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

Abstract

Historically, ethnic nationalism has played a central role in consolidating Koreans in times of hardship. This tendency continues today; as South Korea is transitioning from a homogeneous ethnic society to a multi-ethnic one, schools face a new challenge to embrace diversity. Oppressions that ethnic minority students experience are often associated with Korean ethnic nationalism. This study examines South Korean teachers' values and viewpoints regarding ethnic nationalism, and how these teachers make sense of ethnic nationalism in facing multicultural education and globalization. Participant teachers in this study overall believed that instilling strong Korean ethnic identity and pride would not conflict with enhancing multiculturalism, and identified various ways to accomplish these two aspects. Some felt the former should be implemented prior to the latter, while others indicated that concurrent integration of the two aspects would be preferable. The majority held that emphasizing a strong Korean ethnic identity would not oppress or disadvantage minority students. Teacher education programs for pre-service and in-service teachers should intentionally focus on critical reflection regarding one's group identity, as this may become a source of prejudice and unintentional oppression of members from different groups. The overarching goals of ethnic identity education and multicultural education should be established within the framework of social equity. The current status of "hybrid" based ethnic and national identity education should be challenged in that it tends to position the ethnic identity education separately from multicultural education. The two areas need to be integrated to embrace and affirm diversity.

Multicultural Literature for Building Children’s Character

“…Furthermore, in teaching ethnic identity, adults (parents and teachers) should integrate it into multicultural education because separating it will only cause the marginalization of minority groups [40]. To avoid it, teachers and parents can use multicultural literature to convey the message about nationalism value, and children will be able to comprehend both concepts as a whole.…”

A Complex Mix of Confidence, Uncertainty, and Struggle: Korean Secondary Social Studies Teachers’ Perspectives and Practice on Multiculturalism

“…Second, presentations of diverse cultures to majority Korean students accentuate traditional cultures as unchangeable and fixed (Jin, 2012;Jo, 2013), which limits students' understandings of the dynamic nature of cultures and yields no room to develop a new Korean culture that combines both mainstream and emerging diverse cultures in Korea. Third, multicultural programs and curriculum changes are implemented in a top-down manner under mandatory educational policies, which makes teachers rush to employ them with few opportunities to examine meanings of multiculturalism in education, multicultural practices, or their own perspectives (Chang, 2015;Kim, 2013;Mo & Lim, 2013). In this regard, the perspectives and practices of PK-6 teachers have been examined, but those of secondary teachers' have not.…”

“…Studies show that, with few opportunities to learn about multicultural education, teachers feel ill-prepared, demonstrate low levels of multicultural competency, and report ambiguous positions in relation to multicultural education (Cha et al, 2013;Watson et al, 2011). Moreover, teachers regard multicultural practices as mere additions to their workloads among the pressure of teaching for high-stakes tests (Chang, 2015). Studies of these phenomena-mainly utilizing survey methods-have focused on preschool, kindergarten, and elementary teachers' perspectives on multiculturalism and practices (Kim, 2014).…”

“…These social studies teachers have faced challenges between rapid changes to the curriculum and rare opportunities to examine their own prejudice and bias (Chang, 2015). Furthermore, these prejudices and biases were shaped by politically conservative perspectives that, through the power of media, cast people from other countries in a negative light, which limited their equitable teaching practice about diverse cultures and people (Jo, 2013;Mo & Lim, 2011).…”

“…Studies show that teachers demonstrate ambiguous understandings of multiculturalism and its applications to education, and hold conflicting beliefssuch as ethnic nationalism-which are ingrained in society (Chang, 2015;Kim & So, 2018). As a result, teachers lack confidence in their ability to teach about multiculturalism and social issues related to an emerging multicultural society (Mo & Lim, 2011).…”