• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.5-28
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• 2014

South Korea has strengthened the eligibility criteria for childcare teachers while amending the Infant Care Act in January 2005 in order to improve the quality of childcare services. Since then, there was a change in the legal basis related to childcare staff such as introduction of national certification of childcare center directors, name change, strengthened qualification standards for directors and teachers, training system maintenance and repair, strengthened credit standards of teachers' care related qualification courses, and maintenance provisions of continuing education nursery teacher qualifications. And that is because childcare staff are closely related to the quality of childcare, and a very important variable who has direct influence on infants. This study, through literature research and analysis, describes the status and development direction of childcare staff. This study covers three main aspects. First, the relevant historical flow was reviewed and the concepts of the role, expertise, and legal status of childcare staff were investigated. Second, staff training institutions, emissions certification, employment, and the status of treatment were investigated. Third, development direction for the training system, eligibility criteria, continuing education and its training system, and treatment improvement were proposed.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.107-123
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to investigate the opinions of teachers, directors, and parents about childcare teachers' facial expression language. We performed in-depth interviews based on literature and previous studies, which consisted of ten childcare teachers, ten directors, and ten parents. From the in-depth interviews, we are able to mainly conclude that all groups think that a childcare teacher's facial expression language is very important, and strongly influences interpersonal problems and work performance. Mostly, childcare teachers aim to have pleasant facial expressions. However they complain that in some situations it is difficult to do so, which causes severe stress. They argued that the facial expressions of both the director of the childcare center and the parents are also very important for children. However, the directors thought that teachers' facial expressions affect children and their parents' impressions of the teachers and quality of childcare. The parents are usually highly satisfied with the childcare when the teacher has a pleasant facial expression, which motivates the parents to have a positive impression of the teacher. Taken together, childcare teachers' facial expression language is critical for children and the childcare environment. Thus, developing an education program for facial expression language would be helpful for improving the quality of child care. Plus, childcare environments should be developed so that teachers do not experience difficulty in having pleasant facial expressions. This result might have the limitation of being collected from only female childcare teachers, directors, and parents.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Educational Facilities
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.41-50
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• 2012

This study aims to analyze chlidcare philosophy and the architectural characteristics of communal childcare cooperative nurseries(parent cooperative childcare facilities), and also to examine their mutual relationship. The communal childcare cooperative is an ideal childcare method to break away from employee-supported childcare system and cooperatively solve childcare problems in the family community system. The child-rearing philosophy of the communal childcare can bring spontaneous and creative development amidst 'daily life' and 'play' by switching from knowledge and skill-oriented education and puts an emphasis on physical environments in child's growth. The features of architecture related the childcare philosophy derived from this study are as follows: the way of participation and self-help, the extension of spatial scope and focuses on outside space, architecture of house-like residence rather than educational facility, spatial 'overlapping' focusing on transitional space and multi-purpose space rather than spatial partitions, the pursuit of creativity through play is realized in the incompletion and unspecification of space evolving over time.

• Human Ecology Research
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.93-103
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• 2017

This study investigated the difference of perception and needs among director, teacher, and parent for an open-childcare center focused on parent participation. The subjects of this study consisted of 56 directors, 231 teachers, and 299 parents in childcare centers in Seoul, Gyeonggi, Incheon, Chungcheong, and Gyeongsang province. They completed a questionnaire about the perception and needs of an open-childcare center, which was later analyzed by SPSS ver. 23.0. The findings were as follows. First, five areas of open-childcare center were 'participating activities as various roles,' 'willingness of parent participation,' 'reflection of parent needs,' 'concern about CCTV,' and 'sharing outdoor spaces.' Second, the perception of directors concerning open-childcare centers were higher than the ones for teachers or parents; however, there were differences in perception depending on their perspective position. The biggest perception of directors was 'participating activities as various roles,' and parents' one was 'concerned about CCTV.' However, the perceptions of teachers were a lower level than the other two groups'. Third, the directors showed a higher level of needs to promote an open-childcare center (except for one concerned about CCTV). Parents also showed their needs 'increasing awareness of open-childcare program,' 'promoting to parent's participation,' 'communication with on-line,' and 'concerning CCTV.' The implication of these results were discussed as action plans to promote an open-childcare center.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.157-172
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of childcare teachers' ego-resilience and directors, co-workers and family's social support to childcare teachers' burnout. The participants in this study were 326 childcare teachers from Daejeon metropolitan city and Chungnam province. They responded to the 'Maslach Burnout Inventory', 'Ego-resilience Scale', and 'Social Support Scale'. The collected data were analyzed by t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's productive correlation, stepwise multiple regression, Duncan test for post hoc test, Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ for reliability, and factor analysis for validity by SPSS PC program (18.0 version). The results were as follows; first, there were significant differences in childcare teachers' burnout scores in relation to the educational levels of childcare teachers, their working hours, children's number per class, and the ages of the children they teach. Second, there were significant negative correlations (r = -.11~-.62) among childcare teachers' ego-resilience, directors, teaching colleagues and family's social supports, and their levels of burnout. Finally, childcare teachers' ego-resilience and teaching colleagues' levels of social support helped explain about 43% the childcare teachers' burnout total scores and about 17~39% of their sub-scores.

