The Effects of the Exercise of Kindergarten Teachers' Rights and the Recognition of Children's Rights on Teacher-Child Interactions

This study investigated the effects of exercising kindergarten teachers’ rights and recognizing children’s rights on teacher–child interactions. To this end, an online survey was conducted on 320 teachers from public and private kindergartens in Seoul, Gyeonggi, and Incheon. Pearson correlation and stepwise multiple regression analyses were conducted to analyze the collected data using SPSS 29.0. The following results were obtained: First, exercising kindergarten teachers’ rights was somewhat higher than the intermediate level, and recognizing children’s rights and teacher–child interactions were high. Second, significant positive correlations were found among exercising kindergarten teachers’ rights, recognizing children’s rights, and teacher–child interactions. Third, the freedom of expression and right to participation, which is the sub-factor of recognizing children’s rights, had the most significant effect on teacher–child interactions. Following this, the right to survival and care, right to appropriate developmental support, and teacher’s right to status and property also had sequentially significant effects. These findings suggest that various strategies to enhance teachers’ rights and awareness of children’s rights should be developed to improve the quality of teacher–child interactions.