A Study on Reasons of SCHOOL MALADJUSTMENT of Multicultural Background Learners and Responding Measures

Abstract

The ultimate purpose of this study was to seek ways that multicultural background learners could adapt school life well and have sense of belonging to school as well as self-identity. For this, it classified types of school maladjustment of multicultual background learners based on the status of them and looked at responding measures in the educational and sociocultural aspects to solve these problems. Since the number of members who have a variety of langue and cultural backgrounds due to the expansion of exchanges between countries and cultures recently is increased, the Korean society changes to a multicultural society rapidly and the number of multicultural families is increasing. As the Korean society enters into the multicultural society, the number of multicultural background learners with various language and cultural backgrounds is swiftly increasing at school, a problem of Korean education for them is raised as a current issue and the phenomenon of not adjusting school life because of failure of communication, low school performance, identity crisis, and school violence problems, is increasing as well. Most multicultural background learners should experience lots of difficulties in adjusting to school life as they are not familiar with Korean language and culture most of all. The lack of Korean ability can be connected to low school performance and to school maladjustment. Thus, it is urgent for them to have a certain level of Korean most of all to grow as members of Korean society overcoming these difficulties. The difficulty in using Korean that they feel could be connected to low school performance, emotional anxiety, complaints against the society, and isolation. School maladjustment of multicultural background learners analyzed as difficulty of communication due to the lack of Korean and because of it, the difficulty in study performance due to the lack of basic learning, school violence due to the cultural, social, and physical differences and prejudice which came from the difference in the dual culture of their parents, and economic difficulty. As responding measures to solve these problems, it suggested the necessity of effective Korean education and the activation of systemic device in the educational level to improve multicultural background learners’ communication ability in Korean and study ability, in the sociocultural level, it suggested the improvement in ways of police response and activation of their activities as well as a variety of sociocultural programs, and it also suggested the preparation of scholarship system and effective operation for the responding measures in solving economic difficulties. This study will contribute that multicultural background learners could adjust school life well while establishing the sense of belonging and self-identity as members of school and Korean society.