김선정 Kim Sun Jung , 이유미 Lee You-me

DOI: Vol.29(No.2) 1-18, 2023

This study aimed to investigate the effects of satisfaction in spending time with family and academic stress on elementary school students’ grit and verify the relationships between these variables. For verification, the study used the data of 1,359 12-year-old children in the 13th Panel Study of Korean Children collected by the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics analysis, Pearson’s correlation, and hierarchical regression analysis. The research results are as follows: First, satisfaction in spending time with family had a direct, positive effect on grit. Second, satisfaction in spending time with family had a significant positive effect on grit indirectly by mediating academic stress. These research results suggest that it is necessary to develop and implement parental education materials and programs that increase satisfaction related to the time spent with families in enhancing elementary school students’ grit.

satisfaction in time use with family, academic stress, grit,

김성애 Sung-ae Kim

DOI: Vol.29(No.2) 19-44, 2023

Children’s social-emotional behaviors become early predictors of cognitive and social-emotional development. Nevertheless, children’s interactions in their natural context have not received much attention. This naturalistic qualitative study examined children’s social-emotional behaviors in their peer interactions during play. The participants in this study were 39 children across three different preschool programs in the US. Through a qualitative analysis, three frequent and significant behaviors stood out in children’s peer interactions. These were classified as power, teamwork, and social-emotional difficulties. This qualitative study provides information and knowledge that can be used to inform pre-service and in-service teachers about young children’s peer interactions in the classroom. Its results can help increase teachers’ understanding of patterns in children’s peer interactions within their play and enlighten teachers’ roles in the classroom to better support children’s social-emotional development.

social-emotional development, power, teamwork, social-emotional difficulties, early childhood teachers

김경철 Kim Kyung-chul , 김윤지 Kim Yunji , 한재희 Jaehee Han

DOI: Vol.29(No.2) 45-72, 2023

The purpose of this study is to consider the integration of early childhood education and childcare in Korea by examining the case of Nintei-kodomoen(Integrated ECEC Center) in Japan. Firstly, referring to the case of Japan, we must fully review the advantages and disadvantages of operating kindergartens, daycare centers, and new integrated institutions simultaneously and make our best efforts. Regardless of the choice of institution, children and thier parents should be protected under a unified law in safe and comfortable space. Secondly, professionalism should be guaranteed as an important issue for the qualification of teachers. Thus, the standards for training courses and qualifications should be reorganized. Additionally, in the current situation, in order to integration of Early Childhood Education and Childcare with less confusion for those who are already teachers there may be a way to classify roles according to qualifications. And sufficient time is required to transparently disclose and discuss the process of integration of early childhood education and childcare. Consequently, it would be necessary to persuade children, parents, teachers, and the society.

integration of early childhood education and childcare, Nintei-kodomoen

장유진 Yujin Jang , 은서기 Ruiqi Yin

DOI: Vol.29(No.2) 73-93, 2023

This study confirmed the relationship between mothers’ and fathers’ emotional expressiveness, parenting efficacy, and the children’s social-emotional development, focusing on the children’s gender. A total of 471 subjects―214 pairs of parents and 43 teachers―were asked to answer the questionnaire. A social-emotional development scale for two-year-old was used to evaluate children's social-emotional development by their teachers. Parents perceived their positive emotional expressiveness as quite high and negative emotional expressiveness as intermediate, and fathers had lower levels of positive and negative emotional expressiveness than mothers did. The children in the group with a high level of mothers’ positive expressiveness and fathers’ parenting efficacy had a higher level of social-emotional development. Mothers’ positive expressiveness and fathers’ parenting efficacy were related to social-emotional development, especially in boys. This study suggests the possibility that boys will show the weakest social-emotional development in a risky environment.

emotional expressiveness, parenting efficacy, social-emotional development, gender difference

김연주 Yeon Joo Kim

DOI: Vol.29(No.2) 95-108, 2023

The purpose of this study is to investigate the the trajectory of change between the mother's parenting stress and the children's externalizing problem behavior through a multivariate latent growth model. The participants of this study used data from the 5th year (4 years old, 2012) to the 7th year (6 years old, 2014) of the Childcare Policy Institute. As a result of the analysis, both the mother's parenting stress and the children's externalizing problem behavior decreased over time. The individual difference in the initial level and development trajectory between the mother's parenting stress and the children's externalizing problem behavior was statistically significant. As a result of controlling gender and mother's employment status as dummy variables, significant differences were found according to gender and mother's employment status in both the mother's parenting stress and the initial value of the child's externalizing problem behavior. The results of this study are meaningful in showing the relationship between the mother's parenting stress and the children's externalizing problem behavior, and revealing the trajectory of change over time. The results of this study are expected to be helpful in the development of counseling programs and education policies to reduce the externalizing problem behavior of parenting stress in preschoolers and mothers.

