With more citizens' interest in gardens, the program of gardening education has been promoted, and urban parks have been mentioned as the available space for citizens' garden activity. In the circumstance, Seoul Forest operates gardening education pro...
With more citizens' interest in gardens, the program of gardening education has been promoted, and urban parks have been mentioned as the available space for citizens' garden activity. In the circumstance, Seoul Forest operates gardening education program for the first time in Korea and Urban Gardner Program for Seoul Forest in combination of volunteer activity.
The purpose of this study is to investigate that the gardening education program is effectively operated in accordance with its purpose of providing the program to citizens and managing urban parks through their volunteer activity.
To achieve that, this study comprehensively analyzed Urban Gardner Program for Seoul Forest to draw problems, and suggested the improvement direction to induce continuous and active participation of volunteers through the education program.
Literature research was first conducted to draw the standards to measure the performance of Urban Gardner Program for Seoul Forest and volunteer activity, and thereby to come up with an analysis tool. A questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews were performed with program participants, education managers, and volunteer service managers.
According to the survey, educational satisfaction which is the standard to measure the program performance, was very high, but volunteer activity participation attitude which is the standard to measure volunteer activity performance was relatively low. In other words, the purpose of the gardening education program, which is to influence positively volunteer activity, was not answered.
To find the causes, improvement direction, and outcomes, this researcher had in-depth interviews. Based on the results of the questionnaire survey and in-depth interview analysis, the improvement direction of Urban Gardner Program for Seoul Forest was suggested.
The improvement direction was divided into structural aspect which is the purpose of the program, and into detailed aspect which is related to participants' activity.
In terms of structural aspect, suggested were the establishment of the clear purpose of Urban Gardner Program for Seoul Forest, the establishment of urban gardner program reflecting participants' characteristics, preparation of systematic follow-up program, cooperation
with Seoul Forest Park Management Office, and employment of professional gardeners and educational instructors.
In terms of detailed aspect, suggested in educational course was adjustment of difficulty with gardening education program; in educational contents was the enhancement of contents for volunteers, park management, and garden design workshop; in educational method was theory based practice; in educational applicability was sufficient practice in the program to cause no problem with volunteer activity.
This study has a limitation in the point that it didn't evaluate
gardening education program comprehensively but focused on educational satisfaction of participants. Nevertheless, it is meaningful in the point that it drew problems with the current program in order to perform Urban Gardner Program for Seoul Forest continuously and suggested a realistic improvement direction.