This study was to investigate what kinds of experiences care-giving teachers had through education for young children's rights and what was the meaning of the education. The investigator observed education for young children's rights in participation...
This study was to investigate what kinds of experiences care-giving teachers had through education for young children's rights and what was the meaning of the education. The investigator observed education for young children's rights in participation and talked about their experiences.
The specific following research questions were set for the purposes:
First, what kind of experiences did the care-giving teachers have through education for young children's rights?
Second, what kind of reflections did the care-giving teachers have through education for young children's rights?
Third, what kind of images of infants and young children did the care-giving teachers form through education for young children's rights?
The study was based on the assistance from the care-giving teachers from six day care centers who participated in "Autonomous Encouragement of Study for care-giving teachers to Respect Young Children's Rights" for three months from September to November, 2009. Total 24 care-giving teachers made the research participants after excluding those who received education for young children's rights but could not join interviews due to change of occupation or baby break. They had in-depth interviews in 31 separate meetings over two months. The investigator recorded and transcribed their interviews after getting their consent. The interview transcripts and field journals were read and categorized for data analysis.
The research findings can be summarized as follows:
First, the care-giving teachers rejected the field application of young children's rights, believing that their practice would not fit the reality of preschools, or went through internal conflicts, being confused and not knowing about their practice. They also said they had difficulties with the practice of young children's rights when the workload was heavy and there were confronting conflicts between young children and parents. Looking at their peer teachers who tried to practice young children's rights in the middle of constant conflicts and frustrations, they found positive stimuli and mutual supporters for the practice of young children's rights. Those experiences made them look for the meaning of young children's rights in the field of childcare in their own ways. They defined young children's rights in the field of childcare as encouraging infants and young children to freely express their opinions, listening to and respecting their voices, and helping them to realize their opinions.
Second, education for young children's rights offered the care-giving teachers time for reflection. Reflecting that they did not carefully listen to infants and young children, they became more sensitive to gesture and spoken language and thus engaged in more communications with them. Also reflecting that they restricted time and space for them, they tried to do without the teacher-centric timetable and give them the freedom of space change. They also confessed their use of authority and attempted to lose authority, reflecting that they restricted their freedom to show it off to others and made them a means. Those reflections altered their values and gave an expectation that the childcare environment would change to practice and respect the rights of infants and young children.
Finally, those care-giving teachers who had no views of children or saw infants and young children as cute and adorable beings only started to find infinite possibilities in them through the field application of young children's rights and developed their images such as the individuals of distinctiveness and diversity, the individuals who get to know the world through mistakes, attempts, and relationships, and the individuals of personalities, and free individuals.
The study finds its significance in that it reminded care-giving teachers of the importance of education for young children's rights, examined their experiences with education for young children's rights in their own voices, and offered a model for education for young children's rights.