Teacher Education and Play Pedagogy: International Perspectives

This edited collection celebrates the multiple ways in which early childhood teacher educators are supporting teachers through fostering play-based approaches to learning and teaching. Early childhood is founded on the notion of play as a keystone. Yet, as Lohmander and Samuelsson’s chapter explains ‘there seems to be consensus among researchers about the inconsistency and lack of clarity of play and on how to combine play and learning’ (127). Advocating for play based approaches as a way for teachers to grow as educators of young children offers an underpinning for this entire text. Across 13 chapters, this book sets out to redress the paucity of literature published thus far on how play-based considerations in teacher education can support the learning and development of new early childhood teachers. Therefore, this is a very welcome addition to the emerging field.

The early childhood teacher educator’s role is distinctive given the various values and beliefs that practitioners hold in relation to play based learning. Creating experiences through which teachers of young children can think and learn requires a fostering of pedagogical reasoning to develop a ‘basis for knowing’ (Bullock, 2009). Developing thinking about teaching young children, through learning about and through play-based approaches, reflects a view of knowledge as tentative, emergent and transitory (Berry and Forgasz, 2018; Mezirow, 2003). Opportunities for early childhood initial teacher educators to consider pedagogical intent are vital not only for their professional learning, but also for the communities in which they work. This book provides the pedagogical mans through which we might consider ways to do this. As such, it is indeed ‘ground-breaking’ as the editors Louizou and Trawick-Smith suggest, as it is the first book to bring together these international perspectives on 21st century play pedagogies.

Teacher education is often considered in terms of generalised or subject-based pedagogical approaches, such as modelling or coaching. This book explores a variety of ways in which educating teachers to support our youngest learners depends upon a philosophical stance that views play-based pedagogical considerations as dynamic professional learning opportunities. The role of praxis is emphasized, and it is made clear that this is not a textbook for practice. However, the publication as a whole, serves as a provocation for considering our own pedagogical approaches. The strength of this text is in the stories and narratives of practice from a variety of international contexts, written by the teacher educators themselves. Wyse et al. (2018) claim that there was a lack of knowledge about pedagogical practices experienced by teacher educators. This book goes some way to redressing this imbalance. It inspires us to adopt a view of knowledge as socially produced and invites the reader in to consider new ways of thinking about practice. As such, this sociocultural approach is presented as a way of encouraging ethical praxis. The book lives its message.

In this edited collection, I found plenty of thought-provoking ideas that would be ideal for teaching education in university settings. For example, there is a focus on providing particular types of play experiences for preservice teachers. Trawick-Smith, Cullis and Koschel (166) assert that new teachers need to understand the developmental importance of block play through hands on experiences and a framework is offered for this. Reading this was reassuring and developed my conviction that we need to introduce even more hands-on experiences in university seminars that relate to different types of play. It is acknowledged that to appreciate the power of play in children’s learning, we need to experience it in teacher education (Galbraith, 2022). Whilst time, resourcing and environmental considerations might pose barriers, these opportunities described in this book confirm the importance of offering teachers multiple experiences to learn through play. They can benefit from learning ‘through being a teacher and a learner’ (Loughran, 1997, p. 65).

Pramling’s chapter challenges the reader to consider how a concept framed as ‘triggering’ can open up new narrative possibilities for children, as an alternative to limiting them through scaffolding (73). Whilst scaffolding doesn’t necessarily need to be seen as limiting, I found the notion of ‘triggering’ an exciting way to think about the interactions that we want to foster between our preservice teachers and the children that they educate, and I found myself wondering whether and how I might use this idea in my own teaching, particularly if I seek to develop the range of resources that Trawick-Smith, Cullis and Koshel are suggesting. The notion of triggering as opposed to scaffolding seems so fresh and contemporary given that many educational contexts strive to recognise the value of children’s agency and the role that we play as adults in their lives. For this reason, these practices are exciting prospects to consider.

