interpretations of students; 2) developing key concepts in the curriculum through content and examples drawn from more than one cultural group; 3) teaching students how to Downloaded by [UQ Library] at 02:48 15 June 2015 dialogue about sensitive issues across their differences; and 4) teaching students how to analyze and act together on social justice problems.…”

Teachers’ Perspectives: Making Sense of Ethnic Nationalism, Ethnic Identity and Multicultural Education in South Korea

“…A review of literature reveals that research and discourse on multicultural education in South Korea have focused on (i) The current status and goals of multicultural education in Korea and recommendations and directions for the future (Cho, 2008;Cho & Yoon, 2010;Mo & Lim, 2012;Park & Kwak, 2009), (ii) Multicultural education and curriculum from other countries compared with those of Korea (Choo, 2009;Kim, 2009), (iii) Difficulties faced by multicultural families (Kim & Shim, 2007;Seol et al, 2005), (iv) Effectiveness of multicultural education programs for teachers and ways to increase teachers' multicultural efficacy and cultural competence (Chang, 2010;Chang & Chung, 2009;Mo, 2009;Mo, Lee & Lim, 2010). Watson, Park and Lee (2011) examined pre-service teachers' awareness of and attitudes towards South Korea's increasing cultural diversity.…”