소규모 어린이집의 학습공동체 운영 경험에 관한 질적연구

Abstract

Objectives The purpose of this study is to explore in-depth the experience of operating a learning community of small-scale daycare center childcare teachers and what kind of meaning the experiences have.
 Methods For the purpose, four childcare teachers who are members of a learning community were selected as research participants and the learning community was conducted 19 session in total. As data for this research, collected participation observations, interviews, and records of teachers and analyzed.
 Results The essence of the experience revealed through this study is as follows. First, in the series of preparations for the operation of the learning community of ‘flare fired amid emotional ambivalence’, the teachers had the experiences of ‘starting with a vague expectation’, ‘worries behind expectations’, and ‘preparedness to become a community’. Second, in the process of operating the learning community of ‘journey without milestones’, the teachers had the experience of ‘an attempt to share, empathize, and be together’, ‘our own indicators created in chaos’, and ‘a new direction in incompleteness’. Third, iin the process of establishing a learning community of ‘our own organizational culture’, the teachers experienced ‘each person becoming a community’ and ‘a perennial problem: time burden’. In addition, the meaning of the experience of operating a learning community was found to be ‘confirming the value of communication even with a small number of people’, ‘transitioning to open thinking’, ‘awakening self-realization within me’ and ‘growing together with colleague teachers’.
 Conclusions Through the experience of operating a learning community, this study discovered the essential meaning of teacher growth potential. It suggests the need to operate a learning community as an alternative to improving the professionalism of small-scale daycare center teachers and improving the quality of childcare. It also suggests that the growth demand of teachers enables the operation of a learning community even under limited circumstances.