Australasian Journal of Early Childhood

The Early Years Learning Framework for Australiaadvocates that teachers demonstrate ‘culturalcompetence’ which will enhance children’s selfesteemand capacity for lifelong learning (DEEWR,2009). Teachers may augment cultural competencethrough engagement in culturally responsive teachingpractices (Gay, 2002) and by increasing their knowledgeabout specific cultural groups (Kwon, Suh, Bang, Jung& Moon, 2010). Teacher understanding of the families’cultural background, beliefs and circumstances is crucialfor development of strong teacher–parent partnerships(Handscombe, 1994).Peer relationships are also important to development.Children may have improved academic outcomes ifthey form sound relationships with their peers at school.However, previous research has indicated that studentsfrom a non-English-speaking background spend mosttime with their own cultural group (Kagan, 1986 citedin Coelho, 1994) and they receive few invitations tohomes of families outside that group (Coelho, 1994).Review of methodology literatureCase-study methodology allows in-depth investigationof individual children’s relationships and environmentthrough comparison of life stories (MacNaughton, Rolfe& Siraj-Blatchford, 2001). Previous studies indicate theimportance of including the perspectives of students,parents and teachers as stakeholders in schooltransitions (Dockett & Perry, 2005). It was decidedearly in the project to include interviews with children,parents and teachers to give depth to the findings.Based on sociocultural perspectives, this studyexplored how children’s development may be affectedby relationships with others and cultural activities insociety (Rogoff, 2003). Cultural activities could refer to‘clothes, food, tools, holidays, rituals, crafts, artifacts[sic] and music’ (Garcia,1990 cited in Ramsey, 2004).The value of obtaining young children’s views inresearch has been established in previous studies,such as the Starting School Research Project (Dockett& Perry, 2005). In that project the role of children as‘social and cultural actors’ was stipulated. Children’sperspectives were gathered during group discussions(Dockett & Perry, 2005), but this method of datacollection was deemed unsuitable in the present studybecause the interpreter considered that individualinterviews would be easier for translation purposes.Using an interpreter gave participants flexibility toexpress their thinking in either English or Korean, orboth, and gave the interpreter time to gather moreinformation during interviews. Triangulation wasestablished using multiple data sources (Miles &Huberman, 1994), and reliability of data was validatedby cross-referencing participant responses.Park and Lahman (2003) suggest that researchers inthe field of multicultural studies face dilemmas andperplexity, particularly related to language differences,and that potential bias should be acknowledged early inthe project. The children and parents who participatedin this study were all Korean speakers, with varyingabilities when using English as a second language.As the researcher had little knowledge of the Koreanlanguage, she was assisted by an interpreter during sixof the eight interviews with Korean participants. Theinterpreter and researcher discussed issues of biasbefore and during the interview process.The following research questions were posed: Whatfactors facilitate the cultural adjustment of young Koreanchildren studying in South Australian junior primaryschools? What factors impede their cultural adjustment?It was expected that the identified factors may includeEnglish language difficulties (Renwick, 1997), teachingmethodologies and learning styles (Kwon, 2000; Leeet al., 2000), interpersonal relationships (Farver, Kim& Lee 1995; Lim & Renshaw, 2001) and differencesin educational and cultural experiences in Korea andAustralia (Kwon, 2000; Okagaki & Diamond, 2000).MethodDesignThis project used case-study methodology, with datacomprising interviews with children, their parents andteachers (Stake, 1995).ParticipantsParticipants were four international students fromKorea (three boys and one girl aged between five andeight years), currently attending one of two SouthAustralian DECS junior primary schools, their mothersand teachers. In all cases the parent was the child’smother since the father of each child remained inKorea, continuing his employment to support the familymembers living overseas.All child participants had experience of educationsettings in Korea. Three had attended Koreankindergarten before arriving in Australia, and had oldersiblings who attended school. One child had attendedthe first year of school in Korea. All Korean participantshad been in Australia between six and 18 months.The children’s ages are described from an Australianperspective calculating the number of years fromthe birth of each child. This differs from Korean agecalculation which includes the period prior to birth.ProcedureInitially, the researcher contacted the InternationalOffice of DECS to ascertain which schools had the12A u s t r a l a s i a n J o u r n a l o f E a r l y C h i l d h o o d