영아무상보육에 대한 보육교사들의 태도 분석

Abstract

This study explores attitudes of infant care teachers towards child care centers for infants, and suggests improvements for free child care services for infants, with regard to teaching principles of said teachers. Individual in-depth interviews were conducted with 26 infant care teachers. Most of infant care teachers agreed that working mothers, but not stay-at-home mothers, should use child care centers. They also argued that, because child care for infants is free, (1) mothers have become more dependent on public child care, (2) mother`s perception of child care centers has changed, and (3) people have exploited child care services. According to teaching principles of these teachers, optimal childrearing for infants should involve following: First, mothers themselves should take care of infants aged 0 to 2 years at home, when possible. Second, mothers using child care centers should form a childrearing partnership with centers` teachers, and thus closely cooperate with them. Third, role of infant care teachers should be understood as that of the second mother. The highlight of this study is that it investigated changes child care teachers have experienced as main providers of child care services for infants since implementation of free, universal infant care, and suggested directions for improving child care services.