Daycare Directors Perception of Sustainable Development Education Practices

The purpose of this study is to seek improvement measures to effectively support the practice of sustainable development education in childcare settings based on the results of a survey on the awareness of daycare center directors on the practice of sustainable development education. A survey was conducted by sampling 230 daycare center directors in the Chungcheong region. As a result of the survey, 224 copies were collected, but 7 copies were excluded as they were not suitable for data processing, and 217 copies were used for the final analysis. The questionnaire was created by the researcher with reference to the theoretical background, and is the 'Survey on the Perception of Sustainable Development Education Practices of Daycare Center Directors'. In order to find out the general trend of the perception of the daycare center directors on sustainable development education practices, the frequency and average score were calculated. The results of the study are as follows. First, although the current daycare directors first encountered the term sustainable development through the media or continuing education, their level of awareness of sustainable development education was very high. When implementing sustainable development education programs, daycare centers selected educational content and topics with the utmost respect for teachers’ opinions. Second, daycare directors had a strong will to practice, such as planning childcare programs related to sustainable development education, operating various experiential activities, and cooperating with parents and the local community. Based on the results of this study, it was suggested that institutional improvements in continuing education, as well as investigations through in-depth interviews and qualitative analysis, are necessary.