A study on daycare center directors’ perception, actual conditions, and needs for nature-friendly education in a pandemic situation

This study explored ways to provide nature-friendly education in early childhood education by identifying the perceptions, actual conditions, and demands of daycare center directors regarding nature-friendly education in a pandemic situation. For this purpose, this study collected and analyzed survey and interview data on the awareness and status of nature-friendly education and opinions on improvement plans from daycare center directors in a metropolitan city. The results of this study were as follows. First, the daycare center directors who participated in this study deeply sympathized with the need to change the direction of early childhood education toward nature-friendly education. Second, in reality, nature-friendly education was found to be difficult to apply in the following order: ‘control and safety of young children, lack of activity assistants, lack of space, parental concerns, and lack of program diversity.’ Third, the prerequisites for nature-friendly education were ‘program development, the beliefs and will of directors and teachers, improvement of the environment around early childhood education institutions, improvement of parents’ awareness, and expansion of opportunities for education for directors and teachers.’ This study is significant as it explored the direction of nature-friendly education among daycare center directors who experienced the COVID-19 pandemic. This study suggests that to advance toward nature-friendly education focused on sustainable development, it is important to enhance teachers' practical abilities to foster young children's connection with life and environmental awareness, going beyond merely offering nature activities centered on interest.