Abstract
Early childhood education theories have generally discouraged adult intervention in children’s role-play, in preference for allowing for the natural development of young children from unstructured play. However, the pedagogy of drama assumes ongoing guidance and involvement from the teacher, who provides students with a brief for carrying out exercises of imaginative play within parameters given by the adult. This chapter argues that there is a place for such adult involvement in general imaginative role-play, in expanding children’s creative resources. Building on the work of Vygotsky, who argued that drama is closely related to play, and later Lindqvist in her development of the concept of playworlds, it is suggested that the active support of teachers in devising scenarios jointly created by the children and the teachers is of great benefit to children’s development. Case studies from both preschool and primary school settings are presented to demonstrate this. Introducing Shakespeare to primary school-age students and introducing various forms of playworlds to preschool children resulted in observably high levels of engagement and creative expansion. A lot can be learned from the drama pedagogue, but there is a need for a mindset change in early childhood education, because early childhood teachers do not traditionally take part in children’s play. We argue that carefully crafted teacher interventions in narrative role-play not only develop children’s play, but culturally develop children.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Blyton, E. (1937). The adventures of the wishing-chair. London: Dean.
Bodrova, E. (2008). Make-believe play versus academic skills: A Vygotskian approach to today’s dilemma of early childhood education. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 16(3), 357–369.
Bretherton, I. (1984). Representing the social world in symbolic play: Reality and fantasy. In I. Bretherton (Ed.), Symbolic play: The development of social understanding. Orlando, FL: Academic Press, Inc.
Bruce, T. (2005). Play, the universe and everything! In J. Moyles (Ed.), The excellence of play (2nd ed., pp. 277–290). Berkshire, UK: Open University Press.
Dunn, J., & Stinson, M. (2012). Dramatic play and drama in the early years. In S. Wright (Ed.), Children, meaning-making and the arts. Sydney, Australia: Pearson.
Fleer, M. (2014). Imaginary situations and scientific abstractions in preschool play. Melbourne, Australia: Australasian Science Education Research Association.
Goncu, A., Jain, J., & Tuermer, U. (2007). Children’s play as cultural interpretation. In A. Goncu & S. Gaskins (Eds.), Play and development: Evolutionary, sociocultural, and functional perspectives. Great Britain, UK: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Hakkarainen, P. (2006). Learning and development in play. In J. Einarsdottir & J. T. Wagner (Eds.), Nordic childhoods and early education: Philosophy, research, policy, and practice in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Hakkarainen, P. (2010). Cultural-historical methodology of the study of human development in transitions. Cultural-Historical Psychology, 4, 75–81.
Hakkarainen, P., Bredikyte, M., Jakkula, K., & Munter, H. (2013). Adult play guidance and children’s play development in a narrative play-world. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 21(2), 213–225.
Hedegaard, M., & Fleer, M. (2013). Play, learning and children’s development: Everyday life in families and transition to school. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Kravtsov, G. G., & Kravtsova, E. E. (2010). Play in L.S. Vygotsky’s nonclassical psychology. Journal of Russian and Easter European Psychology, 48(4), 25–41.
Lindqvist, G. (1995). The aesthetics of play: A didactic study of play and culture in preschools. Uppsala, Sweden: Almqvist & Wiksell International.
McNamee, G. D. (2005). “The one who gathers children”: The work of Vivian Gussin Paley and current debates about how we educate young children. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 25(3), 275–296.
Nicolopoulou, A., Barbosa de Sá, A., Ilgaz, H., & Brockmeyer, C. (2010). Using the transformative power of play to educate hearts and minds: From Vygotsky to Vivian Paley and beyond. Mind, Culture, & Activity, 17(1), 42–58.
Paley, V. (2004). A child’s work: The importance of fantasy play. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Pellegrini, A. D. (Ed.). (2011). The Oxford handbook of the development of play. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tandy, M. (2013). Vox pop: Shakespeare with primary school children. Teaching Shakespeare: Policy, Pedagogy, Practice, (3) (Spring), 5.
van Oers, B. (2013). Is it play? Towards a reconceptualisation of role play from an activity theory perspective. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 21(2), 185–198.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1966). Play and its role in the mental development of the child. Voprosy Psikhologii, 12(6), 62–76.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1967). Play and its role in the mental development of the child. Soviet Psychology, 12, 6–18.
Vygotsky, L. V. (1971). The psychology of art. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Winston, J., & Tandy, M. (2012). Beginning Shakespeare 4–11. London: Routledge.
Acknowledgements
Funds from the Australian Research Council Discovery Grant provided the resources for enabling the second case study led by the first author to be undertaken, including allowing for research assistance from Sue March (field leader), Megan Adams, Carolina Lorentz Beltrão, Hasnat Jahan, Yijun (Selena) Hao and Rowan Fleer-Stout. Thanks to Garry Scale of Clovelly Public School and Serena Petriella of Daceyville Public School for their permission to work with their students.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fleer, M., Kamaralli, A. (2017). Cultural Development of the Child in Role-Play: Drama Pedagogy and Its Potential Contribution to Early Childhood Education. In: Lynch, S., Pike, D., à Beckett, C. (eds) Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Play from Birth and Beyond. International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development, vol 18. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2643-0_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2643-0_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-2641-6
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-2643-0
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)