한국 중·고등학생의 다문화 교육에 관한 연구

Abstract

This study explores multicultural education for Korean secondary students with regard to their perceptions and attitudes on national identities: national pride, national economy, foreign culture, and multi-cultural groups. It particularly focuses on how students’ attitudes toward national economy and foreign culture act as mediating variables in the connection between students’ perceptions on national pride and multi-cultural groups. A total of three hundred and thirty students in three secondary schools in Seoul completed a survey, which has a research design based on Korean General Social Survey (2003)’s national identity module. Structural equation modeling was used for statistical analysis. The results are as follows: first, students who have higher Korean national pride showed more negative attitudes toward foreign culture and such perceptions also influenced students" negative attitudes toward multi-cultural groups; second, students who have higher Korean national pride showed more conservative attitudes toward national economy, which, however, did not affect students" perception of multi-cultural groups; and third, students’ national pride did not directly influence their attitudes on multi-cultural groups. This study implies that Korea adolescents should be taught to reduce negative, exclusive attitudes toward cross-cultural acceptance in order to develop positive attitudes toward diverse multi-cultural groups. Furthermore, teachers, educators, and scholars should develop more inclusive as well as multi-cultural school curriculum instead of one-time educational events about multi-cultural groups. This study suggests that doing so will allow young students to develop healthy multi-cultural perceptions and positive attitudes toward cultural diversity.