Multicultural teaching competence of Korean early childhood educators

Discourse among early childhood education researchers increasingly emphasizes the need for teachers to better understand and support diversity in their classrooms. As part of a larger mixed-method study, this qualitative research illuminates Korean early childhood educators' multicultural teaching competence. While Korean classrooms are in transition toward much greater ethnic, linguistic, and cultural diversification, few teacher preparation programs were found to offer classes on diversity or multicultural issues. This study sought to explore what variables might impact participant teachers' level of multicultural teaching competence. The present study identifies three components of multicultural teaching competence (i.e. knowledge, skills, and sensitivity) and suggests positive ways to develop each component.