Supporting Multicultural Education in My Classroom

Reflection on My Clinical Practice

My clinical experience for the certification portion of this ME.d was done in the same school I current worked and have worked in for almost 9 years.  The school is located in Suwon, South Korea and while technically it serves students from about 25 different nationalities a quick walk through the hallways will reveal that it is, in fact, very much a Korean school.  Having taught at the school, and even other schools in Korea that had a high percentage of Korean students for many years, I would not say that there was any one thing from my clinical practice that helped prepared me to support the kids at my school.  It was the almost 13 years of teaching experience in the country with the kids from the same cultural background that did that.  What the clinical did do, however, was make me more aware of what I was doing (almost naturally) based off of my experience and previous MA studies where there was a focus on language acquisition and cultural diversity.

Supporting Multicultural Education as a Leader

The greatest takeaway from the learning from this week's readings and activities was the ideas and strategies presented by Walker & Riordan (2010).  The reason for that is because I now find myself in more of a leadership role then in a classroom teacher role and increasingly having to work with a diverse population of teachers.  We have teachers from the United States, Canada, Spain, Bolivia, Brazil, South Korea, Taiwan, India, New Zealand, Mauritius, and Australia.  Many of our teachers are CCKs and although their passport says one thing the way they feel and act is very different.  Additionally, as I ready myself for a transition to a school with perhaps even greater diversity in both the staff and students this work gave me something to consider for when I get to my new location and how I should plan for such support.

Supporting Specific Student Populations at GSIS 

As mentioned above, GSIS is primarily a school filled with ethnically Korean students and while there are a few from other nations (Japan and India forming the majority of the minority), the number is not comparatively high.  It would, however, be a mistake not to consider these two nationalities and even the singletons when planning to support students in your classroom.  With that being said, my search for additional resources was focused on finding two that focused on Korean students and one that focused on each of Japanese students and Indian students.

Kim (2015) found that through his study on Korean students in the united states that most issues stemmed from loneliness, speaking English, and being too self-conscious to participate or ask for help during class.  He also found that most Korean students were less interested in discussing these issues, but wanted help in how to deal with these issues.  Kim's findings indicate that schools should consider not only discussions as a means to help Korean students cope with living in an international environment, but also offer suggestions on how to deal with the issues that highlighted as most common.  DeWaelsche (2015) while focusing on university English classes brings a more academic focus on the matter by looking at student's critical thinking & questioning skills as well as their engagement in learning.  What he found, though, mirrored one of the key findings of Kim, and other researchers, in that language was a key factor in supporting of Korean students' academic and social development.

Sato & Hodge (2015) found in their study of Japanese exchange students studying in an American university that the struggles centred around:

1. Social distance, which contributed to academic struggles;
2. Collectivist cultural norms versus individualistic cultural norms;
3. Isolation in group discussions;
4. Negativity on the part of their professors.  

The authors go on to suggest several recommendations to improve the experiences of these students which include having:

1. Academic units that encourage attitudes of multicultural openness;
2. Relationship building initiatives;
3. Networking opportunities with peers of the host countries;
4. Development of skills such as:
1. Taking initiative;
2. Reframing cross-cultural stressors;
3. Developing active coping mechanisms.
5. Building an awareness within the faculty of the increasing international enrolment and how to handle them with understanding and inclusion, but without using stereotypes.

In a more disturbing article, Kundi (2016) sheds light on the immense pressure that Indian students are under because of limited college seats and the competitive nature of the job market in such a densely populated country.  With 6.23 Indian students committing suicide a day in India it is certainly something to be concerned about within education sectors in India, but also something that we need to be aware of in international schools in general.  We need to understand the pressures and find ways to help them cope in addition to not piling the pressure on the students.  While not mentioned of Korean and Japanese students above, it is a common theme in those countries as well where suicide is an issue for students because of the pressures they face from parents, limited college seats and the shrinking job market.  It is something that we need to be aware of and find ways to support for all three in our international schools.

References

DeWaelsche, Scott A. (2015). Critical thinking, questioning and student engagement in Korean university English courses. Retrieved December 7, 2017 from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0898589815000832

Kim, So Jung. (2015). Supporting the needs of Korean international students. Retrieved December 7, 2017 from https://www.socialpublishersfoundation.org/knowledge-base/supporting-the-needs-of-korean-international-students/

Kundi, Gagandeep. (2016, March 9). Why Indian Students are more stressed than ever? Retrieved December 8, 2017 from http://www.studyin-uk.in/blog/why-indian-students-are-more-stressed-than-ever/

Sato, Takahiro & Hodge, Samuel R. (2015). Japanese Exchange Students' Academic and Social Struggles at an American University. Retrieved December 7, 2017 from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1060058.pdf

Walker, Allan & Riordan, Geoff. (2010).  Leading collective capacity in culturally diverse schools. Retrieved December 6, 2017 on https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzYfzjQoASL_XzBWbHNnU1h6aUE/view