Children’s symbolic play during the transition to school

Abstract

ABSTRACT Grounded in the sociocultural perspective, this paper analyses current Croatian theory and practice on the transition to school and addresses the importance of fostering a play-based pedagogy and symbolic play in particular. Despite the contemporary theoretical background on early childhood and children’s transition to school, the mainstream readiness discourse is still dominant in practice, building a gap between theory and practice. In Croatia, the preschool year of kindergarten is strongly influenced by school-like activities as opposed to play-based pedagogy in the earlier years of kindergarten. The symbolic play, referred to as the queen of activities (Slunjski and Ljubetić, 2014. “Play and its Pedagogical Potential in a Preschool Institution.” Croatian Journal of Education 16 (1): 127–141. https://hrcak.srce.hr/117857), is repressed by the academic activities. The activities characterised and overly influenced by an adult’s direct pedagogical approach pose an endangerment to the basic principles of play. This paper highlights the significance of fostering children’s symbolic play in the year preceding primary school as an alternative to the prevailing practice of developing exclusively academic skills.