The purpose of this study is to grasp the current states of educational activities in employer-supported child care centers grounding on the Reggio approach, and to provide significant base data for making educational activities in the educational fie...
The purpose of this study is to grasp the current states of educational activities in employer-supported child care centers grounding on the Reggio approach, and to provide significant base data for making educational activities in the educational field more practical and efficient.
The research questions set per such purpose are presented as follows.
1. How is the parental perception of educational activities in employer-sup ported child care centers based on the Reggio Emilia approach?
2. How is parental satisfaction of child care centers in educational activiti es in employer-supported child care centers based on the Reggio Emilia approach?
The subjects of this study are parents of infants and young children at the employer-supported child care centers in the Gyeonggi area, conducting educational activities based on the Reggio approach. Among the disseminated and returned questionnaires, 181 answers were analyzed. In this study, the questionnaire by Hong Gyeong-ran (2008) was used, which was developed by reviewing the compatibility based on the literature on the Reggio approach. The questionnaire was consulted with experts in early childhood education and was corrected per the realities in educational activities at employer-supported child care centers. This study then used the questionnaire after verifying its validity and reliability.
The collected data were statistically processed using the SPSS statistics 27 program. In the data process stage, frequency and percentage analysis were conducted to examine the perception per parents' general backgrounds (age, educational background, and occupation) regarding educational activities based on the Reggio approach. Frequency analysis and descriptive statistics analysis were conducted to examine the satisfaction regarding educational activities grounding on the Reggio approach.
The results this study showed are as follows.
First, regarding the perception of the current daycare selection, knowing and choosing whether to apply educational activities based on the Reggio approach, most of the parents did not know whether to apply educational activities based on the Reggio approach when choosing a current child care center.
As for the time when parents recognized educational activities based on the Reggio approach, most of the parents first sent their children to child care centers and then learned about the educational activities being applied through parental education at the centers. In addition, the awareness regarding the educational activities being applied at the centers among many parents was low.
To find out the reason why parents chose the current child care center, this study conducted a survey. As a result, regardless of the child care centers’ educational activities, most of the parents provided the answer 'because this center is operated by the company where I work.' On the other hand, a very small proportion of parents already knew about the center education activities or selected because other conditions were good regardless of the center education activities.
Second, on the satisfaction of parents' child care centers with the educational activities of child care centers operated by employers based on the Reggio approach, the questions were divided into subparts and asked: 'educational programs,' 'operational management,' 'physical environment,' 'human environment,' and 'parent education.‘ In each aspect, most were satisfied. For operation management, human environment, and parent education,' no one answered with the option ’very dissatisfied’; regarding educational programs and physical environment, 'very dissatisfied' had a proportion.
As a result of this, first, it is necessary to provide information about the institution through continuous parental education for parents who lack information about the daycare center in workplace daycare centers. In addition, it is necessary to open or guide parental education in a continuous and connected manner for parents who experience educational activities based on the Reggio Emilia approach.
Second, it is necessary to make efforts so that parents can feel the satisfaction of parents even in the aspect of organizing various programs and a clean and safe physical environment in accordance with the increasing educational satisfaction of parents.