한국의 노인교육정책에 관한 분석적 연구 = (An) Analytical Study on the Elderly Education Policy in Korea

국문 초록 (Abstract)

본 연구의 주 목적은 우리나라와 주요 선진국의 노인교육정책을 다각적으로 분석·검토하여 한국 노인교육정책의 과제와 전망을 제시하고 노인교육의 활성화를 위한 발전적 방안을 제언하는 데 있다． 이러한 관점에서 본 연구는 다음과 같은 연구의 목적을 설정하였다．
첫째， 주요 선진국의 노인교육정책을 다각적으로 분석·검토하고 시사점을 탐색하여 한국의 노인교육정책에 제안한다．
둘째， 한국 노인교육정책의 기본방향 및 실제를 분석·검토하여 기존의 복지위주의 편중된 관점에서 벗어나， 평생교육학 및 노인 복지학적인 관점을 통합한 거시적인 활성화 방안을 모색한다．
이러한 연구목적을 달성하기 위하여 본 연구에서 다루고자 하는 연구내용은 다음과 같다．
첫째， 저출산 고령화 사회를 맞고 있는 우리나라의 고령화 추세를 분석하고， 노인교육의 필요성 및 개념과 내용， 노인교육정책의 사회적 가치 등을 전문학자들의 논의에 따라 다각적으로 고찰한다．
둘째， 고령화 사회를 이미 경험한 주요 선진국들의 노인교육정책을 분석·검토한다．
셋째， 노인교육의 정책적 기능을 규명한다．
넷째， 한국의 노인교육정책을 분석함에 있어서 노인교육과 노인 복지를 연계시켜 노인교육정책의 기본방향 및 관련 법령을 분석·검토하고， 이에 근거하여 현재 시행되고 있는 노인교육의 실제를 분석하여 문제점을 검토한다．
다섯째， 향후 한국 노인교육정책의 과제와 전망을 노인교육의 순기능적인 측면에서 제시한다．
이를 위해 본 연구는 여러 전문가들의 문헌과 기존 선행연구물， 정책자료， 그리고 각종 통계자료 등을 활용하는 문헌분석적 방법을 사용하였다．
연구결과 다음과 같은 몇 가지 결론을 도출해 낼 수 있었다．
첫째， 선진국의 노인교육정책 분석 결과 생계보장에 중점을 둔 교육과 복지간의 연계 구축， 고용가능능력 개발이나 세대간의 교류활동에 초점을 둔 정책 등의 시사점을 도출해 낼 수 있었다． 앞으로 우리나라 노인교육정책 입안·실행에 있어， 단순히 노인들을 대상으로 교육을 하는 것에서 그치는 것이 아니라 교육의 결과는 노인의 삶의 질 향상은 물론 생계보장까지도 고려되어야 할 것이다． 이러한 과정 자체에 교육과 삶의 질 향상이라는 복지적 차원이 동시에 포함되어 있기 때문에， 교육과 복지간의 연계를 구축하고， 관련 부처간의 협력체계를 효과적으로 운영할 수 있는 방안이 연구되어야 할 것이다． 또한， 정책 입안·실행에 있어 그 간 간과되었던 고용가능능력 개발이나 세대간의 교류활동 등에 대해서도 고려가 이루어져야 한다．
둘째， 우리나라 노인교육의 실제 및 정책을 검토해 본 결과， 우리나라 노인교육정책은 선진국형 노인정책으로의 전환 및 퇴직자중심의 자원봉사활동 전개 등의 기본방향을 추구하고 있다． 노인교육은 보건복지부의 노인복지법， 노동부의 고령자고용촉진법， 그리고 교육인적자원부의 평생교육법 등과 연계되어 있다． 현재 우리나라에서 시행되고 있는 노인교육의 현황을 살펴본 결과， 우리나라의 노인교육기관과 시설로는 평생교육원과 사회교육원， 노인복지관과 사회복지관， 노인대학과 노인학교， 종교기관， 정부기관과 민간단체 등이 있으며， 노인교육 프로그램 개발에 있어 노인학습자의 교육수준， 경제수준， 건강상태， 성별， 그리고 개인적 특성에 따라 다양하게 개발하여 노인교육의 폭넓은 기회를 확대해야 함을 알 수 있었다.
