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.