1. Playing to learn: Exploring the role of play in South African Early Childhood Education Lorayne Excell and Vivien Linington Wits School of Education ECD Conference 26-30 March 2012

2. What is play? Play is not a concept ‘that can be identified in an all-or-one manner.’ Play is a universal phenomenon, but knows no cultural boundaries. Children reflect their own social values and family ethical practices through play. Play is a self-satisfying activity. Play behavior is spontaneous and requires the active engagement of the player(s).

3. Play: a world of possibility Play promotes holistic development and learning. Play is useful to children because it helps them to understand their world both cognitively and affectively. Play and playful forms of activity promote increasingly complex forms of knowledge, skills and understanding. From an educational perspective, teachers should neither idealise nor trivialise play. It must be of sufficient intellectual challenge and sufficiently rigorous to guarantee optimal learning opportunities. If not, play can be repetitive and a waste of time.

4. What is rigorous play? Play which stimulates and offers opportunities for learning. Purposeful, meaningful and subject to particular criteria. It essentially child-initiated. But teacher’s role is key - Safe, secure, contextually sensitive, enriching environment that can fuel a child’s imagination.

5. Play: A double challenge If rigour is not used in the planning of play: - Good quality learning outcomes will not be achieved. - Progression in learning through play will not be sustained. -Children become frustrated and lack focus. Even if play is rigorous does it necessarily meet the learning and development needs of all children?

6. No - Play both privileges and marginalises Are all children ‘free’ to play? Play always involves a power relationship between children. During play do teachers consider, for example, issues relating to racism, sexism, homophobia and classism. - What, for example, happens in the home corner? Can both boys and girls play there equally freely? - How, for example, is a timid child excluded from play opportunities. What of the child who does not speak the play group language

7. What does this mean for the ECD teacher? It cannot be taken for granted that children learn through play. New challenges have arisen for ECD teachers. But old challenges also still need to be addressed.

8. Tackling this tension ECD teachers should consider play in the context of enablement. Play opportunities should enhance social, emotional, physical, cognitive and language development and refinement. Positive play is contextually sensitive.. The teacher has a specific role to play – s/he is not just a bystander. For many ECD teachers this is a dilemma.

9. Some possible reasons Some teachers are: o unsure about what play means. o unable to set up appropriate play environments. o unable to access appropriate or sufficient resources. o are not sure how to use the resources that are available. o be it unwittingly formalising early years practices. o pandering to parental expectations. Little worth placed on early learning and teaching practices such as play. Lack of understanding of how both learning and teaching occurs through play.

10. Outdoor play area …

11. Alongside the refuse disposal area

12. Learning and teaching through play The importance of learning through play is not contested. What is being recognised is an approach with a focus on both learning but also teaching through play – a pedagogy of play. The teacher is not just a bystander or even just a facilitator but also a co-constructor of knowledge. She learns together with children.

13. As a co-constructor of knowledge... S/he, for example, finds out more about content knowledge as well as develops excellent dialogue skills and knows how to set out learning environments. S/he makes provision for playful approaches to learning and teaching. S/he learns together with the children in a way that supports holistic development but also acknowledges the different contexts of each child. S/he becomes a reflective teacher constructing tomorrow through collaboration and insight.