유치원 소집단 활동에서 나타나는 유아들 간의 갈등에 관한 문화 기술적 연구

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to make an ethnographic study of interpersonal conflicts among young children by looking into what sorts of conflicts took place during small-group activities in kindergarten classroom, in what situations the interpersonal conflicts happened, what strategies were used to eliminate the conflicts and what kindergarteners experienced through it. The research questions were posed as below: 1. What situations trigger interpersonal conflicts among young children who are engaged in small-group activities? 2. What strategies do young children use to remove conflicts that occur during small-group activities? 3. What do young children experience through mutual conflicts that happen during small-group activities? The subjects in this study were 33 young children who were enrolled in a class of Western age 5 in S kindergarten located in Gyeonggi province. They involved 18 young boys and 15 preschool girls. An experiment was conducted for 10 weeks from September 11 through December 15, 2006, by making a participant observation of small-group activities twice or three times a week. What's observed during the small-group activities was recorded, and the young children were photographed. Their conservation was recorded on a tape, and an informal interview was held with them and their homeroom teachers. After the audiotaped and videotaped materials were transcribed, a qualitative analysis was made all over the collected data that included the written data and photographs. The findings of the study were as follows: First, during the small-group activities, interpersonal conflicts took place when specific roles were assigned to the kindergarteners, when one of them violated the rule and when they had a different opinion. In the first case, the interpersonal conflicts were provoked by those who insisted on equal opportunity and those who had their own way to address their needs without trying to find a common ground, and when the preschoolers who were given a particular role held the others in check and used their power. In the second case, the interpersonal conflicts happened when the order of activities was determined and when a majority opinion was disregarded. In the third case, the interpersonal conflicts occurred when there were differences in sex roles, when the preschoolers banded together according to gender for the differences in sex roles, and when they confronted with one another, neglecting one another's opinion. Second, as for solution strategies, they presented an alternative by asserting themselves and accepting each other's opinion. When they didn't have the same intention, they negotiated with the other members, and when a majority opinion engendered conflicts, they gave a logical explanation about their own position to persuade the others. When the chances were against them, they avoided that situation to get out of it, and in case the interpersonal conflicts provoked any delay, they compared their own group with the other groups to resolve it. Third, the young children didn't feel good in the conflict situations that took place during the small-group activities, and they tried to get out of the situations as fast as possible and not to be involved in such situations any more. Every small-group member should eliminate the interpersonal conflicts in collaboration, and they felt they achieved something in the process. And their ability to take others' perspective made progress by learning to have their own negative feelings in control, to understand how others felt, and to care about their positions.