As exchanges between countries increase, many communities with diversified ethnic and religious characteristics begin to appear in those countries. Korea is, at present, gradually entering a multicultural society as foreigners migrate to Korea for a variety of major life choices such as marriage, employment, and education. According to the 2021 Korean National Statistics Office‘s Population and Housing Survey, the number of multicultural households in Korea grew to 370,000 from 14,000 in 2019. Within the same period, the number of multicultural households grew to 1.09 million from 30,000 in 2019. Korea has prepared for such dynamic social changes as early as 2009 when the Multicultural Family Support Act laid the institutional framework to provide a stable quality of life and social integration of multicultural families. The Act defines a multicultural family as a unit of relatives consisting of married immigrants and persons who have obtained Korean nationality under the Nationality Act. Against this multicultural backdrop, schools are striving to provide educational services that meet the specific needs of learners from various cultural backgrounds. However, students with disabilities who are also from multicultural families have limited access to the social environment outside of daily school life due to the characteristics of their disabilities. These students experience more academic challenges than students without disabilities from mono-cultural families (Jun, I. J. et al., 2020). In response to the educational diversity of multicultural children with disabilities, the integrated education of students with disabilities into an appropriate multicultural society was proposed to change the educational perception of caring in a multicultural learning community so that the students could develop their well-being and healthy self-esteem (Chu, Y.G., 2014).

In any conversation about multicultural education, the role of teachers is paramount because programs and policies for multicultural children are not distributed across school sites equally. It is important to consider their emotion, knowledge, and attitude because special education teachers’ personal views play an important key role in multicultural education. Moreover, their views are also a determinant of the teachers’ behavior when they engage with multicultural students and their parents (Shin, S.J. et al., 2011). In other words, educational success for children from multicultural families and children with disabilities depends on the competence of teachers and special education teachers. In the present era of increased social diversity, the role of special education teachers who instruct students with disabilities from multicultural families is bound to expand; thus,efforts are needed to be obliged to develop the competencies suitable for these important pedagogical roles (Kim, Y. H. & Choi, S. B., 2015).

Therefore, to accommodate their needs, it is crucial first to understand and second to improve the current framework of assisting students with disabilities from multicultural families. A qualitative approach is appropriate for such research as it supports the possibility of examining the “essence” of real-life experiences. Current qualitative studies are limited. They focus primarily only on the experiences of raising non-disabled children of multicultural families (Boratav et al., 2021; Chen et al., 2021; Song et al., 2016). Not much research has focused on the difficulties faced by married immigrants or their successful acclimations to their new countries (Ataca & Berry, 2002; Sigad & Eisikovits, 2009). Some other quantitative studies have also considered the experiences of multicultural families raising children with disabilities (Lopez et al., 2018; Wang & Casillas, 2013). Previous attention has generally concentrated on mothers raising children with disabilities (Lopez et al., 2018; Song et al., 2016). The topic of raising children with disabilities from multicultural families living in Korea is rarer still. This current study finds its motivation in the apparent literature gap with a vision to provide deep insight into instructing multicultural children with disabilities in South Korea.

In this context, the author became interested in the teaching of children with disabilities from the perspective of special education teachers. By examining their acts of child caring and instruction, the need for additional research on special education teachers’ experiences was raised. The purpose of this study is to provide initial and fundamental understandings that can be used in the educational and social welfare fields. In addition, this study aims to analyze the experiences of special education teachers who educate children with disabilities from multicultural families at school sites. Until now, there have been few attempts to simultaneously analyze the experiences of special education teachers on the education of children with disabilities in multicultural families. Therefore, this study seeks to examine the experiences of special education teachers. With research studies such as this, it is possible to explore the reality of educating the children with disabilities from multicultural families as well as new directions and applications of policy in social welfare and educational support. The guiding research question for this qualitative case study is, “What is the experience of a special education teacher who is teaching children with disabilities in Korean?” Even if this study’s scope is limited to individuals and schooling sites in Korea, it is expected that this study can be used for cases in other countries of similar cultures that is, where special education teachers have the primary roles in teaching children.

