The impacts of national education policies on teachers' interpretations and implementations of multicultural education in South Korea

Korean society and schools have become more demographically diverse than ever. To support this increasing cultural diversity in schools, the Korean government has been developing multicultural education policies since 2006. This study aims to examine how multicultural education has been articulated by the government and how the national vision has affected teachers' interpretations and implementations of multicultural education. By drawing on a review of policy documents and teachers' interviews, this study analysed Korean teachers' perceptions of the national multicultural education policies from the perspective of Bernstein's concepts of classification and framing. The results revealed both narrow and broad definitions of multicultural education, and these double definitions were also reflected in the teachers' perceptions and practices. This paper concludes by presenting the implications of the findings and suggestions for improving multicultural education at the national and school level.