• Journal of the Architectural Institute of Korea Planning & Design
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.53-62
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• 2020

Play areas of childcare facility capable of stimulating the interests of children is extremely important. However, Childcare facility play areas in Korea are often placed in 'leftover' spaces due to institutional inadequacies. As a result, unlike the diverse play areas found in other countries, play areas in Korea have a standard appearance. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the specific causes of the physical differences in the childcare facility play areas of Korea and other countries. This study compared regulations, handbooks and guidelines and examined case studies of childcare facility play areas outside of Korea. Five institutional-level differences related to play areas between countries were identified as a result of this analysis. Suggestions for improvement at the institutional-level were proposed to each of the identified categories. This study focuses on the play areas of childcare facility and suggests directions for the improvement of play areas that are both institutionally and physically realistic.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.51-70
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• 2022

Objective: In order to promote the rights of childcare teachers, there is a need to identify problems and demands about the rights of childcare teachers. Therefore, this study sought to examine the perception of childcare teachers' rights in order to identify the concepts of teacher rights. Methods: This study used the concept mapping method to identify the concepts of childcare teachers' teacher rights and interpreted these concepts utilizing the multi-dimension analysis method. Results: As a result of interviews from eight childcare teachers, 37 statements were derived. The result of similarities evaluated by 28 childcare teachers showed that 37 statements about teachers' rights consisted of two dimensions and four clusters (direct-indirect and indoor-outdoor of day-care center). Conclusion/Implications: This study suggested that direct and indirect efforts are needed to enhance the rights of childcare teachers and that change is necessary not only within daycare centers such as the principal but that change is also necessary outside daycare centers such as at government agencies in relation to daycare teachers's rights.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.65-79
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• 2023

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify the importance and performance of the evaluation indicators of the childcare center evaluation system among childcare center staff and to find ways to improve the evaluation indicators of the childcare center evaluation system. Methods: A survey was conducted among 296 directors and teachers of childcare centers located in Busan and Gyeongnam. The collected data were analyzed using a paired sample t-test and an IPA analysis with SPSS 23.0 and Excel 2010. Results: There was a difference between the perceived importance and performance of childcare staff for the overall evaluation indicators, and significant differences were found in all areas and nine evaluation indicators except for "childcare environment and operation management". According to the IPA analysis, Health and Safety fell into quadrant 1, Staff into quadrant 2, and Child Care Process, Interaction, Child Care Environment, and Operations into quadrant 3. This distribution resulted in 6 indicators in quadrant 1, 4 in quadrant 2, 7 in quadrant 3, and 1 in quadrant 4. Conclusion/Implications: This study provides essential data for exploring ways to enhance the evaluation indicators of the childcare center evaluation system, with the goal of improving the quality of childcare services. Additionally, it offers policy implications.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.1-19
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• 2023

Objective: The aim of the present study was to develop and validate a recognition scale for childcare teachers' rights. Methods: Statistical methods for data analysis involved the use of SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 20.0. To confirm the reliability and validity of the developed scale, various analyses, including item quality assessment, item discrimination, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and Pearson correlation analysis, were conducted. The maximum likelihood estimation method was employed for model fitting. Goodness of fit was assessed using SRMR, RMSEA and its 90% confidence interval, CFI, and TLI. Through these analyses, the scale's reliability and validity exceeded the standard. Consequently, 5 factors and 30 questions were ultimately selected as the recognition scale for childcare teachers' rights. Results: First, a recognition scale for childcare teachers' rights was developed to reflect changes in childcare settings. Second, an objective measurement was incorporated into the recognition scale of childcare teachers' rights. Third, the analysis using the proposed scale revealed a correlation between the recognition of childcare teachers' rights and life satisfaction. Conclusion/Implications: The study developed a scale capable of objectively measuring the recognition of childcare teachers' rights.

• Korean Journal of Childcare and Education
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.309-342
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• 2013

This study analyzes the development process of national childcare curriculum, the goal and contents of the 3rd Standard Childcare Curriculum for Childcare Center in order to suggest the successful way to improve the 3rd Standard Childcare Curriculum. After its establishment in 2007, significant changes had been made to the Standard Childcare Curriculum in order to improve the quality of childcare: Nuri Curriculum for age 5 in 2011, second revision of Standard Childcare Curriculum in 2012, creation of Nuri Curriculum for age 3-4, revision of Nuri Curriculum for age 5, and third Standard Childcare Curriculum in 2013. The third Standard Childcare Curriculum is specified as infants age 0-1, age 2, and age 3-5(Nuri Curriculum). For a successful settlement of the 3rd Standard Childcare Curriculum, first, we need in depth analysis of the Nuri Curriculum by age classification. Second, there should be an effort to link the Standard Childcare Curriculum with elementary school education in practical manner. Further, we need to solve the payroll gap problem between teachers in charge of Nuri Curriculum and infant classes. Finally, teachers should be given more respect, and equivalent teaching qualification standard should be made between childcare and early childhood education.