Pedagogical positioning in play – teachers being inside and outside of children's imaginary play

Abstract

Although there is a long tradition of play pedagogy in early childhood education, teachers have mostly taken a passive role in children's play. There are relatively few studies of the pedagogical roles adults take from inside of children's imaginary play. This paper seeks to fill this gap through presenting the findings of a study where the play pedagogy of five Australian childcare centres was analysed. Video observations of nine teachers interacting with children (3.3–5.5 years) during free play time (399 h of video observations) were analysed using the concept of subject positioning. It was found most teachers positioning themselves outside of children's play. A typology of play is presented which includes teacher proximity to children's play; teacher intent is in parallel with children's intent; teacher is following the children's play; teacher is engaged in sustained collective play; and teacher is inside the children's imaginary play.

Keywords:

• early childhood pedagogy
• play
• cultural–historical theory
• sociocultural
• playworlds

Acknowledgements

Special acknowledgement of the teachers is made. Their generosity in participating in the study was important for building new understandings about the pedagogy of play. Full ethics approval was granted for the project by Monash University Ethics Committee.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Funding

Funds from the Australian Research Council Discovery Grant provided the resources for enabling the study to be undertaken, including allowing for research assistance from Avis Ridgway and Sue March (field leader for team that follows), Megan Adams, Feiyan Chen, Rowan Fleer-Stout, Judith Gomes, Yijun Hao, Madeleine Holland, Hasnat Jahan, Shuhuan Pang, Shukla Sikder, Devi Sukmawati, and Pui Ling Wong.

Notes on contributor

Professor Marilyn Fleer holds the Foundation Chair of Early Childhood Education at Monash University, Australia, and is the immediate past President of the International Society for Cultural Activity Research (ISCAR). Her research interests focus on early years learning and development, with special attention on pedagogy, play, culture, science and design, and technology. She can be contacted at [email protected]