A Study on Principals' Perceptions of Overseas Educational Field Trips: Focusing on the Principal Qualification Training of the Gyeonggido Office of Education

Purpose: This study analyzed the experiences and participants of participants and training program planners regarding overseas educational field trips, identifying both the effectiveness and limitations of such training to explore ways in which principal professional development can substantively contribute to educational practice. Methods: To achieve this, a survey and in-depth interviews were conducted with principals holding qualification certification to examine their perceptions and needs related to overseas educational field trips, and the qualitative data collected were analyzed. Results: The study found that these trips had a positive effect by encouraging principals to move beyond traditional authoritative leadership to adopt supportive roles in educational activities. The trips also provide principals with opportunities to compare educational systems and broaden their educational insights. Furthermore, the trips foster interaction among principals, promoting network-building that could later serve as a collaborative foundation for effective school management. However, issues such as insufficient pre-training, the unilateral format of training sessions, superficial result-sharing, and limitations in the evaluation system were identified as potential barriers to training effectiveness. Conclusion: Based on these findings, this study suggests improvements to enhance the substantive impact of overseas educational field trips on principals’ professional development, including pre-training and theme-focused exploration, fostering learning communities to deepen engagement, and for developing a structured evaluation system for these programs.