This edited collection acknowledges that it has a European focus however authors’ research is located in various countries including the United States, Canada, China and Russia. Given the current emphasis on decolonising teacher education, it is surprising that there is not a greater representation from a wider range of countries located in the Global South. Perhaps future publications in this field will ensure that this representation is widened. Sadly, there also is a lack of representation from the United Kingdom, although the preface is contributed by Tony Bertram and Chris Pascal from the long-established Centre for Research in Early Childhood Education, a pioneering charitable trust which is based in Birmingham. There is also no representation from Australia amongst the authors, despite Australia having its own well established Early Years educational research. Despite these global imbalances, the chapters do each explore in different ways how educators can work with the core aim of supporting learning and development through a philosophical stance that respects children’s agency.

The book is structured in two parts. The first part offers insights into the ways in which teacher educators in different contexts have supported their students to place play at the core of their practice through a variety of different means such as modelling, reflection, coaching, questioning, play-based activities, play-based environments, remembering play, dreaming about possibilities, discussions, physical explorations, entering into a play based mindset, and watching and analysing video in order to imagine and reimagine their future teaching selves. It offers a way for readers to consider a variety of approaches to ‘teach about teaching’ (Loughran, 1997) through second order practice (Murray, 2002), by engaging in the narratives of practice. Rather than explicitly stating ‘what works’ this book encourages you to reflect on the different ways in which the teacher educators have engaged with their students through offering tantalising insights that encourage new thinking for the reader, drawing us in to consider our own actions, theories and beliefs while reading this edited collection. Reading the text offers a pedagogical experience, as long as the reader is willing to imagine and ponder self-reflectively. This experience could potentially have been enhanced through the inclusion of some questions for reflection within the book as a whole.

The second part of this volume looks at what happens in classrooms when teachers foster play, and some of the challenges that are faced in settings that are governed by curriculum outcomes and assessment drivers. We are introduced to various different models and approaches that nurture reciprocity between educator and child/ren through case studies, research and consideration of the challenges due to policy and assessment directives. Guirguis and Longley claim that there is a lack of focus in teacher education on modellers of play (142) and they make suggestions for incorporating cultural tools that foster meaningful relationships into teacher education. Their chapter focuses on nurturing teachers’ dispositions to play through the creation of a culture of play. I found this insightful as it offered ways to think about how we go about creating relational cultures within our teaching environments. For example, the chapter considers how aspects such as spontaneity and humour, risk-taking, safe spaces and creativity need to be more specifically considered, along with flexibility. They offer a powerful argument for the ways in which teacher educators might reclaim play and whilst there are challenges that I can foresee in implementing some of these suggestions in my own work context, the intention is certainly thought provoking and made me think about how I could place more emphasis on these aspects in my own teaching. This section of the book plays with and challenges our thinking about ways in which we might work collaboratively towards a shared vision for teacher education.

Overall, this book reminds us that there is much to unite us globally in the education of our youngest learners and it offers a sense of solidarity for the marginalised groups of teacher educators who work with this age group. Its overarching message that early childhood teacher education needs to be collaborative and rooted in play-based experiences that are authentic, speaks to those of us who hold the young child in mind as we advocate for play within challenging contexts. It is a joyful and uplifting read, offering detailed and tantalising insights into various teaching communities within early childhood teacher education.

The final chapter draws together four key themes that are offered as a framework for a play-based teacher education pedagogy: professional learning roles such as mentor or coach, professional learning activities such as video coaching, cultural tools such as teacher play guides and programs of study such as play-based learning strategies. This framework provides a solid evidence-based foundation, from which we might collectively work together to develop early childhood teacher education as a better understood field of practice. This is an invitation for us to use this as a basis from which we might develop a shared set of principles in order to collectively support a pedagogy of play in teacher education. We must and should accept this opportunity and continue to develop further research into this critical phase of teacher education.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.