An Exploration on Public Perception of Social Welfare as a Discipline in Korea

사회복지학에 대한 한국인의 인식에 관한 연구

Efforts to identify the public's perception of social welfare as an academic discipline have never been conducted in Korea since the establishment of social welfare department in 1947 at Ewha Womans University. Such efforts are very meaningful in identifying directions and tasks to strengthen Korean social welfare as well as in clarifying and promoting our understanding concerning status of the academic discipline. This study attempts to explore and describe the degree of the public's perception in Korea with analyzing data surveyed in 2004 by our interdisciplinary research team. This study develops and uses a questionnaire having a Likert scale format that is composed of 8 points and measures the public's perception in the following dimensions: (1) personal interests on academic discipline; (2) contribution of academic discipline; (3) prospect of academic discipline; (4) importance of academic discipline; (5) expertise of academic discipline; and (6) personal knowledge on academic discipline. To avoid social desirability and promote objectivity with comparative measurement, this study selects ten representative academic disciplines as follows: medicine; physics; biology; social welfare; economics; psychology; sociology; political science; library science; and communication & journalism. This study attempts to identify (1) the degree of the public's perception on ten academic disciplines; (2) the position of social welfare by comparing it with each academic discipline and by comparing mean of social welfare with overall mean of six social science disciplines in the six dimensions; (3) the differences in the public's perceptions of social welfare on six dimensions by the respondents' status factor(high school students, college and graduate students, and citizens) and gender factor by using MANCOVA, and (4) the differences in the public's perceptions of social welfare on six dimensions by major factor(social welfare, social science majors, and natural science majors) and gender factor of college and graduate school students by using MANCOVA. The results of data analysis are as follows: (1) while the 3,319 respondents gave relatively high rating on natural sciences in the dimensions of contribution and expertise, they did the same on social sciences in the dimensions of personal interests and personal knowledge; (2) in overall comparisons, while the 3,319 respondents gave relatively high rating on social welfare in the dimensions of contribution, prospect and importance, they gave the lowest rating on the expertise of social welfare; (3) in the comparisons with social science disciplines, while the 3,319 respondents gave relatively high rating on social welfare in the dimensions of contribution, prospect and importance, they gave the lowest rating on the expertise of social welfare; (4) when analyzing all the respondents, there were differences in the vector of personal interests, contribution, prospect, importance, expertise, and personal knowledge by status factor, gender factor, and interaction effect factor; and (5) when analyzing only the respondents in college and graduate schools, there were differences in the vector of personal interests, contribution, prospect, importance, expertise, and personal knowledge by only major factor and gender factor. The results provide empirical backgrounds for discussing current image, status and major characteristics of social welfare as a discipline in Korea. Indeed, this study provides new meaningful and thoughtful guide for further investigation on the topic. In addition, contributing to clarifying and broadening our understandings about the public's perception on social welfare in Korea, this study discusses the tasks for dealing with expertise issue that is the most vulnerable issue of Korean social welfare discipline and research directions to strengthen and promote social welfare discipline in Korea.

한국인의 사회복지학에 대한 인식은 어떠한가? 본 연구는 총 3,319명의 설문 참여자가 제공한 응답자료에 기초해서, 심리학, 문헌정보학, 경제학, 사회학, 정치외교학, 신문방송학과 같은 사회과학분야 학문들 그리고 생물학, 의학, 물리학과 같은 자연과학분야 학문들과의 비교 차원에서 한국인의 사회복지학에 대한 인식을 비교 분석하였다. 각 학문에 대한 개인적 흥미도, 사회적 공헌도, 유망도, 학문적 중요도, 전문성, 개인적 지식정도 측면에서의 인식을 8-점 Likert 척도로 평정, 비교하였다. 또한 사회복지학에 초점을 두고 성별 요인과 고등학생, 대학생과 대학원생, 일반 시민과 같은 지위 요인에 따라서 사회복지학에 대한 인식이 어떻게 다른지를 분석해 보았다. 아울러 대학생 및 대학원생만을 대상으로 현재 전공하고 있는 학문적 배경 요인에 따라서 사회복지학에 대한 인식이 어떻게 다른지를 분석해 보았다. 연구결과를 보면, 사회복지학에 대해서 공헌도, 유망도, 중요도, 개인 지식은 상대적으로 더 높게 인식하는 것으로 나타났고, 개인적인 흥미도와 전문성은 상대적으로 더 낮게 인식하는 것으로 나타났다. 사회복지학에 대한 흥미도, 공헌도, 유망도, 중요도, 전문성, 개인지식의 벡터(vector)는 나이를 통제했을 때 성별 요인과 지위 요인에 의해서 차이를 갖는 것으로 나타났다. 대학생 및 대학원생의 경우, 학문적 배경 요인에 따라서 사회복지학에 대한 인식이 다른 것으로 나타났다. 객관적으로 비춰지는 학문의 모습과 관련된 이러한 결과는 한국 사회복지학이 오랜 기간 고민해 온 학문의 전문성 심화 과제 등을 정확하게 반영하고 있다. 본 논문은 한국 사회복지학의 발전과 관련해서 이러한 결과가 시사하는 바를 논의한다.