Promoting global citizenship and multiculturalism in higher education: the Korea International Cooperation Agency’s global volunteering in the Asia Pacific region (Promoviendo el multiculturalismo y la ciudadanía global en la educación superior: el voluntariado global de la Agencia de Cooperación Internacional de Corea en la región de Asia Pacífico)

ABSTRACT

The Korea International Cooperation Agency’s Pacific Asia Society Youth Corps (KOICA-PYC) is a global volunteer organization that has dispatched college students to the Asia Pacific region for more than the past two decades. This study explores how executive board members of the KOICA-PYC evaluate Korean college students during their summer vacations. This study specifically asks how the executive board members view their college students’ development of ideas regarding the social and cultural development of global society through volunteer experiences in the greater Asia Pacific region and how these experiences increase their understanding of global citizenship. The findings show that the participants perceived both positive influences from and challenges to the promotion of global citizenship and multiculturalism. This study discusses the nexus between global citizenship and cultural dominance, as well as the prospects of multicultural education in Korea. It also provides implications for larger issues of culture and education in contemporary global society, calling on future scholars to pay close attention to the meanings of global volunteer work in their own geographical and regional contexts.