The objectives of the present study are to survey the current state of young children at international marriage families and foreign worker families attending early childhood education institutions, to examine the current state of education for young ...
The objectives of the present study are to survey the current state of young children at international marriage families and foreign worker families attending early childhood education institutions, to examine the current state of education for young children at multicultural families in early childhood education institutions and differences in early childhood teachers’ demands for effective education of multicultural family children according to the teachers’ experience and the type of early childhood education institution, and based on the results, to suggest plans to activate the education and support of multicultural family children in the field of early childhood education and governmental departments.
In order to achieve these objectives, we set research questions as follows.
Question 1: How are the current state and adjustment of multicultural family children attending early childhood education institutions and their families?
Question 2: Is the education of multicultural family children at early childhood education institutions different according to the teachers’ experience and the type of the early childhood education institutions?
Question 3: Is teachers’ demand for effective education of multicultural family children different according to the teachers’ experience and the type of the early childhood education institutions?
The subjects of this study were 221 early childhood teachers from 63 kindergartens, 22 child care centers and 9 other institutions (welfare centers, Samsung child care Centers, religious organizations) who had taught or were teaching multicultural family children.
The questionnaire used in this study, which was composed of 59 questions, was prepared by the researcher based on previous researches of Park Mi‐gyeong (2007), Kim Byeong‐soon (2007), Kim Hee‐tae & Gwon Yeong‐deok (2007) and Ko Eun‐gyeong & Yoon Gap‐jeong (2006) and materials published by the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (December, 2007) and Pakmun Kindergarten (November, 2007). Cronbach of the questionnaire was 0.715, and the survey was conducted during the period from March 31 to April 25, 2008.
Collected data were processed using SPSS 12.0. For basic statistical analysis, frequency analysis and cross analysis were made, and one‐way ANOVA and a posteriori test were performed in order to see differences in the education of multicultural family children and early childhood teachers’ demand according to the teachers’ experience and the type of early childhood education institution.
The results of this study are summarized as follow. First, the total number of multicultural family children taught by the 221 early childhood teachers surveyed in this study was 398, and their nationality was one of 11 countries including Korea, China, Japan, the U.S., etc. in order of frequency. In addition, the average after of the multicultural family children was 5.175, and 78.92% of them were from international marriage families and 21.08% from immigrant worker families. The young children’s Korean language skill was proportional to their parents’ Korean language skill.
Second, around 68% of the teachers replied that both multicultural family parents and children adjust themselves to early childhood education institutions, but in case parents were maladjusted, they took over 6 months (25 parents), 1~2 months (20) or 2 weeks~1 month (12), and in cases children were maladjusted, they took 1~2 months (22 children), 2 weeks~1 month (16), or 3~5 months (13). In addition, 121 teachers (54.75%) replied that it takes over 6 months for multicultural family children to improve their Korean language skills and 55 (24.89%) replied that it takes less than 3 months.
Third, as to multicultural family children’s behaviors in early childhood education institutions, the teachers replied ‘No’ to the questions on ‘Play alone,’ ‘Show aggressive behaviors,’ ‘Confused with identity,’ ‘Conceal the family,’ ‘Associate only with multicultural family children’ and ‘Refuse to eat Korean foods,’ replied ‘So‐so’ to the questions on ‘Show a passive attitude toward what the teacher says’ and ‘Try to draw peers’ attention,’ and replied ‘Yes’ to the questions on ‘Mae efforts to be recognized by the teacher’ and ‘Make efforts to speak Korean.’
Fourth, as to whether to execute programs for multicultural families in the early childhood education institution, teachers with 1‐3 years’ experience replied ‘Korean language education for parents is executed in the early childhood education institution’ more frequently than those with 4‐5 years’ experience, showing a difference according to teachers’ experience. In addition, national/public child care centers performed ‘Exchange between multicultural families and Korean families’ and ‘Educational activities for helping ordinary young children understand multicultural family children and their parents’ than private kindergartens and national/public kindergartens, and national/public child care centers and national/public kindergartens gave ‘Language‐related consideration for multicultural families’ more frequently than private kindergartens and private child care centers.
Fifth, among questions on effective education of multicultural family children, 4 questions on the teacher’s attitude toward and knowledge of multicultural education showed difference between teachers with 1 year’s or shorter experience and those with 5 years’ or longer experience. In addition, compared to those with 1 year’s or shorter experience, teachers with 2 years’ or longer experience replied more frequently that‘The government’s financial support to multicultural families’ and ‘Cooperation between multicultural family support organizations and early childhood education institutions’ should be reinforced. In addition, compared to those at private kindergartens and private child care centers, teachers at national/public child care centers replied more frequently that it is necessary ‘To execute Korean language education for multicultural family children in early childhood education institutions after school or during work,’ ‘To execute Korean traditional culture education for multicultural family parents in early childhood education institutions’ and ‘To deploy teachers exclusive for supporting multicultural family children.’ In addition, compared to those at private kindergartens and child care centers, teachers at national/public kindergartens and child care centers replied more frequently that it is necessary ‘To execute Korean language education for multicultural family parents in early childhood education institutions.’
According to the results of this study, multicultural family parents’ Korean language skill affects their children’s Korean language skill, and therefore, it is necessary to improve the parents’ Korean language skill. In addition, the results of this study were partly different from previous s that multicultural family children do not adjust themselves properly to early childhood education institutions. Moreover, because early childhood education is generally focused on general understanding of the world rather than on special programs for multicultural family children, there should be curriculums for executing education programs for multicultural family children more efficiently in early childhood education institutions. What is more, because teachers need to have knowledge and understanding of multicultural education in order to teach multicultural family children effectively, they should be provided with opportunities for education and training, and activities for multicultural family children need to be expanded from national/public child care centers further to private child care centers and private kindergartens.
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