Critical Observation of Family Involvement: A Case of Korean American Families in a U.S. Public Kindergarten

방유선 한국유아교육학회 2012 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION Vol.18 No.2

This study examined how family involvement is initiated, implemented, and negotiated among Korean-American parents, administrators, and teachers in a U.S. public kindergarten. Multiple techniques including observations, informal interviews, and review of documents were utilized. The findings showed that Korean American families experienced difficulties and various barriers in their participation. Their lack of knowledge and unfamiliarity of the current school system often isolated and disadvantaged them in their interactions with the school personnel, and limited their involvement in the school. This study examines Korean American families’ interactions with school personnel and involvement in conventional family-involvement activities. These activities consciously and/or unconsciously require specific mainstream knowledge, language, and culture. This unequal school practice privileging a specific culture and empowering the people with the culture has been maintained in this school. Such continuation of the conventional operation and the unbalanced power structure should be recognized and problematized in the school system.

반성적 사고 중심의 구성주의 교사교육을 통한 어린이집 교사의 변화 탐색

방유선,권귀염 한국유아교육학회 2011 유아교육연구 Vol.31 No.5

본 연구는 서울시에 소재한 한 어린이집 교사들을 대상으로 한 반성적 사고 중심의 구성주의 교사교육을 통해 참여 교사들이 갖게 되는 구성주의 수업에 대한 이해와 인식의 변화, 그리고 교육실천에 있어서의 변화를 기술하는 것을 목적으로 하였다. 총 7명의 2세부터 6세반까지의 담임교사들이 교사교육에 참여하였으며 연구의 자료는 참여관찰, 심층면담, 참조자료를 통해 수집되었다. 연구 결과 참여교사들은 교사교육을 통해 구성주의에 대해 보다 정확히 이해하고 직접 실천해 보고자 하는 동기와 자신감을 가지게 되었다. 참여교사들에게 유아들은 지식구성 능력을 가진 능동적 학습자로 이해되었고 수업의 계획과 진행에서 유아의 흥미와 참여가 무엇보다 중요한 요소로 인식되었다. 이러한 변화의 과정에서 참여교사들은 교사의 개입시점, 결과물 보여주기의 부담, 구성주의적 교육방식에 대한 기관/사회적 차원에서의 이해와 지원의 부족 등 몇 가지 주요한 갈등과 고민을 경험하고 있는 것으로 나타났다. This study aims to explore the changes of child-care center teachers' beliefs and practices regarding constructivism through a field-based teacher education program. The program was designed to deepen teachers' understanding of the gist of constructivism and to implement it successfully by promoting teachers' reflective thinking. Seven early childhood teachers in a child-care center in Seoul participated in this study. Data were collected via in-depth interviews, participant observations, and document analysis. The results show that the in-service constructivist teacher education program enabled the participating teachers to develop their understanding of constructivist pedagogies. Also, the teachers were able to reflect constructivist pedagogies in their classroom practices. These results suggest the need for constructivist in-service teacher education and stress the significance of reflective thinking in implementing constructivism.

유아교사가 인식하는 “부모참여”의 의미: 교육공동체의 관점에서

방유선 한국열린유아교육학회 2016 열린유아교육연구 Vol.21 No.3

This study aims to explore early childhood teachers’ perceptions regarding parental involvement via in-depth interviews. Results showed that the teachers understand the significance of parent-teacher “connection,” “communication,” and “collaboration” in education and tried to provide various parent-involved activities. However, their perceptions are still limited in such a way that teachers are the only experts in education, while parents are considered as simple assistants, not partners, in practicing education. This result underscores the urgent need for the teacher to reflect on and reconsider their own perceptions of parental involvement. Further, teacher education and preparation programs need to be re-established to prepare teachers to work with parents as partners for children’s education. Hopefully, this study can contribute to establish parent-school partnerships in the early childhood educational field. 본 연구는 담론분석을 통해 유아교사들의 부모참여에 대한 인식을 심층적으로 살펴봄으로서 향후 유아교육현장에서 부모가 교육공동체의 공동주체로서 협력할 수 있는 진정한 의미의 부모참여 실천을 위한 방안마련의 기초자료를 제공하고자 하였다. 연구 결과, 참여교사들은 부모-교사간의 “연계” “이해” “양방소통” “협력” 등의 중요성을 강조하면서 다양한 방법의 부모참여를 실천하고는 있으나, 그들의 담론을 면밀히 분석해보면, 그들이 말하는 부모참여의 의미가 부모와 교사가 동반자로써 함께한다는 관점에서 출발하기 보다는 교사의 전문성과 입장이 더 강조되고 반영되어진 다소 제한적인 의미에서의 연계이며 협력이라는 것을 알 수 있다. 또한 갈등을 경험하면서 교사들은 부모와의 관계가 위축되기도 하고 결국 충돌을 피하기 위해 “안전한” 부모참여 위주로 실천하게 된다는 것을 알 수 있었다. 이러한 결과를 바탕으로 부모참여에 대한 교사의 근본적 관점과 태도, 그리고 (예비)교사교육이 어떻게 변화되고 재구성되어야할 지에 관해 논의하였다.

