본 논문은 ‘생태유아교육’의 특성 및 실천 사례를 소개하고, 이를 어린이박물관에서 접목시켜 볼 수 있는 방안을 찾고자 하였다. 생태유아교육은 유아교육이라는 단어 앞에 ‘생태(Eco)’를 붙임으로써 기후위기·생명위기의 시대에 유아교육을 통한 생명살림을 실천하고자 하는 선언이자, 아이에게 자연·놀이·아이다움을 되찾아주어 아이를 난대로 결대로 기르고자 하는 유아교육의 본질 찾기를 위한 노력이다. 대표적으로 실천해온 것이 바깥놀이, 산책, 텃밭가꾸기, 명상, 세시풍속, 자연건강, 생태적 식생활, 손끝놀이, 몸짓놀이, 생태미술·생태노래·생태그림책, 절제·절약, 도·농교류, 세대간 교류, 연령간 통합 등 다양한 프로그램이 개발되어 유아교육현장에서 실천되고 있다. 그동안 생태유아교육은 아이들에게 자연과 놀이와 아이다움을 되찾아주고자 노력해왔고, 그를 위한 실천의 핵심은 유아교육에서의 “시간, 공간, 인간”에 대한 문제제기와 재구성이었다. 따라서 본 고에서는 어린이박물관에서의 생태유아교육 실천방안 역시 시간과 공간, 인간의 측면으로 나누어 제시해보고자 하였다. 시간의 측면에서는, 특별전이 아닌 계절(세시)에 따른 분기별 교육프로그램으로 구성하고 유아의 발달수준에 맞는 내용과 언어로 교육활동을 구성할 것을 제안하였다. 공간의 측면에서는, 박물관의 실내에서 박물관의 자연으로 이어지는 실내외 확장형 교육활동으로 구성하고 어린이박물관과 가정 및 유아교육기관과의 연계 프로그램을 기획할 필요가 있다. 사람과의 관계의 측면에서는, 영유아의 연령수준에 맞추되 혼합연령도 함께 할 수 있는 내용으로 기획하고 유아와 함께 오는 부모 및 조부모 세대와 교사의 역할도 함께 고려될 필요가 있음을 제안하였다.
Today, our children are living without nature, play, or childlikeness. The desirable direction of early childhood education that we should seek is the one aimed to restore children’s things that have been lost, thereby returning a happy childhood to them. ‘Eco Early Childhood Education (Eco ECE)’has walked that path for the past 30 years or more. In this era of climate crisis and life crisis, we must ultimately be able to practice saving lives by means of child saving and education saving through Eco ECE. In this paper, I will try to introduce the characteristics and practice cases of this Eco ECE, and to find ways to incorporate them in children’s museums. First, I will briefly introduce the characteristics and practice cases of Eco Early Childhood Education (Eco ECE). Eco ECE is a declaration to find the essence of early childhood education, which is intended to put children’s happiness first by restoring nature, play, and childlikeness to children by adding ‘Eco’ in front of the term Early Childhood Education, as well as a declaration to practice saving lives through early childhood education in this era. It is Korea’s self-sustaining early childhood education designed to raise children according to natural principles so that they can live according to the nature of life they were born with, as well as life-saving early childhood education based on the parenting wisdom of their ancestors. Representative activities that have been practiced include outdoor play, walking, gardening, outside play, meditation, fingertip play, urban-rural exchange, senior-child interaction, inter-age integration and forest education. In the meantime, Eco ECE has made efforts to restore nature, play, and childlikeness to children, and the core of the practice for that can be seen as the results of raising the problems regarding “time, space, and humans” in early childhood education and newly reorganizing “time, space, and humans” to solve them. Therefore, I would like to present practical measures for eco early childhood education in children’s museums by classifying them into time, space, and human aspects. Regarding time aspects, it has been proposed that educational activities should be organized by quarterly education programs according to seasons rather than special exhibitions, together with content and languages suitable for the developmental level of young children. Regarding space aspects, it is necessary to organize indoor and outdoor expandable educational activities that lead from the interior of the museum to nature outside the museum, and to plan a program linking the children’s museum with home and early childhood educational institutions. Regarding human aspects, it is necessary to plan content suitable for the age level of infants and toddlers and usable for the mixed age level as well, and to consider the roles of parents and grandparents who come with the infants, as well as the roles of teachers. Educational activities for infants and toddlers in children’s museums should not be a means of teaching that emphasizes the learning of knowledge, but they should be activities that allow one to enjoy a different cultural space crossing the inside and outside in a leisurely time range away from everyday life and also feel one’s identity in the encounter between the past and the present through harmony among humans of various ages.