Experience and Meaning of Child Care Teacher Learning Community for Childhood Guidance in Disability Risk Group

This study aimed to explore the experiences and meanings of a learning community for early childhood educators who guide young children at risk of developmental delays. Six early childhood educators from daycare centers in S-gu were selected as participants. The teachers collaboratively determined all aspects of the learning community, including topics, sessions, operating hours, and methods. Starting with recruitment in October 2024, a total of six sessions were conducted until December. The researcher reviewed the sub-topics established by the teachers for these six sessions and provided a resource booklet with relevant information to support them. Following the completion of the six learning community sessions, the researcher conducted a Focus Group Interview (FGI) using a semi-structured interview guide. The collected interview data and the researcher's supplementary materials were analyzed based on the method proposed by Bogdan and Biklen (2007) to identify underlying patterns and meaningful content. The analysis yielded four main themes and nine sub-themes. The main themes were identified as: “Voluntary Participation in the Learning Community,” “A New Perspective on Children at Risk of Developmental Delays,” “Positive Changes as a Teacher,” and “Our Growth as a Team.”. This study confirmed that learning communities enhance early childhood educators' teaching behaviors and competencies in guiding young children at risk of developmental delays. It also demonstrated that the sense of community among teachers with similar experiences fosters opportunities for spontaneous professional growth.