Designing a Family Life Education with Multicultural Families: Examples of How to Create an Intercultural Understanding Program and Sessions
- Multicultural family education has been focused on Korean adaptation of married migrant women.
- Couples are increasingly finding that an intercultural approach to learning about each other's living cultures is more effective at preventing conflict.
- The program design is neat when it is written in the order of needs survey, goals, session structure, and evaluation.

Contents
Designing a multicultural family family life education program is a frequent challenge in family life education theory and multicultural education theory. The key is to move away from one-spouse-only education to two couples learning to respect each other's cultures.
Why is education only for wives a problem?
Early multi-cultural family support was mostly about helping migrant women quickly adjust to Korean life, such as Korean education, cooking, and etiquette. Husbands and family members don't get a chance to understand their spouse's culture of origin if they assign the necessary support, but only to the one person responsible for the adjustment.
As a result, seemingly insignificant differences such as eating habits and holiday culture accumulate, which can lead to marital conflicts. That's why recent textbooks emphasize an approach aimed at mutual understanding over fairy tales.
In the problem raising section, the need for the program is naturally explained by first pointing out the structure that the responsibility for adaptation falls to one side.
What is the goal of intercultural family life education?
- Couples specifically understand each other's cultures and lifestyles
- Mastering the art of unraveling misconceptions from cultural differences into dialogue
- Creating a parenting attitude that positively transmits both cultures to your child
- Get to know your local support organization, like a family center
실기 준비는 손으로 직접 해 보는 시간을 따로 잡아 두는 게 중요하더라고요. 같이 준비하는 스터디 친구가 있으면 꾸준히 하기 좋은 것 같아요.
How do they organize their sessions?
| Sessions | Topic | Activity examples |
|---|---|---|
| 1st term | Introduce each other's cultures | Childhood photos and hometown stories |
| 2nd period | Dining and manners | Comparing the manners of two-nation meals, cooking together |
| 3 sessions | Conflict dialogue | Practice b-passing, switching roles |
| 4 sessions | Children and Two Cultures | Bilingual Parenting and Holiday Planning |
The number of sessions can be increased or decreased according to institutional conditions, but it's important to schedule a weekend or evening for couples to participate in each session.
How will the assessment be designed?
If you measure marital communication satisfaction and spousal culture understanding in the same way before and after, you can compare the changes. When you get a short testimonial card for each session, you can see which activities were responsive.
If you have a session with a low participation rate, it's helpful to keep a record of the timezone and what's causing it.
How do I write an assignment report?
It is okay to write in order of need, object and goal, plan for each session, point of significance during operation, evaluation method, and expected effect. You should use a pseudonym when putting in an interview and leave out any personally identifiable information. The power of couples to recover from cultural differences can be found on the Family Resilience Wiki.
Comparing the multicultural programs of actual local family centers in one place increases the realism of the plan.
When operating, it is important to check the availability of interpreter support and the child care area in advance. Couples with young children find it difficult to get involved if they don't have somewhere to put them, so writing a plan to place a caregiver together will help complete the plan.
It also benefits from the fact that a group of couples from different countries is better at comparing each other's cultures than a group that only comes from one country.
This article is compiled by Campus Down Editorial Department comparing the description of several university textbooks · Review 2026-10-25. Reference: Basic Health and Family Law · Multicultural Family Support Act (National Law Information Center), Family Center Project Guide of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Affairs, Family Life Education Theory · Multicultural Education Theory Textbook. The example session is a learning model, so when operating it, it should be adjusted according to the survey results of the participating couples.
FAQ
Where does multicultural family education take place?
It's run mainly by local family centers, and the structure of the program varies from one center to another.
Is there any training for husbands?
Some centers have programs with spouses and families, but they vary widely by region.
How many sessions are appropriate?
In assignments, it is often composed of 4 to 8 sessions.
