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Abstract
This dissertation on adult education for immigrants in South Korea consists of two independent studies shedding light on immigrants formal and informal learning experiences. The first study, titled Adult Immigrants Deterrents to Participation in Korean as a Second Language Courses, aimed to understand immigrants deterrents for participation in Korean language programs by finding the underlying structure of the deterrents to participation and investigating the types of immigrants depending on their reasons for nonparticipation. A new instrument with 39 items that measures adult immigrants deterrents to participation in South Korea was developed; in total, 267 responses were collected, and 170 complete useable responses were analyzed. A series of statistical analyses revealed that a lack of time was the most compelling reason for nonparticipation. In addition, three latent dimensions of deterrents to participation were discovered: Negative Attitudes, Social Isolation, and Competing Demands. Finally, a cluster analysis identified five distinctive groups of survey participants according to their nonparticipation reasons: Active Young Workers, Income-oriented Temporary Workers, Isolated Long-term Resisters, Integrated Professional Immigrants, and Married Residents. The second study, titled Marriage-Immigrant Filipinas Acculturation and Learning Experiences in Korea, is an interview-based qualitative study that aimed to understand the acculturative experiences of marriage-immigrant women in South Korea from an adult learning perspective. Filipinas, who had Korean husbands, migrated to South Korea to live with their husbands, and could speak English, were recruited for the research. Interviews with 15 Filipinas were analyzed; as a result, the stories of each of the research participants were reconstructed based on their interviews, and three common themes and 11 subthemes emerged from the constant comparison method are presented. First, marriage-immigrant Filipinas learned about the role and position of a daughter-in-law in South Korea; secondly, as mothers with foreign backgrounds, marriage-immigrant Filipinas motherhood had to be negotiated; finally, marriage-immigrant Filipinas actively engaged in developing extrafamilial support in South Korea by expanding their horizons.