Teaching responsive to play and linguistic diversity in early childhood education: considerations on theoretical grounds

Abstract

ABSTRACT The present article takes on the contemporary challenge of equalizing early childhood education (ECE). Research has particularly highlighted this in relation to children having the majority language as an additional language during the early years. The purpose here is to create knowledge regarding how multilingual interaction, teaching, and learning can be seen as a unit in ECE by drawing on the concept of play-responsive teaching and a dynamic perspective on bilingualism. This encompasses teaching as an activity responsive to play, children’s agency, and language use as critical to promoting learning and thereby social justice in ECE. On theoretical grounds, commonalities between play-responsive teaching and a dynamic perspective on languaging are considered. Merging the frameworks, the concept of play-responsive teaching is extended toward also being responsive to all semiotic resources in the group in order to increase children’s experiential basis and thereby to counter social injustices. The study contributes to grounding a pedagogy acknowledging and promoting extended linguistic repertoires for theorizing teaching and learning. Understanding multilingualism in ECE as something that cannot be separated from the context and teaching responsive to play, is discussed.