선진 육아정책 동향 분석 및 활용 방안 연구

Abstract

As the law The study intended to review and analyze trends and issues of early childhood education and care (henceforth, ECEC) policies in advanced countries and to draw implications for Korea in the planning and implementation of ECEC policies. Furthermore, it aimed at provide prospects for the field and developing pertinent policy agenda. A range of up-to-date ECEC policy information were gathered through experts in selected countries. In addition, a questionnaire survey was conducted with central and local government officials in Korea regarding their use of and needs for policy information in other countries. The reviewed topics included national policy goals, curriculum, teacher qualification and initial and continuing training, quality assurance, integration of ECEC and support policies for children under age of 2. It is posited in the study that establishing policy goals is foremost important and needs to have a balanced perspective of educational vs. social welfare due to multi-sectoral nature of ECEC. Emphasized are the bottom-up continuing professional development, evaluation on outcomes of teacher training, autonomy of teachers in the curriculum implementation, and so on. In order to utilize or optimize policy information in other countries, reflections on social and cultural contexts, policy paradigms and terminology of individual countries need to underscored.