The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of childcare teachers' professionalism in the relationship between the childcare teachers' perception of rights and the implementation of childcare that respects children's rights, targetin...
The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of childcare teachers' professionalism in the relationship between the childcare teachers' perception of rights and the implementation of childcare that respects children's rights, targeting childcare teachers working in daycare centers across the country.
The research questions according to the purpose of this study are as follows:
1. Are there any significant differences in childcare teachers' perception of rights, professionalism, and respect for children's rights according to their general background (age, career, academic background, institution type, working hours, salary, marital status)?
2. Is there a significant relationship between childcare teachers' perception of rights, professionalism, and childcare practices that respect the rights of young children?
3. Does the professionalism of childcare teachers have an impact on mediating the effects of childcare teachers’ perception of rights and the implementation of childcare that respects the rights of young children?
The subjects of this study are childcare teachers currently working in daycare centers across the country. A total of 323 questionnaire responses were collected by conducting a survey through a Google link.
To measure childcare teachers' perception of rights, Kang-jae Lee (2019)'s scale of childcare teacher's respect for rights was used, and the professionalism scale developed by Eun-ju Baek and Boo-kyung Jo (2004) and modified and supplemented by Mi-ae Choi (2020) was used. The research tool developed by Jinsuk Kim (2009) was used for the implementation of childcare with respect for the rights of infants and young children.
The collected data was used to calculate the frequency and percentage to examine the general characteristics of the study subjects using SPSS 20.0, and to verify the differences in the childcare teachers' rights perception, professionalism, and respect for the rights of infants and toddlers according to the general background of the childcare teachers, a t-test, One-Way ANOVA, and Scheffé's post-hoc method were performed. In order to examine the relationship between major variables, Pearson's correlation coefficient was analyzed and a mediating effect analysis was conducted using the Baron and Kenny (1986) method to find out whether childcare teachers' perception of rights had a significant effect on the implementation of childcare that respected the rights of infants and young children through professionalism. The Sobel Test was conducted to verify the significance of the mediating effect.
The results of this study are summarized as follows.
First, according to the general background of childcare teachers, there were partial differences in significance in the childcare teacher's perception of rights and professionalism, and the implementation of childcare that respects the rights of infants and young children. There were significant differences in the perception of childcare teachers' rights by age, educational background, type of institution, working hours, salary, and marital status. The professionalism showed a significant difference in educational background, institution type, and salary, and there was a significant difference in the implementation of childcare that respected the rights of infants and toddlers according to educational background.
Second, it was found that there was a significant positive correlation between the childcare teachers' perception of rights, professionalism, and childcare practices that respect the rights of infants and toddlers, both as a whole and for each component.
Third, there was a partial mediating effect of professionalism in the relationship between childcare teachers' perception of rights and childcare practices that respect the rights of infants and young children. In other words, it was confirmed that the childcare teachers' perception of rights had a positive effect on the implementation of childcare that respected the rights of infants and toddlers, and that professionalism, a mediating variable, increased the influence of childcare teachers' perception of rights on the implementation of childcare that respected the rights of infants and young children.
Therefore, childcare teachers' awareness of rights and expertise are significant variables for respecting the rights of infants and young children. The results of this study suggest that there is a need to implement a variety of measures for childcare practices which respect the rights of infants and young children and the awareness of rights and professionalism of childcare teachers should be improved.
Key words: Childcare practices respecting the rights of infants and young children, rights of childcare teachers, professionalism of childcare teachers