Engaging Play

by Brooker, Liz; Edwards, Suzy

• ISBN13: 9780335235858
• ISBN10: 0335235859
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-06-01
• Publisher: Open University Press

Summary

This insightful edited collection brings together the perspectives of leading and emerging scholars in early childhood education and play from within Europe, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America. It includes a preface from Professor Joy Cullen, one of New Zealand's pre-eminent experts in early childhood education.Each of these scholars considers, from their own theoretical standpoint, the ways that young children's play contributes to their learning and development. The chapters cover a variety of theoretical positions, demonstrating that the process of 'engaging' with the theory and practice of play can take many forms.The chapters cover a wide range of contexts, from child-led activity in informal settings to the more formal practice of school-based learning. A range of theoretical viewpoints of play are considered and related to the experiences of today's families, children and educators across different educational settings.Engaging Playoffers an insight into the pedagogical play discourse of twenty-first century early childhood education, and in doing so offers an informative reading experience for students, researchers and policy makers alike.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction: from challenging to engaging play

Reconceptualising the play-pedagogy relationship: from control to complexity

Whose goals and interests? The interface of children's play and teachers' pedagogical practices

Learning to play, or playing to learn? Children's participation in the cultures of homes and settings

Reflecting the child: play memories and images of the child

The significance of teacher conceptual and contextual intersubjectivity for affording concept formation in children's play

The productivity of desires: doing girl otherwise

Co-constructing knowledge: children, teachers and families engaging in science-rich curriculum

Postdevelopmentalism and professional learning: implications for understanding the relationship between play and pedagogy

Who gets to play? Peer groups, power and play in early childhood settings

Framing play for learning: professional reflections on the role of open-ended play in early childhood education

Powerful pedagogies and playful resistance: role play in the early childhood classroom

Using power on the playground

Let the wild rumpus begin! The radical possibilities of play for young children with disabilities

Children's enculturation through adult guidance in the context of play activities

Playing with some tensions: poststructuralism, Foucault and early childhood education

Afterword

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