Becoming Multicultural in South Korea: Listening to the Voices of Multicultural Parents in Early Chilhood Schools

방유선,이윤형 한국유아교육학회 2012 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION Vol.18 No.1

This study examined how multicultural parents, including marriage migrants, North Korean refugees, and immigrant laborers, perceive their children’s education and their participation in the South Korean early childhood educational system. The findings showed that the parents were particularly concerned about their children’s possible problems related to peer interaction and bullying. They additionally believedthat South Korean mothers’ biased thinking toward multicultural people have caused their children to have biased attitudes against multicultural peers. Due to the concern, some parents even hid their child’s cultural and ethnicalbackground in the school. The parents also argued that South Korean educators often insist on ‘our’ or ‘South Korean’ ways to the parents and thus often encountered difficulties dealing with the school system. This implies the need for South Korean educators to reflect critically on their current practices and provide more transformative approaches of multicultural education to develop students’ and parents’ understanding of diversity.

부모-교사 동반자적 협력의 관점에서 예비 유아 교사교육 다시보기: 부모 관련 대학 교재 분석을 중심으로

방유선 한국열린유아교육학회 2023 열린유아교육연구 Vol.28 No.6

This study investigates the current approaches to parent collaboration education in pre-service teacher education programs. For this purpose, college textbooks related to parents were analyzed from the perspective of parent-teacher collaboration. The results revealed several key points: 1) Many textbooks presented limited or confusing meanings for parents; 2) There was a tendency to emphasize deficiencies and difficulties rather than recognizing the unique characteristics of each family type; 3) The content of parent-teacher collaboration was often marginalized, lacking in-depth exploration; and 4) The practice of parent-teacher collaboration was approached more as program-oriented teacher work. Although content related to collaboration with parents has been gradually incorporated into recent parent-related textbooks, achieving successful collaboration between pre-service teachers and parents in practical settings requires parent-related education programs to surpass the mere inclusion of cooperation-related content or program introductions. This study interpreted these results concerning the social context of pre-service teacher education, and discussed the changes necessary in order to effectively implement parent-teacher partnerships in the current pre-service teacher education programs.

Rethinking Parental Involvement: A case of a U.S. Public Kindergarten

방유선 한국유아교육학회 2009 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION Vol.15 No.1

Over the past decade there has been increased attention to the topic of parental involvement in school. However, little research has examined Korean American parents’ involvement in the U.S. This study examined the perceptions of administrators, teachers, and Korean American parents of parental involvement in a U.S. public kindergarten. Through the in-depth interviews, observations, and school documents, this study showed that there was perceptional disparity regarding parental involvement between the school personnel and the Korean American parents. While all the participants regardless of their positions supported the significance of parental involvement, the perceptional gap has been revealed regarding the meaning and expected types of parental involvement between the two groups. Moreover, the school personnel were fully satisfied with their current provision of the parent involvement program without much consideration of the barriers or needs that the Korean American parents faced in their participation. Thus, the findings of this study suggest that it is critical for teachers and administrators to recognize the possible struggles and disadvantages that Korean American parents and other minority parents might experience in their schools and make conscious efforts to respond to the needs of minority parents.

Novice Early Childhood Teachers’ Challenging Experiences in Working with Families: In Establishing Family-Teacher Partnerships

방유선 한국유아교육학회 2019 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION Vol.25 No.1

This study explored five novice teachers’ challenging experiences and their ways of dealing with them in Korean private kindergartens. Individual and group interviews were used to carry out an in-depth investigation. The findings show that the novice teachers experienced challenges in working with families due to: 1) the families’ distrust of novice teachers; 2) their own lack of experience with families; and 3) difficulties in understanding the families’ perspectives and behaviors. In particular, the findings highlight the teachers’ inability to work with families in practice. Without adequate preparation, they had to battle prejudice against novice teachers. They also struggled when faced with families behaving in unpredictable and unreasonable ways. Lacking the ability to understand the families’ thoughts or behaviors, they had to find ways of resolving conflicts and work with family members to educate their children. Based on these findings, the present study proposes various approaches to helping novice teachers build partnerships with families in practice and restructuring teacher-training and education programs.