이 연구를 기반으로 앞으로 연구되어야 할 과제를 몇 가지 제시하면 다음과 같다．
첫째， 노인교육의 발전을 위한 정책을 다양하게 연구·개발하려는 노력이 후속연구를 통해 이루어져야 할 것이다． 이 연구에서 노인교육 전체를 포괄하려다 보니 노인교육의 다양한 대상， 기관， 기능 등에 따라 차별화하지 못한 아쉬움이 남는다． 보다 구체적으로 노인교육의 기관별·대상별·기능별로 각 특성에 맞는 노인교육정책방안의 연구가 이루어져야 할 것이다． 둘째， 이 연구에서 교육과 복지간의 협력체계를 구축할 것을 강조하고 있는데， 이의 구체적인 실행방안에 대한 연구가 이루어져야 할 것이다． 특히 노인교육이 이루어지는 현장이나 관련 부처들에서 구체적으로 어떤 식으로 협력을 해 나갈 수 있는지에 대한 실천 가능한 방법들에 대한 연구가 필요하다．

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The main purpose of this study is to activate elderly education in a national dimension and to make its importance recognized newly and keenly. For this purpose, this study discusses, analyzes, and points out the problems of the elderly education policies in the leading developed nations and Korea from various viewpoints, and proposes new developmental plans for elderly education.
Characterized by an epoch-making phenomenon of a knowledge informationalized society, the 20th century witnessed remarkable development of science and technology which enormously improved our daily lives in terms of clothing, feeding, and housing, and increased our life expectancy. Thus, the elderly population has grown more than ever and a new, rather negative concept of an aging or aged society has been coined out. Moreover, these rapid scientific and economic developments have changed all the human relationships including families, and widened the gap among generations regarding values. In an aging or aged society like this, elderly education has been inseparably intertwined with the development of a nation as a whole.
Therefore, in such a situation, governments should devote themselves to not only developing social infrastructures but also enhancing the welfare policies for their citizens including the elderly to make them lead happy lives. In this regard, the elderly education policy should be designed to help the elderly live better lives economically and mentally and maintain high self-esteem. It also should have a positive role to realize personal values of the elderly and social values in their community.
To put it in a more specific way, the aim of the elderly education policy is to help the elderly learners develop or expand their abilities, and join the group of the socially and economically active members again. The elderly education policy described above can be defined and classified into three types as follows.
The first type is the educational policy for the elderly at senescence.
The educational policy for the elderly has a goal of cultivating their abilities for the purpose of qualitative improvement of their lives. Elderly education should meet their needs and desires and provide them with various chances to develop themselves and improve the qualities of their lives.
The second one is the educational policy of aging and the elderly.
The learners in the educational policy concerning the process of getting old and the elderly people include all the age groups from children to the elderly. It means that all the people regardless of gender and age, especially those who want to work or are working in the field of elderly welfare, and those who prepare themselves for retirement are counted in this educational policy.
The last type of the elderly education policy is the one promoting education by the elderly.
One of the main focuses that the elderly education policy should have is to make the most of the precious human resources with abundant wisdom, skills and life-time experiences. It can be carried out in a form of education by the educated seniors, which will contribute to making a better society.
Although this study is centered on the educational policy for the elderly people, seniors at present are different from those in the past traditional society, and also the seniors in the future will not be the same as the current ones. The aged population with higher economic and educational competences will increase, and the economically inactive population in the middle-age groups will grow more than ever owing to early or honorary retirements. The economically active population will relatively decrease due to low birth rates and aging while the demands for the elderly who are healthy and economically active will grow because of labor shortages. Along with all these changes stated above, social burdens of caring for the old and ill seniors will increase in the aged society.
Accordingly, the old should try to solve their problems for themselves in the remaining years, and also the national society should give the educational support to them so that they could participate actively in the social activities in order to improve the qualities of life.
As stated above, the aim of the elderly education policy is to make sure that elderly education not only contributes greatly to the qualitative improvement of their lives but exerts a positive influence on the development of community. However, as the studying subjects of the elderly education policy are mostly all the old members in a society, it is not easy for this study to maintain objectivity, generality, and reasonability. Also, considering that it is very difficult for a researcher to observe a certain part or parts of a society or a group that is linked with the elderly education policy for a long time, another tricky question is raised about how the researcher is able to observe or to examine all the members that constitute a society or a group.
Though it is ideal to take all the seniors nationwide into account as the studying subjects, this study is forced to depend on sample groups and surveys due to practical limits such as the impossibility to access the subjects. Another limit is that the elderly people under the influence of their own subjective and psychological experiences can respond positively or negatively to the elderly education policy. This study has been carried out under the hypothesis that the necessities of the elderly education policy have risen as elderly education has played an affirmative role for the growth of community. Recognizing that the elderly education policy has come to the fore along with the rapid changes of social structures caused by the development of scientific technology and the increased life spans, this study has considered the features in the aging society. It has also examined the aging and the challenges that the elderly face in the aging society, acknowledging that they have been closely linked to the elderly education policy.
