This study was conducted at Hwa Eum Elementary School (pseudonym) in Gyeonggi Province where the researcher resides. The subjects were 10 out of 20 students from the school who come from multicultural homes. This study was conducted to provide importa...
This study was conducted at Hwa Eum Elementary School (pseudonym) in Gyeonggi Province where the researcher resides. The subjects were 10 out of 20 students from the school who come from multicultural homes. This study was conducted to provide important information in terms of educational support and in determining policies for children from multicultural homes and based on that also to give suggestions.
The researcher looked at three aspects of lives of children from multicultural homes. He analyzed the opportunity of education, the process of education and their lives based on the result of education from two former aspects. The opportunity of education was observed based on the school programs that the students from multicultural homes participated, the extent of experience, knowledge and concern of multicultural education of teachers who facilitate them and the students' private education. The process of education was considered in two ways; at school, the interaction between the multicultural students and their teachers and the interaction with their peers; at home, the interaction between the students and other family members. Lastly, the result of education involved two parts: cognition and definition. For cognition he looked at the students' schoolwork accomplishments and for definition, the students' sense of identity as to which country they felt they belonged to.
For this study the researcher used three methods: participation observation, in-depth interview and recording. To further assist the study, he wrote a journal about the students who participated in the multicultural program which the researcher was in charge of. The following is the result of his study.
First, in terms of opportunity of education, multicultural students' enrollment to school was guaranteed and they were given educational support from the school because of the reason that they are from multicultural homes. However, they participated to the school programs rather passively in fears that others might discover that they are multicultural students and that they have much time on their hands. Likewise, multicultural students were also receiving private education like most other students but because of lack of information and resources, the students' aptitude was not taken into consideration. When a student's mother is a foreigner or when both parents are foreigners, the opportunity to learn Korean was very slim. Some students were born with a disorder and it seemed it was due to the mother's stress of living or adjusting to life in Korea during her pregnancy.
Second, the process of education was dealt separately: at school and at home. At school, lower grade students from multicultural homes were more active in their classrooms and had more interaction with their teachers when compared to higher grade students from multicultural homes. Students who were less distinguishable appearance-wise adjusted more easily to the school life but they were able to live harmoniously with other classmates through the guidance of their teachers. Nonetheless, they had one thing in common in that they were passive when interacting with peers. Especially, they had difficulty making friends and during group or class activities, they were often left alone. Simply put, they lacked social skills. The students from multicultural homes functioned as bridges that connected the teachers and mothers who have poor Korean. At home, the children had more interaction with their mothers but because of the mothers' poor Korean, not enough verbal communication was happening. The interaction with their fathers was limited because the fathers often came home late and because of their dishonest and violent attitudes, some students were under much stress and therefore avoided communication with them.
Third and lastly, the result of education was inquired further into two categories: for the multicultural students' cognition the researcher looked at their schoolwork accomplishments and for definition, their sense of identity. First, their schoolwork in terms of cognition, their Korean was poor; lack of vocabulary, difficulty in writing and low level of comprehension. Their math skills were better but because of their poor command of Korean, they had difficulty solving problems that were presented in sentences. Social studies was the hardest subject for the multicultural students for they did not have much chance to experience and learn about Korean culture and history compared to other students. They learn social studies from third grade and because of it, they started to fall behind academically starting third grade. Second, their sense of identity in terms of definition, most students said they consider themselves Koreans. In other words, they based their identity on where they were born and where they currently live. On the other hand, when they were classified differently at school from other ethnically full Korean students, they were confused as to who they are and where they belong.
Through this study, it was evident that the students from multicultural homes were still dissimilar depending on their backgrounds. That is to say, multicultural homes are socially minor circles but even within those, various levels exist. In brief, depending on what the multicultural students have or do not have, their weaknesses surfaced on the categories of opportunity, process or the result of education. Educational and financial support must be provided to the children from multicultural homes, the social minorities. However, they need a different form of assistance. In order to minimize the weaknesses of the students from multicultural homes, they need assistance that is not monotonous but where their conditions are taken into consideration; a differential treatment in the opportunity, process and the result of education.
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