Light and shade of multicultural education in South Korea: Analysis through Bourdieu’s concept of capital
Journal for Multicultural Education
ISSN: 2053-535X
Article publication date: 24 April 2020
Issue publication date: 23 June 2020
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to attend to the issues that remain veiled and excluded in the name of multiculture.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper problematizes South Korean multicultural education policies through Bourdieu’s concept of capital as a theoretical frame.
Findings
First, the paper discusses that material wealth is unequally distributed to most of the multicultural families, resulting in their lack of economic capital. Second, it notes that students from multicultural families are deprived of cultural capital, as they are racialized in Korean society. As a strategy used to distinguish and exclude a so-called different minority from the unnamed majority, race enables the possession of cultural capital. Third, insufficient social capital identified with resources emerging from social networks positions students from multicultural families as a perpetual minority. As the accumulation of various forms of capital secures power and privilege (Bourdieu, 1986), multicultural education in its current state would continuously reproduce the existing power dynamics where students from multicultural families are subordinate.
Research limitations/implications
Given this, policies for multicultural education in South Korea should cover a wide range of issues, including race, class and network and be redesigned to resolve realistic problems that have been hidden under the name of celebration of culture.
Originality/value
The Korean multicultural education policy has not been analyzed through Bourdieu’s concept of capital. Using a different theoretical viewpoint would be valuable to figure out the problems underlying the policy.
Keywords
Citation
Lee, S.J., Jahng, K.E. and Kim, K. (2020), "Light and shade of multicultural education in South Korea: Analysis through Bourdieu’s concept of capital", Journal for Multicultural Education, Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 149-161. https://doi.org/10.1108/JME-11-2019-0081
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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