초등학교 동학년 교사들의 교육과정 공동개발을 위한 숙의 사례 연구

Abstract

본 연구는 초등학교 동학년 교사들의 교육과정 공동개발 사례에서 어떤 갈등이 발생하고 그 갈등이 어떻게 해결되는지를 탐색함으로써 교육과정 공동개발이 이루어지는 학교 현장에 줄 수 있는 시사점을 발견하기 위한 목적으로 수행되었다. 이를 위해 한 학교의 동학년 교사들의 교육과정 공동개발 협의회를 참여 관찰하고 해당 교사들을 면담하여 질적 사례 연구를 수행하였다. 연구 목적을 달성하기 위해 설정한 연구 문제는 다음과 같다.

첫째, 초등학교 동학년 교육과정 공동개발에 참여한 교사들은 어떤 갈등을 경험하는가? 둘째, 초등학교 동학년 교육과정 공동개발에 참여한 교사들은 갈등을 어떻게 해결하는가? 셋째, 초등학교 동학년 교육과정 공동개발 사례가 학교교육과정 개발에 주는 시사점은 무엇인가?

본 연구의 결과를 요약하면 다음과 같다. 첫째, 초등학교 동학년 교사들의 교육과정 공동개발에서 교사가 경험하는 갈등은 다른 교육과정 개발 관계자들과의 관점 차이, 교육과정 내용 및 교수학습 방법에 대한 관점 차이, 학교교육과정 개발에서 계획과 실행의 불일치 등으로 인한 것이었다. 둘째, 교사들은 개인적인 노력과 집단적인 노력을 통하여 교육과정 공동개발에서 나타난 갈등을 해결하고자 노력하고 있었다. 개인적인 노력으로는 수업 실행 연습, 자신의 교육적 입장에 대한 성찰, 갈등과 불일치에 대한 인내, 여러 경로를 통한 학습 참여 등으로 이루어졌다. 집단적인 노력으로는 숙의적 대화의 조건을 마련하고 숙의 집단을 다양하게 구성하여 갈등을 해결하고자 하였다. 셋째, 초등학교 동학년 교사들의 교육과정 공동개발 사례로부터 다음과 같은 실천적인 시사점을 얻을 수 있었다. 먼저, 교육과정 개발은 계획과 실행의 순환적 과정이라는 점에서 이론과 실제에 대한 지속적인 탐구를 필요로 한다. 또한 교육과정 공동개발에 나타난 갈등을 해결하기 위해 교사들은 다른 의견을 가진 교사들을 설득하고 회유하면서 숙의의 정치적인 성격을 드러내는데, 이때 숙의의 정치적인 성격은 항상 억압적인 경험이 아니라 오히려 소외된 교사들을 교육공동체 구성원으로 함께 참여시키는 역할을 하였다. 이 과정에서 교사들의 학습이 의미있는 역할을 하는 것으로 나타났다. 마지막으로 이 사례는 동학년 교사들 간의 협력이 아니라, 학교 전체 구성원들의 협력을 통하여 교사들 간 파벌화를 방지하고 오랜 시간 교육과정 공동개발을 지속하게 하는 것으로 나타난다. 본 연구는 교육과정 공동개발 사례에서 기존에 선형적인 과정으로 기술되어 온 교육과정 개발의 과정이 실제로는 갈등을 해결하기 위하여 이미 내려진 의사결정의 단계를 오가는 역추적의 과정임을 드러내었다. 특히 교육과정 공동개발 사례에서 교과와 교사의 입장만 강조해왔던 선행연구와 달리 교육과정 공동개발에서 다양한 참여자들을 유동적인 참여자로 설정하여 갈등을 해결하는 과정을 보여주고 있다. 이를 통해 교육과정 개발의 역동성을 확인할 수 있었으며, 숙의의 정치적 성격에 대한 부정적 인식에서 벗어나야 함을 시사한다. 본 연구는 향후 학교교육과정 개발에서 논쟁적이고 다양한 주제를 다룰 수 있어야 한다는 점을 실제 사례를 통해 보여준다는 점에서 의의가 있다.

