본 연구는 교육과학기술부가 추진하고 있는 유아교육 선진화와 최근 실시되고 있는 공․사립 유치원 기관 및 교사 평가의 핵심 취지인 유아교육 책무성 확보에 대한 공․사립 유치원 원장과 교사들의 이해와 교육 실천 상의 의미를 파악하여 추진되고 있는 정책의 실효성을 높이기 위한 방안을 탐색해 보고자 수행되었다. 이에 현재 공․사립 유치원에 재직하고 있는 원장과 교사, 총 5명을 연구 참여자로 하여 심층면담을 중심으로 연구를 수행하였다. 주요한 연구결과로서는 첫째, 원장과 교사들은 책무성을 국가 수준의 교육과정을 충실히 적용하는 법적, 정치적, 관료적, 외재적 의미의 의무로 이해하고 있었고, 둘째, 사립유치원의 원장과 교사의 경우, 교육과정의 자율적 운영, 수요자의 요구 반영, 획일화된 국가수준 유치원 교육과정 준수라는 내재적․외재적 책무성 사이에서 갈등과 혼란을 경험하고 있었다. 이에 본 연구에서는 국가 주도의 위로부터의 개혁이 먼저 시작될 수는 있지만 책무성 확보를 통한 교육개혁이 결국 전문적, 참여적인 책무성 유형을 포괄하지 못한다면 그 실효를 거두기가 어려울 것으로 진단하였다. 또한 현장 전문가들의 자발적인 교육 개혁에 대한 인식 제고와 실천을 도울 수 있는 현장 중심의 교사 소그룹 학습 공동체 결성과 활성화를 제안하였고, 그에 대한 현실적인 지원을 요청하였다.
Early childhood accountability might be the core concept in a policy plan for advancing early childhood education and a nation-wide evaluation for kindergarten and teacher initiated by the Korean Ministry of Education and Technology. Using semi-structured and in-depth interviews, this study examines the levels of understanding practitioners have of early childhood accountability and explores the implications of their understanding to their educational practices. Five participants including directors and teachers in both public and private sectors were selected with respect to the idiosyncratic organizational contexts embedded in their kindergartens. The findings of the study reveal that all of the directors and teachers understood the meaning of accountability as the intrinsic nature of teaching young children with the Korean National Kindergarten Curriculum. However, the director and the teacher in the private kindergarten responded that supporting the national curriculum should not be the only way to improve educational quality and accountability. The participants in the private sector seemed to express the severe tension between what Farrell & Law (1999) call 'internal accountability' and 'external accountability'. In discussing this unveiled tension, it was suggested that it might be caused by the government’s 'top-down' approach in which practitioners had no space in which they themselves could articulate and claim any of the ideas and concepts underpinning the policy as their own. What is needed then is a supportive collaborative pathway for practitioners to participate in a ‘bottom-up’ approach as well and thus be able to draw upon their spontaneous motivation in meeting the demands of accountability.
Early childhood accountability might be the core concept in a policy plan for advancing early childhood education and a nation-wide evaluation for kindergarten and teacher initiated by the Korean Ministry of Education and Technology. Using semi-structured and in-depth interviews, this study examines the levels of understanding practitioners have of early childhood accountability and explores the implications of their understanding to their educational practices. Five participants including directors and teachers in both public and private sectors were selected with respect to the idiosyncratic organizational contexts embedded in their kindergartens. The findings of the study reveal that all of the directors and teachers understood the meaning of accountability as the intrinsic nature of teaching young children with the Korean National Kindergarten Curriculum. However, the director and the teacher in the private kindergarten responded that supporting the national curriculum should not be the only way to improve educational quality and accountability. The participants in the private sector seemed to express the severe tension between what Farrell & Law (1999) call 'internal accountability' and 'external accountability'. In discussing this unveiled tension, it was suggested that it might be caused by the government’s 'top-down' approach in which practitioners had no space in which they themselves could articulate and claim any of the ideas and concepts underpinning the policy as their own. What is needed then is a supportive collaborative pathway for practitioners to participate in a ‘bottom-up’ approach as well and thus be able to draw upon their spontaneous motivation in meeting the demands of accountability.