요통 유무에 따른 무용수의 요부 신전근의 등척성 비교 분석

방유선,강서정 한국스포츠리서치 2006 한국 스포츠 리서치 Vol.17 No.4

Korean Mothers' Perspectives Regarding Their Children's Educationin the U. S. :Do Mother Want Their Children to Be A Model Minority?

방유선,권귀염 한국유아교육학회 2008 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION Vol.14 No.2

Based on their academic success, the image of Asian Americans as a model minority has become dominant in the U. S. society. In addition, Asian American parents' high expectations of their children's success have been suggested as one of the main sources of reinforcing the model minority stereotype. However, no study has focused on the parents' educational perceptions. This study thus aims to investigate how Korean American parents' perceptions relate to the stereotype. Five Korean and Korean American mothers of kindergarteners were interviewed for this study. The mothers' perceptions were analyzed by the following four emerging themes; 1) the mothers' perspectives of their children's school success, 2) the mothers' beliefs about parents'/teachers'/schools' roles for the school success, 3) the mothers' views of the relationship between school and social success, and 4) the mothers' perceptions of social limitations as a minority. Diverse perspectives were consistently seen in the four themes. Based on the findings, further suggestions are discussed.

부모-교사 간 협력적 관계형성을 위한 새로운 시도: 예비유아교육에서의 부모와의 실제경험

방유선(Bang Yoo-Seon),권귀염(Kwon Kyee Yum) 학습자중심교과교육학회 2019 학습자중심교과교육연구 Vol.19 No.15

본 연구는 가정방문으로 유아들을 가르치며 부모들과 상호작용하는 프로그램에 참여한 6명의 예비유아교사들의 경험을 통해, 예비교사교육에서 부모와의 사전경험이 교사가 된 후 부모와의 실제 협력에 어떤 가능성과 한계를 제공하는지 살펴보고자 하였다. 이를 위해 프로그램 참여 전과 참여기간, 그리고 졸업 후 교사를 하는 기간 중에 총 5차례의 개별면담과 1차례의 포커스그룹 면담, 그리고 참여자의 반성적 저널과 관련 문서수집이 이루어졌다. 그 결과, 부모와의 사전경험은 예비유아교사들이: 1)부모와의 관계에 대한 막연한 두려움을 극복하고 부모와의 관계에서 회피보다는 시도를 할 수 있게 도와주었고; 2)부모의 행동과 요구에 대한 비판보다는 다름을 인정하고 공감하려는 성향을 길러주었으며; 3)부모-교사관계의 어려움을 깨닫고 시행착오를 통해 현장에서 필요한 실천방법들을 찾아갈 수 있는 기초를 마련해주었다. 반면, 예비교사들이 기존에 가지고 있던 부모와의 협력에 대한 제한된 관점을 전환하는 데는 한계가 있었다. 또한 실습경험이 단절되어 이루어지거나, 실습과정에서 사전교육이 병행되지 않거나, 대학의 교육과정과 연계되지 않는 운영 등으로 인해 부모와 관련하여 단편적인 경험이 이루어질 수밖에 없는 한계가 있음을 알 수 있었다. 이러한 결과를 바탕으로, 현장에서 부모-교사 협력이 실천되기 위해 예비교사교육에서 이루어져야 할 변화에 대해 논의하였다. This study examined the experiences of early childhood student teachers that participated in a practical program with families. A case study of six student teachers was discussed to illustrate the potential of such an approach to this aspect of teacher preparation. The results showed that the field experience: 1)helped the student teachers overcome their fear of child’s parents and build positive relationships with the parents as teachers; 2)allowed them to develop their attitudes to understand and sympathize rather than criticize children’s parents’ behaviors; and 3)helped them realize the difficulties in parent-teacher relationships and establish effective partnerships with parents in their future professional role. On the other hand, the practical experience had its own limitation in changing the pre-established, limited perspectives of student teachers regarding parent-teacher collaborations. Moreover, the student teachers could only have limited and fragmentary experiences with families in the program. Based on the results, suggestions and improvements for the re-establishment of the teacher preparation program in preparing teachers to work collaboratively with families in children’s education was discussed.