The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of teachers who are responsible for educating children with disabilities from multicultural families. The purpose of this study is to examine various aspects of teachers educating children with disabilities from multicultural families. In Korea, information on the lives of teachers’ teaching children with disabilities in multicultural families in Korea is very limited. Additionally, it is not easy to access the examples of these children, it is not easy to access the quantitative data collected by government or educational agencies, so it is appropriate to apply qualitative research methods to understand the situation. An explanatory case study method provides utility in a qualitative research design where special instances of a concept exist. Since the experiences of teachers as the main caretakers of children with disabilities from multicultural families is not a widely established research field, a qualitative case study method has the potential to stimulate new perspectives.

The central concepts were obtained by examining the contextual meaning in special education teachers’ practices of educating multicultural children with disabilities (MCD). Results were divided into subcategories. Table 2 details the educational experiences of special education teachers as a result of normalization through constant insight and interpretation while continuously comparing cases and discovering their commonalities and differences.

This study explored the experiences of special education teachers in Korea who are the main individuals responsible of teaching children with disabilities from multicultural families. The primary categories from the data analysis highlight multicultural mothers’ lack of Korean linguistic ability and a desire for governmental and societal support for multicultural special education. The participants in this study indicated that rising multicultural children with disabilities has its own set of challenges. This included the inability to teach the children properly due to a lack of specialized language, the difficulties taking care of the children’s unique needs, and issues related to late diagnosis of a child’s disability. The special education teachers also revealed that mothers understandably have difficulties communicating in Korean in multiple contexts, including visits to hospitals and welfare centers. Furthermore, some of the teachers' comments suggested that mothers have or later develop a passive personality that prevents the mothers from obtaining important information related to their children’s wellbeing. A third point of resonance involves preventative measures that will aid multicultural students with disabilities and their families. Rapid diagnosis and intervention of children with disabilities, regular medical checkups, and medical treatment are most prominent here. All parents have expectations of their children’s health and can either agree or disagree about the etiology, diagnosis, and standards of process (Welterlin & LaRue, 2007). Preventative measures also address measures of hardship including food insecurity, housing instability, health care access, and telephone service disconnection (Parish et al., 2008). The final thematic category concerned reactionary measures. In terms of governmental and societal support for multicultural special education, these included access to Korean language education, connection with social welfare institutions, discriminate intervention of multicultural special education, supplementary diagnostic tools and development of a counseling support system for parents raising children with disabilities from multicultural families. Scholars have indicated that one way to increase the opportunities for immigrant families and individuals to feel comfortable with professional partnerships is for them to seek professionals that are of the same cultural or linguistic background (Welterlin & LaRue, 2007). This study of Korean special education teachers demonstrates that the essence of multicultural education for students with disabilities leans heavily into advocacy. Future directions in this field should endeavor to create stronger alliances among parents, educational institutions, and government programs so that needs can be met and hope for better futures can be crystalized.

This study was conducted by a small number of participants and was conducted only in a Korean-speaking schooling environment. Therefore, the possibility of transfer to wider Asian studies is limited; however, this study did analyze the experience of Korean incumbent special teachers to create a framework for education and welfare for children with disabilities in multicultural families. Such a framework will be a source of inspiration for Asian studies and its local contexts. The study’s findings lead to three recommendations. First, policies and programs that can improve the multicultural education capabilities of special teachers should be developed. In order to guarantee the increasing right to learn for multicultural children with disabilities, the educational capabilities of special teachers who are responsible for the education of said children should be supported. Second, special teachers strongly expressed that community connections are necessary for the education of children with disabilities in multicultural families and maternal child rearing of children with disabilities in multicultural families. In addition, female marriage immigrants seem to be less prepared for child rearing or lack relevant knowledge or information; consequently, having difficulties in the role of parents, they feel greatly sorry for the lack of a support system to assist with child care or help them with parenting when necessary. For multicultural families that lack information on multicultural services, it is hoped that multicultural family support centers, community centers, and school authorities will be more interconnected. If the information supplied through these tightened relationships can be delivered to special education teachers, better resources can be used to educate them. Third, special education teachers who take charge of children with disabilities in multicultural families at school sites want verbal communication with female marriage immigrants, but they have also articulated this to be a difficult process. In these situations, schools and educational authorities have not taken any measures to communicate with special education teachers and multicultural parents. For smoother consultation between special education teachers and parents, the expansion of interpreters and counseling support centers for teachers and parents should be established. In addition, special teachers have declared their need for more services for families of children with disabilities, stating that what they perceive as a passive and evasive attitude from mothers from multicultural families can encourage indifference to child education.