The Study of Multicultural Education and Teachers’ Multicultural Teaching Competency in Singapore and South Korea

Abstract

This study examines multicultural education policies in Singapore and South Korea, analyzing their approaches within their unique sociopolitical and sociocultural contexts. This study also discusses the implications of the approaches used in both nations’ policies on multicultural teaching competence. Using government policy documents related to multicultural education in Singapore and South Korea, the collected data was analyzed using critical discourse analysis (CDA) and interpreted with the theory of five approaches to multicultural education by Sleeter and Grant (1999). The five approaches include 1) Teaching the Exceptional and Culturally Different, 2) Human Relations, 3) Single-Group Studies, 4) Multicultural Education, and 5) Education that is Multicultural and Social Reconstructionist. The findings illuminate the two nations’ distinct national stances and trajectories in the realm of multicultural education while concurrently identifying a shared commitment to the Multicultural Education approach within the policy documents of both. In Singapore, a combination of Human Relations, Single-Group Studies, and Multicultural Education is deeply embedded throughout the nation’s policy discourses. Conversely, South Korea’s attempts at multicultural education present an evolving narrative, shifting from a conservative perspective rooted in Teaching the Exceptional and Culturally Different to a more liberal stance deeply grounded in the tenets of the Multicultural Education approach. This study emphasizes the importance of sociocultural and sociopolitical context in shaping a government’s approach to multicultural education.