사립유치원 교사문화의 특질: 교사 관계를 중심으로

Abstract

This study examines the characteristics of private kindergarten teachers’ professional culture in order to establish a possible framework in which collaboration in the early childhood teaching profession could serve as a determinant factor for quality early childhood education. The participants in this study were early childhood teachers with 3 to 6 years working experience. All were single and in their twenties. The data were collected through participant observation, regular teachers’ meetings, in-depth interviews, e-mails, face to face conversations and the like. All data were categorized using content analysis and meaning analysis. Themes emerged through repeated comparisons of the categories. The results suggest that the culture of private kindergarten teachers is too much hampered by a variety of restrictions such as underemployment, low social status and the limited autonomy of teachers to shape a positive collaborative professional teachers’ culture capable of acting as a determining factor in high quality early childhood education. Nevertheless, the study found that a format for forming a collaborative professional teachers’ culture already exists in cooperative collegial connections involving intimacy, alignment and relationships. These connections afford teachers in private kindergarten a firm base for the formation of a professional teacher’s culture where in they could talk together, exchange ideas, and create plans for improving their performance.