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Copyright

Dong, Pool Ip;

Published On

2023-06-01

Page Range

pp. 285–298

Language

  • English

Print Length

14 pages

Keywords

  • Distance Education
  • Early Childhood Education
  • Covid-19
  • Play Opportunities
  • Educational Strategies
  • South Korea
  • Lockdowns
  • School Closures
  • Parental Perception
  • Creative Teaching Methods
  • Educational Resilience
  • Implications

13. Children’s Emerging Play and Experience in the Covid-19 Era

Educational Endeavours and Changes in South Korea

  • Pool Ip Dong (author)
This chapter examines diverse distance education strategies used in Korean early childhood education and care (ECEC). Focused on the Covid-19 situation in the South Korean educational context, it introduces how Korean teachers and parents made an effort to promote and provide opportunities for children’s play. Examples of this include teachers sending ‘A Package for Play’, using education portals and providing distance education through media (e.g. real-time interactive learning via Zoom and content-based learning via TV programmes). This chapter also analyzes how young children, teachers, parents and educational cultures were changed as they faced the challenges of Covid-19 in South Korea. Lockdowns and school closures offered young children an opportunity to realize the importance of their friends in their play. Some Korean parents’ perception of distance education changed from one of anxiety and pressure to a chance to better understand their children and ECEC. For Korean teachers, it was an opportunity to try creative new teaching methods and support for play in ECEC settings. The Korean cases in this chapter will give an insightful perspective into diverse educational resilience, educational possibilities and implications in the Covid-19 era.

Contributors

Pool Ip Dong

(author)
Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at Changwon National University
Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning in the Institute of Creative Convergence Education at Changwon National University

Pool Ip Dong is an assistant professor of early childhood education and a director of the Center for Teaching and Learning in the Institute of Creative Convergence Education at the Changwon National University in South Korea. Her research focuses on children’s play with digital media and research methods through digital media, especially digital play, popular culture, new media and art education in early childhood education. Currently, she is conducting studies about Posthumanism and New Materialism in digital play, AI and digital media in early childhood education, and children’s creativity and play.