Growth Process of the Daycare Center Director's Play-Oriented Activities through Participation in the Play-Learning Community

Objectives The purpose of this study is to qualitatively analyze the professional growth process of the daycare center director's play-oriented activities through the play-learning community. Methods For this study, five daycare center directors and one consultant from D Metropolitan City participated in the play-learning community. The operating period of the play-learning community was a total of 5 months from May 31, 2023 to October 20, 2023. The meeting was held once every two weeks, a total of nine times, and real-time opinions were exchanged online. Results During the period of operation of the play-learning community meeting, pre-questionnaires and post-questionnaires, childcare plans, play implementation reports, research group diaries were collected. Conclusions Through the play-learning community, daycare center directors changed as follows. First, the directors changed their understanding of the value of play-oriented activities by ‘promoting understanding of play-oriented activities led by children’ and ‘finding common values through worries about the implementation of play-oriented activities’. In other words, the directors realized that learning took place in the process of children's play while considering the composition of play and the environment. Second, the directors practiced play-oriented activities focusing on ‘creating a play-oriented childcare course based on observation’, ‘becoming a director who supports play-oriented activities’, ‘changing the organizational culture of teachers and parents’. In other words, the directors realized that their role should be to create play time, environment, and organizational culture so that teachers can practice play-oriented activities.