다문화가정 육아지원 방안 연구

Abstract

In recent years, Korea has experienced a sharp increase in migrant populations, through both international marriage and the labor market. The Korean government announced a comprehensive policy to support the families of migrant women, starting with the Multicultural Family Support Act legislated in 2008. In this context, a growing number of government-funded projects and research supporting multicultural families have been undertaken. Considering the fact that among the children of multicultural families, 60% of all children aged between 0 to 18 are actually under 6 years of age, there is an obvious need to pay greater attention to supporting these young children. The purposes of this study are to review the outcomes and limitations of policies and government projects, to understand the current status and the needs of multicultural families with young children during child-rearing as well as those of the kindergarten and childcare teachers who work with them, and to outline implications for future policies and practices. A total of 216 kindergarten and childcare teachers working with young children from multicultural families participated in the questionnaire survey. The questionnaire developed by the authors consisted of 46 items regarding children’s development and adjustment to early childhood services, the degree to which classrooms are multicultural-friendly environments, educational programs, communication between teachers and multiculturalparents, teacher perceptions of supporting polices and their needs, amongst other issues. In addition, in-depth interviews were undertaken with teachers and directors as well as multicultural parents in 14 kindergartens and child care centers nation-wide. Moreover, 20 child-rearing supporter workers in home visiting programs run by the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Family Affairs were interviewed in small groups in order to identify the characteristics and difficulties of child-rearing within multicultural families. The early childhood teachers responded to the questionnaire were found to have different priorities and needs when it came to supporting multicultural children, according to the age of the children as well as the type of institution concerned In general, kindergarten teachers tended to focus more on children’s social development and to provide more multicultural educational activities, with more in-service teacher training specifically related to multicultural issues. However, childcare teachers tended to focus more on children’s language development, developing secure attachments and attempting to communicate more with multicultural parents. Both kindergarten and childcare teachers indicated difficulties in communicating with migrant mothers and wanted governmental support with respect to multicultural teaching materials and in-service teacher training. Parents with multicultural backgrounds were found to choose early childhood services for their children based mainly on affordability and accessibility rather than the quality of services. In particular, migrant mothers were found to experience difficulties in child-rearing due to a lack of information, language barriers and cultural differences. The parents interviewed indicated that their needs and priorities were as follows; greater support for early childhood service fees, Korean language education for foreign mothers, and multicultural and parental education for the Korean fathers of such couples.