Raising the Multicultural Generation: Multicultural Society, Citizenship, and Discourses on the Nation in Korea's Multicultural Education
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2024
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Rapid and dramatic increases in migration over the past three decades have reshaped nations across the globe, and in this Korea is no exception. Since the early 1990s, Korea has transitioned from being a net exporter of people to an importer of migrants, from countries such as China, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Uzbekistan, and many others. This influx of migrants has led the Korean government to frequently declare that Korea is now a “multicultural society.” In particular, the rise of the so-called “multicultural families” has led to increased ethnic and racial diversity in Korea’s classrooms, which has spurred the government to craft multicultural education policies and curricula. However, what exactly is meant by the term “multicultural society,” and how does the state envision this new “multicultural Korea”? Does the “multiculturalizing” of Korea mean a reimagining of the nation? And how does the Korean experience fit within broader global trends toward multiculturalism? This study looks at the middle school Ethics and Social Studies textbooks as a way of analyzing the state-endorsed discourses on “multiculturalism” and the nation. It utilizes qualitative content analysis of the multicultural education policies and the middle school textbooks and lesson materials in order to identify and analyze the ways a “multicultural society” is defined and presented. Moreover, it looks at how multiculturalism is connected to conceptions of citizenship, in order to understand what type of “multicultural citizens” the textbooks are encouraging students to become.
It finds that, rather than representing a cosmopolitan “reimagining” of the nation, the multicultural education content more often represents a retrenching of past developmentalist and neoliberal discourses on the nation. Despite declaring that “multicultural Korea” has “transcended nation and people,” the textbooks often reproduce barriers between the “normal Korean” and the “multicultural” Other. Moreover, the content tends to emphasize the acquisition of “global” cultural capital, over a recognition of the multiethnic reality in Korea or a critical approach to fighting racism and inequality. Multiculturalism is more often presented through examples of societies abroad, and thus is presented as something that exists outside of the Korean nation. When multicultural diversity in Korea is discussed, it is often devoid of actual immigrants’ voices and lived experiences. The textbook lessons have a tendency to present “multicultural citizenship” in terms of personal “attitudes,” like “tolerance,” instead of in terms of rights and the role of the state in ensuring them. There are, however, portions of the material where differing, more critical, discourses on multiculturalism and the nation can be discerned, particularly within the supplemental lessons. These lessons suggest the “progressive potential” of multicultural education in Korea.
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Sociology, citizenship, Korea, migration, multicultural education, multiculturalism, nationalism
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196 pages
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