이 연구의 목적은 대학생들의 지역아동센터 교육봉사 경험을 통해 빈곤계층 아동에 대한 인식을 살펴봄으로써 대학생 봉사자들이 아이들과 관계 맺는 방식과 봉사실천이 갖는 의미를 해석, 이해하는 데 있다. 주요 연구문제는 대학생들의 생애경험과 함께 지역아동센터 아동들과의 상호작용 과정에서 빈곤계층 아동에 대한 이들의 인식이 어떻게 유지 또는 변화하는지 살펴보고, 그 안에서 ‘자아/타자’의 관계가 어떻게 의미화되는가 하는 점이다. 연구자는 한 대학의 교육봉사단 활동을 참여관찰하였으며, 13명의 연구참여자들을 심층면담하였다. 연구결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째 연구참여자들의 생애경험은 ‘학업능력에 대한 사회적 인정과 불확실한 미래에 대한 불안’, ‘성장을 향한 열망과 노력’의 의미를 중심으로 구성되었다. 둘째, 센터 아이들에 대한 인식과 봉사활동은 연구참여자들의 생애경험을 바탕으로 다양한 방식으로 그 의미가 재구성되었다. 특히 봉사활동의 주요 이슈였던 아이들의 ‘무기력’한 태도에 대한 연구참여자들의 서로 다른 이해는 이러한 점을 드러내 주었다. 셋째, 연구참여자들의 봉사실천은 대체로 나/그(들)를 구별하는 ‘봉사자/수혜자’의 관계(성)를 재생산하였다. 그러나 일부 연구참여자들은 과거 어느 한순간을 되돌아봄으로써 아이들의 고통에 공감하였고 나와 그(들)의 다름을 주의 깊게 바라보고 질문함으로써 나-그(들)의 연결성을 만들어갔다. 마지막으로 본 연구의 의의, 제한점 및 후속 연구를 제안하였다.

The purpose of this study is to examine university students’ perceptions of children in poverty through their experiences of volunteering at local children’s centers and to interpret and understand the meaning of their volunteer practices by analyzing the ways in which they interact with children. The main research question is how university students’ perceptions of children in poverty are maintained or changed in the process of interacting with children at local children’s centers along with their life experiences, and how the relationship between ‘self/other’ is (re)constructed within the experience of volunteering. The researcher participant-observed the activities of an educational volunteer group at a university and conducted in-depth interviews with 13 participants. The findings are as follows. First, the research participants’ life experiences were constituted around the meanings of ‘social recognition of academic ability’ and ‘aspiration and effort for growth(social success)’. Second, the research participants’ life experiences influenced their perceptions of children at the local children’s center, but their meanings were reconstructed in various ways in their subjective world of experience. In particular, a major issue in the volunteering was a sense of helplessness of the children. For most of the participants, the children’s attitudes were those of a life they had not experienced, and the difference in experience hindered their communication and understanding of the children. However some of the participants began to see the children’ sense of helplessness as hidden injuries. Third, the participants’ volunteering practices is either an experience of seeing(viewing) children in poverty as beings in need of help, or a new meaning-making process that creates mutual connection between them and children. On one hand, the participants’ volunteering practices reproduced the ‘volunteer/recipient’ relationship. For most of the participants, disadvantaged children were othered as recipients of help. On the other hand, research participants who reflected on their own past experiences through their encounter with children at the volunteer site were able to empathize with their suffering by reflecting on a moment in their own lives, and fill in the deficiencies in their own lives by paying attention to and questioning the differences between me and them. For them, practice of volunteering was not bounded by social categories such as ‘disadvantaged children in poverty’ but constituted a relationship of ‘I-thou’ connection through recognizing ‘them’ as equal to ‘me’. Lastly, I propose the significance of this study, its limitations and expectations for future research.