According to the deliberative approach to curriculum development, curriculum development is found upon the experience of teachers and students, and is a dynamic process consisting cycles of modification and alteration. In this perspective, this study argues that the conflicts experienced by the participants of curriculum development process promote deliberation. Therefore, in order to understand the reality of school-based curriculum development in a sufficient level, it is required to examine how conflicts emerge and resolve during the development process. However, studies conducted within Korea in relation to school-based curriculum development regarded conflict as a negative element, neglecting its importance, otherwise laying the focus upon what kind of conflicts emerged, rather than how the conflict emerged in school-based curriculum development resolved. The purpose of this study is to discover any implications that might impact the field, where cooperative curriculum developments take place, by researching cases of cooperative curriculum development organized by teachers of the same school grade, investigating the nature of conflicts that occur during the process, and how they were resolved. In order to fulfill this, a qualitative case study has been conducted by implementing an observational study in regard to a cooperative curriculum conference organized by the teachers of the same school grade of Eunhasoo Elementary School and interviewing the participant teachers. The following are the research questions set up to fulfill the purpose of the study:

First, what is the nature of conflict that teachers experience while participating to the elementary school-based cooperative curriculum development of the same school grade? Second, what are the resolutions employed by the teachers who have participated in elementary school-based cooperative curriculum development in order to resolve the conflicts emerged during the process? Third, what implications can be drawn from the cases of elementary school-based cooperative curriculum development of the same school grade, and how they impact curriculum development process?

The result of this study can be summarized by the following: First, the conflicts experienced by teachers of the same school grade within cooperative curriculum development mainly originate from the difference in terms of education standpoint between other participants, the difference in terms of contents of the courses and perspectives of learning methods, and discordance between the planning and implementation in curriculum development process. Second, teachers make personal and collective efforts in order to resolve the conflicts emerged in the midst of cooperative curriculum development process. For personal efforts, examples practicing of teaching-learning methods, lecturing rehearsal, self-examining ones educational viewpoint, enduring the conflict and discordance, and participating to learning via multiple channels. In case of collective efforts, teachers made attempts to promote conditions for deliberate political dialogue while also maintaining diversity of deliberation group, so that such attempts may lead to a resolution of the conflict. Third, following practical implications could be drawn from the cases of cooperative curriculum development by teachers of same school grade in elementary school: First and foremost, curriculum development requires continuous deliberative inquiry in action as it consists circling process of planning and implementation. Also, teachers persuade and conciliate the others with different opinions in order to resolve the conflict emerged in the process of course developing, and the political nature of deliberation guided the alienated teachers into the educative community, embracing them as one of their members, instead of serving as an oppressive experience. In this process, it has been showed that the learning of teachers played a meaningful role. Lastly, this case showed that the collaboration of the entire teacher gains necessity, as the collaboration that is exclusive within teachers of the same grade may cause factionalization of teachers. This study revealed that the process of curriculum development, which previously described as a linear process, is in fact a backtracking process that crosses over the steps of decision making that had been already determined. More precisely, in contrast with previous studies, this study set focus on how the resolution could took place in the process of cooperative curriculum development by maintaining openness for the participants who get involved intermittently as well, along with the regular participants. By employing this, curriculum decision-making process could furtherly enhance the consideration of students and milieu, instead of being restrained with emphasizing the position of subject and teachers without careful consideration, which have been shown from the previously conducted studies. By doing so, the dynamic character of curriculum development could be ascertained, while also finding the implication that the negative perception onto the political characteristic of deliberation is ought to be diverged. The significance of this study is derived upon the fact that it showed future school-based curriculum development process should be open to more contentious and diverse topics, with reflection to the actual cases. However, this study also carries its limitations due to the restrictions in terms of methodology and specialty of study cases, which raises necessity of follow-up study. First, the data collection of this study was conducted from April 2019 to February 2020. During this period, interviews and participant observations were done in regard to the conflicts experienced by teachers. However, majority of the experiences shown from the interviews predate back to 2019 and before. Given that the conflicts experienced by the teachers before 2019 were still affecting the curriculum development process of Eunhasoo Elementary School, prohibiting data collection via participant observation, relevant data had to be acquired through retrospective questions. This means that the necessity of conducting a study with extended period should be revisited, rather than a year-long study, in order to examine details of the conflicts that occur in the process of cooperative curriculum development and consecutive resolving process. Moreover, while the criteria of the study were set to same school grade teachers, deliberation had to be consented by the entirety of the teachers in some cases, not limited to a certain grade. Also, given that the position of the teachers who disagree with overall direction of curriculum development employed by Eunhasoo Elementary School, or the teachers who leave the school without resolving conflict was not considered, an additional study may be required in order to fulfill the purpose of the study. Followed by that, another limitation roots from the specialty of the study case. This study examined the cooperative curriculum development case which took place in an innovation school. Being an innovation school implies an additional support of human and material resources can be granted, which may raise a popularization issue. Considering such limitations of this study, an additional study regarding the cases of cooperative curriculum development in general schools may be employed.