So-young Sung , Daniel J. Walsh

DOI: Vol.22(No.2) 1-28, 2016

This article explores preschool teachers` beliefs about children`s emotional development and about their role in children`s emotional development. This study explored how these beliefs form a context for children`s emotional development in early schooling. The research is framed by cultural psychology. The methodology is field-based. We selected three preschool teachers in three different preschools in the American Midwest: one public preschool classroom and two private day-care centers. We conducted classroom observations and interviews with the teachers and others over a nine-month period. We found that the preschool teachers acknowledge children`s emotional competence as important for readiness for kindergarten. Teachers, however, paid little attention to developing a curriculum and practices that support children`s emotional development. Emotional competence was most often defined narrowly, mainly as mastering a narrow range of skill templates aimed at controlling emotions. We found that the children were expected to learn to control their emotions from an early, actually a too early, age. Suggestions for developing better educational practices for children`s optimal development of their emotions are offered.

emotional development, preschool teachers` beliefs, early childhood education

Haein Oh , Hee Young Jeoung

DOI: Vol.22(No.2) 29-41, 2016

The debate between the two perspectives regarding the benefits of growing up with siblings versus growing up alone is ongoing. The current study was conducted to explore how young children`s prosocial skills are influenced by sibling status. Prosocial behaviors of 340 preschool children in South Korea were rated by their teachers and compared between children with siblings versus those who do not. The results showed that growing up with siblings did appear to have a positive influence on younger children, and the birth order and the gender of siblings did not affect prosocial behaviors among those children with siblings. Moreover, a mediation model showed that the difference between the two groups in prosocial behaviors was mediated by age, suggesting that the effect of sibling status on children`s prosocial behaviors diminished as children got older. Further analyses, for possible explanations of other factors playing parts in the relationship between sibling status and prosocial behaviors are discussed.

sibling status, only child, prosocial behaviors, social skills, early childhood

Keun Kyu Kim

DOI: Vol.22(No.2) 43-58, 2016

The purpose of this research was to study the role of peer interactions on the children`s temperament and language development. Participants of this research were 1,582 three-year old children and their mothers. The data was from the Panel Study on Korean Children completed between 2008 and 2011 by the Korea Institute of Child Care and Education (KICCE). To assess the mediation model effect on interactions with peers, pathway analysis and mediation effect analysis were conducted. The results of this research are as follows: First, there is no correlation between children`s temperament and language development. Second, of the children`s temperaments, sociality had a significant but weak relationship on effects of peer interaction. Third, peer interaction had a significant but weak relationship with children`s language development. Lastly, peer interactions had mediating effect on children`s temperament and language development.

peer interaction effect, temperament, language development

Minjung Lim , Jinhee Kim

DOI: Vol.22(No.2) 59-77, 2016

This study examined Korean preschool teachers` beliefs about multicultural education by utilizing the concept of “figured worlds” (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, & Cain, 1998). Drawing on a qualitative study of a multicultural education course, we explored the perspectives and experiences of preschool teachers within a particular cultural context. For data analysis, we collected different course assignments during one semester and conducted individual interviews. We found that the preschool teachers brought the deficit discourse of diversity, which was reflected in public discourse on multicultural education, to the course. We also found that the critical inquiry-based course helped the preschool teachers to recognize their own figured worlds of diversity. The preschool teachers viewed diversity according to the master figured world of ethnic solidarity, which has double-sided influence on their multicultural teaching. This study discussed how teacher education programs can support early childhood teachers to be critical multicultural educators.

preschool teachers, diversity, figured worlds, multicultural teacher education

Yoonse Hwang

DOI: Vol.22(No.2) 79-95, 2016

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between interactive peer play, behavioral self-regulation, and the teacher-child relationship. The subjects were 398 preschool and daycare center children in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. The children ranged in age from 4 to 5 years (M = 69.21 months). Twenty-five of their teachers contributed ratings for interactive peer play, behavioral self-regulation, and the teacher-child relationship. The major findings of this study were as follows: first, a significant relationship was found between interactive peer play, behavioral self-regulation, and the teacher-child relationship. Secondly, behavioral self-regulation and the teacher-child relationship were important predictors for young children. In particular, the closeness of teacher and -children had a negative effect on young children`s interactive peer play.

interactive peer play, behavioral self-regulation, teacher-child relation, play assessment

Jooeun Oh

DOI: Vol.22(No.2) 97-113, 2016

This study presents the case of Hoon, a 4-year-old Korean immigrant boy and his initial adjustment to an American preschool, by focusing his interactions with peers at playtime in relation to peer culture. Data were collected for four months through participatory observations during in-class playtime and interviews with the boy`s mother and teacher. The findings revealed that children in the classroom played according to a peer culture and the rules in each play center. This study found that Hoon`s different interactions with his peers in each center reflected his understanding of the peer culture, thus demonstrating the possibility of a play center with a peer culture that helps an immigrant child`s positive peer interactions. The study suggests that teachers should (a) understand peer culture and its effects on minority children, and (b) reflect on their practices to avoid practices that minimize immigrant children`s agency.

preschool, peer interactions, preschool peer culture, immigrant children

Kyeonghwa Lee

DOI: Vol.22(No.2) 115-131, 2016

Since the 1990s, South Korea has been rapidly changing into a multicultural society. This change means young learners must be taught how to become regional, national, and international citizens. This paper describes the notion of global citizenship by analyzing cosmopolitan citizens and the limitations of early childhood teacher education programs in South Korea. Additionally, it suggests three methods through which pre/in-service early childhood teachers can become cosmopolitan citizens and can appropriately educate (future) children on global citizenship: (1) becoming a teacher with multiple identities, (2) becoming a socially aware teacher, and (3) becoming a teacher who is a participatory citizen. Lastly, this paper contains considerations on early childhood teacher education policy and future research in regard to global citizenship.

global citizenship, early childhood teacher education, cosmopolitan citizen

Haeryung Yeu

DOI: Vol.22(No.2) 133-151, 2016

In a past few decades, significant growth in qualitative research has been made in the area of early childhood education. This has recently brought forth reflective critiques on the quality of the research. In particular, it is often noted that the method-centered tendency to prefer research techniques to research logic has spread among qualitative researchers, which could be termed as “technological” by nature. This study attempts to concretely analyze such technological trends of qualitative research at the level of their philosophical basis and presuppositions. Drawing upon Martin Heidegger`s existential-ontological analysis of modern technology, Jacques Ellul`s reflections on instrumental rationality embedded in today`s technical phenomena, and Don Ihde`s understandings of transformational structures of existential techniques, the analysis made in this study pays attention to the ways in which such technological trends show disinterested and decontextualized tendency against deep and multiple layers of meaning hidden in children`s educational reality.

qualitative research methodology, modern technology, instrumental rationality, existential techniques, Martin Heidegger

Seongmi Lim

DOI: Vol.22(No.2) 153-165, 2016

William Pinar has posed a challenge to advance curriculum studies as discipline through the introduction of curriculum diciplinarity. This has implications for the way new scholars in the field of curriculum studies should be prepared in order to make future contributions in curriculum studies. Based on the concepts of curriculum disciplinarity-verticality, horizontality, and diagonality-in this study I explored curriculum scholars who employed the arts to understand curriculum, and identified my interpretations―pedagogical documentation for diagonality in early childhood education. The study is critical in that it attempts to interpret emergent curriculum from an artistic perspective.

curriculum studies, diciplinarity, emergent curriculum, a/r/tography