Multicultural Parenting in South Korea

Abstract

Multiculturalism accelerated through globalization and international marriages are a current on-going phenomenon. South Korea, which is traditionally regarded as an ethnically homogeneous nation through out the history, also cannot escape from the rapid progress of globalization and gradually becoming a multicultural society. Since the growing number of mixed children of Koreans and other nationalities increased substantially in the past few years, and it is believed that the way of parenting create direct impacts on the children

this empirical study is going to explore and describe about how the intercultural couples practice parenting on their mixed children in the Korean context. A qualitative approach was used while utilizing semi-structured interviews with 10 intercultural parents to obtain an overview picture of how do they bring up their mixed children along with challenges and issues faced by the intercultural families. Content analysis was carried out to spot out the major themes of childrearing experiences included culture, education and language. And the key challenges that they are facing while carrying out childrearing practices in Korea involved language, cultural differences and discrimination issues. Further insights and recommendations were provided for future intercultural parents and practitioners who work with mixed children in Korea to lead to more culturally sensitive place to live in.