As the conceptions and ideas which can be the theoretical background of the elderly education policy have been discussed with at greater length, all the opinions have not been bound to be subjective in this study.
This study has tried to use all the studying methods practically in inter-complementary ways as well as the existing research materials or the statistical data. As we know from a point of suggestion that the developed countries have presented, the elderly education policy can be fully developed since elderly education has been carried out along with the right functional roles.
Accordingly, the big challenges for the elderly education policy to tackle can be classified as follows : ① the promotion of positive values in elderly education, ② the cultivation of right functional factors in elderly education, ③ the construction of corporate systems in elderly education, ④ the extension of social welfare values in elderly education.
With the confidence that elderly education plays a positive role in maintaining and enhancing personal values of the aged, family values, and social values for the community, this study suggests the developmental plans or blueprints for the elderly education policy.
First, the elderly education policy has to be able to help the elderly maintain their self-esteem and confidence.
Second, the educational policy for the elderly should be formulated to help the elderly to tackle the challenges they face for themselves.
Third, the elderly education policy should provide studies and training programs to secure professionals in the field and to promote the quality of elderly education.
Fourth, the elderly education policy should develop and provide various educational programs to meed the various needs of the elderly, and ensure them of opportunities to learn whatever they want.
Fifth, the government and the society should be more keenly aware of the necessities and the roles of elderly education, and seriously consider carrying out incentives to induce active participation of the elderly.
Sixth, the concerning authorities should construct an effective network for cooperation among public officials, businesses, and the elderly to promote elderly education. Unfortunately, at present, the importance of elderly education is rarely recognized by the society members, the public officials are complacent remaining in a showing administrative dimension, and as a result, the elderly have not gotten enough opportunities to be educated.
Seventh, the elderly education policy should help the elderly evaluate their vocational aptitudes, expand the job training programs to promote the employment of the elderly, and provide more jobs to them. It is very significant in order not to entirely rely on the young labor forces which are currently decreasing in the aging or aged society.
Eighth, the elderly education policy should contribute to the qualitative improvement of their lives by ensuring them of the rights of learning and pursuing happiness in this highly competitive world. Remember that almost all the elderly have the desires to learn for self-development.
Ninth, the elderly education policy should develop various proper educational programs which can help the elderly maintain or improve their physical and mental health with the consideration of the physical conditions and personalities of the elderly.
Tenth, the central government and the local self-government bodies should actively cooperate one another to solve the financial limits that elderly education faces.
In conclusion, promotion of the elderly education policy can be realized by keeping a solemn truth in mind that nobody can avoid getting old.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• 논문 개요 = ⅰ
• 목차 = ⅳ
• Ⅰ. 서론 = 1
• 1. 연구의 목적 = 1
• 2. 연구의 내용 및 방법 = 6
• Ⅱ. 이론적 배경 = 9
• 1. 고령화 사회의 노인교육 = 9
• 1) 고령화 추세 = 10
• 2) 노인교육의 개념과 내용 = 13
• 3) 노인학습자의 특성 = 24
• 4) 노인교육의 필요성 = 27
• 2. 노인교육정책의 사회적 가치 = 34
• 1) 개인적 측면 = 35
• 2) 가정적 측면 = 37
• 3) 국가사회적 측면 = 40
• 3. 주요 선진국의 노인교육정책 = 42
• 1) 미국의 노인교육정책 = 42
• 2) 영국의 노인교육정책 = 55
• 3) 프랑스의 노인교육정책 = 61
• 4) 일본의 노인교육정책 = 68
• Ⅲ. 한국 노인교육의 정책적 기능 = 77
• 1. 노인교육의 긍적적 가치 장려 = 77
• 2. 노인교육의 순기능적 요인 배양 = 82
• 3. 노인교육의 연계체계 구축 = 88
• 4. 노인교육의 사회적 가치 확대 = 93
• Ⅳ. 한국의 노인교육정책 분석 = 112
• 1. 노인교육의 기본정책 = 112
• 2. 노인교육정책의 실제 = 132
• Ⅴ. 한국 노인교육정책의 문제점 및 과제 = 151
• 1. 노인교육정책의 문제점 = 151
• 2. 노인교육정책의 과제 = 155
• 3. 노인교육의 정책적 방향 = 157
• 1) 노인전문교육의 방향 = 158
• 2) 노인교양교육의 방향 = 162
• 3) 노인건강교육의 방향 = 165
• Ⅵ. 요약 및 결론 = 171
• 1. 요약 = 171
• 2. 결론 = 174
• 참고문헌 = 178
• Abstract = 191