제주 청년의 '청년공간지원사업' 참여 경험의 교육적 의미

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze what educational meaning the participation in the ‘Youth Space Support Project’ supervised by Jeju-do has for young people in Jeju, where the policy for youth problems such as youth unemployment, avoidance of marriage and childbirth, etc. has emerged as a new contemporary issue. To this end, it attempts to examine what motivated them to participate in the project, what and how experience from it and what a meaning they provided to their experiences. To give answers to such questions, it conducted a literature review regarding the ‘Youth Space Support Project,’ in-depth interviews with 10 young people in their 20s to 39 in Jeju, who had experience of participating in it, and the participant observation on the ‘Jeju Youth Center’ project. The interviews including a preliminary survey had been conducted 25 times from Oct., 2018 to Apr., 2020. The findings show that young people in Jeju participated in the project from several motivations such as ‘autonomous space utilization,’ ‘self-development,’ ‘security of funding,’ ‘donation of talents,’ etc., and experienced ‘teaching what they know,’ ‘learning what they want to learn’ and ‘meeting many people’ by using methods such as ‘alone/in groups,’ ‘new persons/familiar persons’ and ‘steadily/temporarily.’ By participating in this project, they share several educational meanings, including ‘opportunities to find out their abilities,’ ‘feeling for ripening’ and ‘time to share learning beyond building rapport.’ In conclusion, the ‘Youth Space Support Project,’ a kind of high-grade alternative education contributed to the young generation’s lifelong learning.