With the advent of the 4th Industrial Revolution society, this study explored what role teachers at the early childhood education stage perceive they should play as teachers in preparation for the 4th Industrial Revolution era in order to foster human beings required by the 4th Industrial Revolution society. Accordingly, this study analyzed 105 responses collected from early childhood teachers with experience working with children aged 3 to 5 years old by performing semantic network analysis. As a result, first, it was found that early childhood teachers recognized the role of ‘creative thinking inducer’ as the most necessary role for early childhood teachers in preparation for the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Second, as a result of analyzing the cognitive structure of the role of early childhood teachers, teacher roles such as 'play participant/supporter' and 'emotional supporter' appeared to be structurally connected to each other, centering on 'creative thinking inducer'. The roles of 'initiative helper', 'cooperator', and 'interactor' also appeared to be interconnected. These results show that early childhood teachers recognize that nurturing creative human beings is more important than anything else in preparation for the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution. This suggests that they recognize that early childhood teachers perceive that they need to provide emotional support, cooperation, and interaction with children to enable to take initiative in the play process, in turn, that children can develop creative thinking.