parenting stress, externalizing problem behavior, longitudinal study, Latent growth model

Seungyoun Lee

DOI: Vol.29(No.2) 109-125, 2023

Classroom management is a considerable challenge for teachers and teacher retention. This research aims for early childhood teachers to reflect on classroom management transferring from the teacher-centered operant conditioning approach stressing reinforcement and token systems to the approach emphasizing children’s internal brain state where they self-regulate their own emotions, thoughts, feelings, and actions, and problem-solve, which empowers both teachers and children. Conscious Discipline is proposed in this research for teachers’ and children’s safety, social and emotional learning, self-regulation, conflict-resolution, and problem-solving to establish a positive classroom climate and enhance children’s social and emotional competences. This research is essential to improve early childhood teachers’ implementations of classroom management program through qualitative participatory action research (PAR) approach with the practical knowledge and reflective practices of an early childhood teacher implementing Conscious Discipline in her teaching on a daily basis.

Conscious Discipline, positive classroom management, social and emotional competencies

Kyunghwa Lee

DOI: Vol.29(No.2) 127-141, 2023

From the beginning of its history, modern Korean early childhood education was greatly influenced by foreign countries, particularly those with a history of colonialism and imperialism. The year 2025 marks the 110th anniversary of Korean early childhood teacher education. At this juncture, it would be meaningful to reflect on the past and present of Korean early childhood education while envisioning its future directions through the lens of decolonial research and practice. In this article, first, I discuss the definitions of decolonial research and practice and their key arguments and examples. Next, I explore implications for Korean early childhood education. Finally, I conclude with some key takeaways.

decolonial research and practice, non-Western onto-epistemologies, global south perspectives, folk theories, early childhood education

김태연 Taeyeon Kim , 정재원 Jaewon Joung

DOI: Vol.29(No.2) 143-158, 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine whether children’s smartphone usage behaviors and levels of overdependence had changed after COVID-19 and investigated the factors influencing the level of overdependence in children from before and after COVID-19. Data for this study came from the survey on smartphone overdependence conducted by Korean Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Information Society Agency, which focused on children aged 3 to 5. The dataset consisted of 857 children in 2019 and 766 children in 2022. The study used independent variable t-tests, cross-tabulation, and multiple regression analysis. The study found that compared to the pre-COVID-19 period, young children’s smartphone overall usage increased after COVID-19. The use of games, music, and videos significantly increased, while educational usage notably decreased. The rate of smartphone overdependence in young children also increased, with a significant rise in numbers in both the high-risk group and potential-risk group. Differences in sociodemographic factors influenced young children’s smartphone overdependence before and after COVID-19 Monthly income, which in 2019 was a factor intensifying overdependence, became an inhibiting factor to overdependence in 2022. The results of this study can be utilized for the development of educational programs and prevention initiatives regarding young children’s smartphone usage and overdependence.

Covid-19, smartphone usage behavior, smartphone overdependence, influencing factors

Sui-mei Chea , 이진희 Jin-hee Lee

DOI: Vol.29(No.2) 159-183, 2023

Every encounter generates diffractions through and intra-actions with others (human and nonhuman), reconfiguring topology and relationality. Through a relational materialist approach, which pays keen attention to the material-discursive environment and provokes researchers to go beyond the anthropocentric approach of traditional research, we aim to illuminate how space, time, and matter are intertwined and intra-act in different encounters in a Korean kindergarten. From data generated with the inspiration of post-qualitative inquiry, three distinct encounters were uncovered: a) encounters with/in the in-between spaces, b) encounters with/in the classroom, and c) encounters with/in nature. The ‘in-between’ spaces changed our perceptions and experiences by touching the human and nonhuman entities entangled with the cultural significance they carry. Encounters with/in the classroom showed that the long-standing binary boundaries of learning/play or body/mind became blurred in a play-centered curriculum. We also found that spacetimemattering took place through encounters with/in nature, opening up never-ending and ever-changing possibilities. We suggest that a relational materialist approach offers an opportunity to re-remember and thus reconfigure these encounters from a different perspective by giving voices to the usually unheard nonhuman entities, opening possibilities for different world-making and living-with.

agential realism, early childhood education, encounters, spacetimemattering