본 연구는 어린이집 교사들이 점심시간에 영아들을 어떻게 지도하고 있으며, 그 과정에서의 어려움은 무엇인지를 알아보고자 하는 것이다. 연구 참여자는 D 광역시의 어린이집에 근무하는 교사 8명 이었으며, 관찰과 면담을 통해 자료를 수집하였다. 연구의 결과를 요약하면 다음과 같다. 첫째, 어린이집 교사들의 점심식사지도를 시간적 순서에 따라 살펴보았을 때, 식사 전에는 화장실 다녀오기, 손씻기, 책상닦기, 도시락 준비하기 등의 지도가 이루어지고, 식사과정에서는 먹여주기와 행동강화를 통해 식사를 지도하는 것으로 나타났다. 또한, 식사 후에는 도시락 정리와 책상 정리 등의 지도가 이루어지는 것으로 나타났다. 둘째로, 교사들이 식사지도과정에서 느끼는 어려움은 배식, 식사지도, 양치지도, 배변훈련 등 다중적 역할수행, 식사습관의 개인차로 인한 갈등과 편식지도 방법에 대한 지식부족, 부모와 지도방법의 차이로 인한 갈등에서 오는 것으로 나타났다.
The aim of this study was to investigate how the teachers in the child-care institutions implemented the lunch dining education and what kind of difficulties they had in the process of the education. The participants were 8 teachers in the child-care institution located in D city and the data were collected from observation and in-depth interview. The results of the study were summarized as follows. First, if the lunch dining education of the teachers was categorized according to the sequence of time, before eating, the lunch time of teachers in child-care institutions consisted of the activities such as going to the toilet, washing hands, cleaning tables, and preparing lunch boxes. While eating, teachers educated children through feeding and language reinforcements. After eating, teachers taught children through activities of taking lunch boxes away and cleaning tables. Second, the first difficulty that the teachers felt in the process of the lunch dining education was the multi-role taking that was handing out meals, eating education, brushing-teeth education, toilet training, etc. In addition, teachers experienced difficulty when conflict emerged because of the differences of eating habits when they did not have enough knowledge to teach some children with unbalanced diet, and when parents did not agree with them about the ways of the dining education.