이 글에서는 최근 주목받고 있는 다문화교육이 소수 집단을 위한 복지적 관점에서 기획됨으로써 그 교육적 가치를 충분히 구현하지 못하고 있음을 지적한다. 특히 이주민은 물론이고 일반 성인 정주민 대상의 다문화교육 필요성까지 지적되고 있는 상황에서, 그것이 실제 프로그램으로 구체화되어 활성화되지 못하고 있는 현실에 주목, 다문화교육 패러다임에 대한 비판적 검토를 착수한다. 연구자는 우리 학계에 강한 영향을 미치고 있는 미국의 다문화교육을 ‘평등’ 지향적 관점으로 규정하고, 그것이 오히려 집단 간 갈등이나 편견을 조장할 우려가 클 뿐 아니라, 세계화 정보화 시대, 모든 사람들이 자율적으로 수행해야 할 공통의 과제, 즉 이질적 문화 다루기를 지원하고 돕는 데 무기력할 수밖에 없음을 지적한다. 이러한 한계점을 해소하는 방향에서 연구자는 문화 주체의 역동적인 문화 행위에 주목, 새로운 문화교육의 패러다임으로 ‘소통’ 지향 다문화교육을 제안하였고, 그 세부적인 영역 및 방법을 제시하는 작업을 수행하였다.
This study is to critically examine the multicultural education paradigm, especially which has been built in American immigration society. Owing to the history of racial discrimination, the American society couldn't help but taking any social welfare projects for racial groups out of power, that had been taken discriminately but vigorously came to push forward a social campaign for equal civil right and political reform in 1996s. Multicultural education was a kind of complementary welfare measures for the minority groups. But as a social welfare measures, multicultural education made a goal of equality between the majority and minority ethnic groups and carried out the school reform toward the realization of multiculturalism, but it made people divided into two groups that had nothing to do with education at all, so in this matter, multicultural education came to make some anxiety about making segregation instead of mutual understanding in educational execution. In this study, a new paradigm of multicultural education is suggested, which heads for the 'mutual understanding' among diverse cultural backgrounds and groups. In the globalized information society, every people needs to take some ability to deal with extraneous cultures and discharge their role as cultural agencies successfully, and multicultural education needs to support and facilitate it.
This study is to critically examine the multicultural education paradigm, especially which has been built in American immigration society. Owing to the history of racial discrimination, the American society couldn't help but taking any social welfare projects for racial groups out of power, that had been taken discriminately but vigorously came to push forward a social campaign for equal civil right and political reform in 1996s. Multicultural education was a kind of complementary welfare measures for the minority groups. But as a social welfare measures, multicultural education made a goal of equality between the majority and minority ethnic groups and carried out the school reform toward the realization of multiculturalism, but it made people divided into two groups that had nothing to do with education at all, so in this matter, multicultural education came to make some anxiety about making segregation instead of mutual understanding in educational execution. In this study, a new paradigm of multicultural education is suggested, which heads for the 'mutual understanding' among diverse cultural backgrounds and groups. In the globalized information society, every people needs to take some ability to deal with extraneous cultures and discharge their role as cultural agencies successfully, and multicultural education needs to support and facilitate it.
