CYRIL REYES (KAIST)

THE GIFT AND CURSE OF MULTICULTURALISM: HOW KOREAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS UNDERSTAND AND INTERPRET CULTURAL DIVERSITY : MULTILINGUAL AND MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION

This paper delves into the perspectives of South Korean university students, who are not just passive recipients but active shapers of the future of multiculturalism in Korea. The researchers meticulously analyzed these students' opinions and identified the factors influencing their beliefs. The study employed a mixed-methods approach to examine participants' opinions after engaging in collaborative projects with international students and teachers on campus. The researchers were driven by the aspiration to promote intercultural understanding, allowing students to discover their discursive agency as contributors to Korea’s cultural reservoir. The goal was to stimulate transformative rumination about the benefits and challenges of Korea’s journey as an expanding multicultural space. This study synthesizes the results of multiple regression and analysis of student discursive agency, which found that cultural openness was strongly associated with significant socio-economic benefits. This underscores the potential advantages of embracing multiculturalism. However, the qualitative findings suggested that students were cautious of cultural differences, intercultural conflict, and the possible loss of Korean identity. It became evident that further multicultural projects were necessary to foster intercultural understanding and expand the definition of Korean cultural identity beyond blood and ethnicity. These findings are crucial in understanding the complexities of multiculturalism in South Korea and can guide future policies and initiatives.

Cyril Reyes is a visiting professor at KAIST. He is interested in social justice, translanguaging, and the ideas of Deleuze and Guattari.