Welfare states that prevailed all over the world after the World War II began to experience changes from mid-1970's. In the midst of rapid socio-economic changes, the globalized market and flourishing multinational enterprises caused the industrial ac...
Welfare states that prevailed all over the world after the World War II began to experience changes from mid-1970's. In the midst of rapid socio-economic changes, the globalized market and flourishing multinational enterprises caused the industrial activities of states to be integrated at a global scale. The process of such globalization accelerated after the collapse of the Soviet Communist bloc, and it was a process of reorganizing the order of neoliberal capitalism. In this globalized world, exchanges occur across the borders in political, economic, and cultural aspects of the society, and the globalized economy especially increases interactions in such areas like trade, production, investment, organizations, ideology, and financial and labor markets.
The Korean society now recognizes as a major challenge the question of how to cope with the diversity of multiracial, multiethnic society caused by the rapid increase of foreign population, and seeks ways to maintain and promote the integrity of the state. As the multicultural population grows, the probability increases for this often-vulnerable group to experience poverty and discrimination and eventually get isolated in the society. For this reason, there is an imminent danger to the society that involves communication issues, inadequate education, human rights abuses, exploited labor, and social isolation. Especially, students from multicultural families often experience a language barrier that might cause learning deficits and inability to adapt to school environment, which, in turn, can result in prejudice and discrimination against these minority groups.
To remedy such issues, the current work focuses on problems related to the Korean language education for children from multicultural families. The work is based on careful studies of publications in the literature and analysis of official support systems provided by the Korean government and regional offices of education. As a result, this study proposes the following improvements to the educational support system.
First, there is the need for a new government agency or a centralized organization that establishes and oversees multicultural policies. Currently, various departments in the Korean government that include the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Education operate their own programs for Korean language education in a redundant and inefficient manner. This causes numerous problems like unnecessary competitions among these ministries, the absence of inter-agency mediations and centralized execution, and a lack of coordinated systems for multicultural services. For this reason, there were many cases that involve one-time events without proper follow-ups, overlapping programs, inefficient use of funds, and discrepancies in statistics announced by different agencies. A centralized government agency that oversees multicultural policies as in the case of the United Kingdom can remedy such issues.
Second, the Korean government should review and enact a new set of rules and regulations in relation to the education of multicultural students. The Enforcement Decree of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act as amended in 2006 allows the children of overseas citizens to enter schools in Korea, but there is no special considerations for students at junior high or high school ages or those who are not fluent in Korean. Therefore, by enacting a new law for the multicultural society, we can establish a framework for assimilation and diversity and centralize any related work currently distributed among different agencies.
Third, schools at all levels of education should build an infrastructure for Korean language education. To carry out the government's policy in a consistent manner, each region needs at least one school with instructors specializing in Korean language and bilingual education. It is necessary to establish this system first in regions with a significant number of multicultural students and expand the coverage to other areas by building hub institutions.
Fourth, the design and the operation of such programs must be customized to consider factors like the language group, cultural background, duration of overseas stay, and educational status. One-off programs and uniform methods will not be able to fulfill the needs of multicultural students with a variety of background.
Fifth, Korean language classes in these programs should be divided into preparatory, beginning, and intermediate levels to consider each student's competency in the language. Factors like the place of birth and the duration of overseas stay might also affect such assignments.
Finally, in addition to acquiring and training instructors specialized in Korean language and bilingual education, existing teachers in elementary and secondary schools with background in Korean education or experience in advising multicultural students should also be given the opportunity for training in Korean language education to build a consensus on multicultural issues within the school system.
In summary, the current work investigates the status of the support system for Korean language education and provides a set of possible improvements to the system specifically for students from multi-cultural families.
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