Children’s Play and Teacher’s Playful Teaching: A Discussion about Play in the Preschool Class

The overall purpose of this study is to explore the play used in Swedish preschool class. The research questions are: How is play used in Swedish preschool class, and how can this play be described?

The results show that play in preschool class is never free, i.e. play is conditioned and framed by teachers, and consequently the children are committed to playing in a certain way and at a certain time. The selected play situations were grouped into three different categories: (1) The optional play, (2) The cultural play and (3) The educational play.

1. The optional play
   The optional play covers situations in which children's play is used to fill a gap or as motivation to perform a task correctly. Teachers do not participate in the optional play, and according to the author, this contributes to marking the line between what is important (learning), and what is less important (play). Play is limited in time and space, and even though the children are active, the teachers set the framework for the play. 

1. The cultural play
   The cultural play describes situations in which commercial cultures and products enter the preschool and affect the children's play, for example. Play is considered a social and cultural phenomenon that creates a common culture; a culture which can be exploited by teachers in different ways. The author uses a play situation with Beyblades, for example, in which the children create their own play culture and negotiate their own rules. However, the play excludes children who do not have access to Beyblades. Therefore, the teacher takes control of the play and changes it by letting the children build their own Beyblades out of wood. In this way, the play is reshaped, but at the expense of the children's own play culture. 

1. The educational play
   In the educational play, the play becomes an integral part of teaching, in which the teachers are active participants. Teaching is carried out in a playful framework, where the play is integrated with learning objectives within mathematics, for example. In this situation, the teacher is controlling the play, and the children are obliged to participate. According to the author, this is not actual play, but rather playful activities aimed at educational goals. Thus the teachers focus on curriculum goals rather on the play as such.

The empirical material in the study was extracted from a larger ethnographic case study, which was carried out over a period of 11 months in a Swedish preschool class. The original data consists of video observations and field notes from the activities that took place at the preschool class during the school year. The analysis was inspired by qualitative content analysis, in which the author focused on play situations considered common in the selected preschool class. The selected play situations were analysed on the basis of perspectives from various theorists on play such as Øksnes and Huizinga. 

Ackesjö, H. (2017). Children’s Play and Teacher’s Playful Teaching: A Discussion about Play in the Preschool Class. British Journal of Education, Society & Behavioural Science, 19(4), 1-13.

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