자유학기제를 경험한 저소득층 아동의 행복감에 대한 요구 = A Study on happiness of children in low-income families who experienced free-semester

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

`Free semester` started to actualize `Happy Education`, which is aimed for letting students find their dreams and develop talents in 2013. From 2016. it is planned to be applied for all the schools overall the nations. Free-semester policy is designed to enhance students` self-discovery, self-awareness, self-knowledge and career search in a way that it helps students experience various activities : career search activity, subject choice activity, culture and sports activity, club activity. This research was conducted to see how children in low-income families who lack chances to have various activities perceive the free-semester experiences. We had one on one interviews with 8 participants from -1 different schools and analyzed the content. We focused on first, how children`s free-semester experiences are related with hope and joy that George Vaillant mentioned in his happiness concept and second, how free-semester policy and programs affected low-income family children`s happiness in their real educational setting. According to the result, free―semester programs provide children with the chances to choose and join various activities besides unified coursework. It also helps children dream and hold out hope for their purpose. Also children could perceive learning as interesting and joyful during the free-semester programs. They also solidified their social relationships at the same time. However, it is difficult generalize that free-semester would always bring out success in schools because it depends on the preparedness and other factors to run the program in school setting. Therefore, in order for free-semester policy to be operational and to function as a tool for actualizing happy education and educational welfare, government has to support middle schools nationwide to be qualified and ready to run free-semester programs.