Since the introduction of multicultural education in Korea, various efforts have been made to improve multicultural awareness. This study designed a program based on controversial debate for elementary school students as a way to practice multicultural education and examined its effectiveness. Two classes of 6th grade at an elementary school in Hwaseong City, Gyeonggido were investigated. The experimental group carried out 16 sessions of the multicultural education program based on debate. The control group was provided with the formal sixth grade curriculum. After the instruction session, both groups participated in a survey about multicultural awareness and empathy abilities. Moreover, students’ qualitative changes were observed.. The survey results showed that there were significant between-group differences in overall multicultural awareness and its sub-factors, acceptability and respect. The students in the experimental group were deeply involved in debate on topics related to multiculturalism, experienced cognitive conflicts during the debate, and reestablished their opinions. On the other hand, empathy ability showed a significant between-group difference only in emotional empathy. A further qualitative analysis reported that the students’ empathy ability was developed while they debated representing the people related to the topic.