A Case Study of Evaluation Experiences Based on Appreciative Inquiry in a Korean Child Care Center

In many sectors around the world, the relatively new human endeavors to improve program quality through institutional evaluations, represented by accreditation approaches in many countries, have been often perceived as... [ view full abstract ]

In many sectors around the world, the relatively new human endeavors to improve program quality through institutional evaluations, represented by accreditation approaches in many countries, have been often perceived as bureaucratic ordeal for practitioners to survive (Lee & Walsh, 2004; Lee & Stake, 2015), and the field of early childhood education and care has been no exception. This study aims at exploring the possibilities of Appreciative Inquiry (AI), originally developed for organizational learning and extended to program evaluation as one of strengths-based evaluation approaches, actually being utilized in improving quality of early childhood programs with perceived institutional assets and shared visions. Experiences with the 4I (Inquire,  Imagine, Innovate, Implement) cycle of child care practitioners in a Korean child care center, serving about 110 children aged from 1 to 5 year olds, for about a year are illuminated with their dream of improving their workforce culture as a learning community. The participating teachers, who pinpointed teaching staff as the most important asset of their institution, focused on further improving their collegial climate and teacher competences through shared learning activities, including arts and crafts, yoga and meditation, and musical performance. This paper illuminates their stories, both successful and discouraging, and lessons gleaned from their experiences, in the hope of turning evaluation experiences more meaningful and useful to stakeholders of program evaluation.