Multicultural Awareness

Multicultural always exist in a country or society, as explained in the article entitled "Pre-Service Teachers' Awareness and Attitudes on South Korea's Increasing Cultural and Ethnic Diversity and the Role of Multicultural Education K-12 Schools" by Sunnie Lee Watson. In South Korea, there are many immigrants. Some of them got married with the Korean people and have half-blooded Korean children. It caused multicultural society. However some of them are not having marriage with Korean but moving from their country to live in Korea with their family. Once we live in another country, we will have culture shock or even hardly adapted in the new environment. Sometimes, the environment cannot accept us easily although we have tried to socialize with the people surrounding, because the native think that immigrant is different. It becomes a concern, especially focusing in teaching and learning process. Some of the immigrants or half-blooded Korea students got bad treatment from the Korean native. They are mocked for being different. That's why teachers should be aware with multicultural education, especially for the pre-service teachers, Pre-service teachers should have multicultural education before they become full-service teacher. In the article, some of the pre-service teachers agree with multicultural education but the rest don't. They don't agree because the problem that appears in the school with multicultural students is caused by the society mindset, so we should change the mindset first before giving multicultural education.  In the other hand, they believe that multicultural education for pre-service teachers makes them realize the struggle for being different. They will know how the immigrant adapt with the society, so they will have the solution for the problem. Actually, when we got multicultural education, we are not only understanding about other's culture but also introducing our own culture to others.

Implication :

Multicultural Education for pre-service student is imprortant in order to know how to understand our students who come from other countries and have different culture. Therefore, there will be no discrimination or wrong treatment for all students. 

"If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity."

-John F. Kennedy 

Citation :

Watson, S. L., Park, G. C., & Lee, H. S. (2011). Pre-service teachers' awareness and attitudes on South Korea's increasing cultural and ethnic diversity and the role of multicultural education in K-12 schools. International Journal of Education, 3(2), 1.