This study analyzes private kindergarten teachers in the Gyeongnam area's perceptions of their work environments. Such an exercise is designed to analyze the difficulties that teachers have gone through and their demands regarding a quality work envir...
This study analyzes private kindergarten teachers in the Gyeongnam area's perceptions of their work environments. Such an exercise is designed to analyze the difficulties that teachers have gone through and their demands regarding a quality work environment using work environments of private kindergartens as the basic data. To this end, the following question was posed.
1. What are private kindergarten teachers in the Gyeongnam area's perception of their work environments?
284 private kindergarten teachers in Gyeongnam Province were selected for this study. Based on the study entitled "work environment and job stress of child care teachers' a survey composed of 24 questions was prepared. This survey consisted of seven question regarding the work conditions in kindergartens, six questions regarding health care and welfare, five questions regarding job tasks, and six questions regarding reeducation programs. The survey was prepared based on previous studies, pilot tests, and the advice of the advising professor.
The SPSS 14.0 program was employed to code the collected copies of the survey. The -test, independent t-test, and One-way ANOVA were applied to analyze the differences in private kindergarten teachers' perceptions of the general characteristics of their working conditions, their health care and welfare, work duties, and their reeducation. The Scheffe method was employed to conduct a multiple comparison of the variables which exhibited significant differences as a result of the One-way ANOVA.
The study results can be summarized as follows.
First, in terms of private kindergarten teachers' perceptions, the survey revealed that the 4-year-old children made up the largest group of students for which kindergarten teachers in the Gyeongnam area were responsible. The number of children in each class was found to be 25 or more. Although there were many cases in which teachers left work late because they averaged 10-11 work hours a day and had to take part in many events, the 5-day work week had by and large been introduced and work duties other than those covered during regular working hours had been gradually decreased.
Second, as far as teachers' perceptions of health care and welfare were concerned, the survey found that most participants believed that their health had worsened because they were unable to take the appropriate rest. The application of the code of conduct also tended to differ depending on the situation at hand. The majority of private kindergarten teachers identified the Korea Teachers Pension (89.2%) as their main source of pension and insurance. The monthly salary of private kindergarten teachers fluctuated between 1.5 million won ~2 million won and included improvement pay. The study found that the higher a teacher's age, academic background, career, and position, the greater the gap in monthly salaries became. However, overtime pay and additional pay were almost never included.
Third, work duties were separated into three areas, namely main work duties, secondary work duties, and administrative work duties. The teachers between the ages of 25-35 identified the preparation of educational plans as their main work duty, the cleaning of the classroom, bathroom, and corridors as secondary work duties, and the checking of attendance book as the administrative work duty. The teachers regarded the preparation of daily journals and observation logs as their most difficult work duty. The survey also revealed that the overload in terms of administrative tasks resulted in the distribution of tasks not being carried out in a structured or effective manner.
Fourth, as far as private kindergarten teachers' perceptions of reeducation are concerned, the participants identified all-expenses-paid support (58.7%) for reeducation as being the most common type of such program. The survey also found that on average teachers participate in these reeducation programs more than three times a year (40.8%). The majority perceived these reeducation programs as helping to improve teachers' qualifications. The private kindergarten teachers in the Gyeongnam area positively perceived the reeducation programs. The most sought after reeducation contents included coaching with regards to problematic behaviors. The teachers found it difficult to participate in the reeducation programs conducted during the daytime.