Beyond Polarity: Conceptualizing a Pedagogy of Play and Happiness as a Continuum of Learning

• In Event: 73.060 - Roundtable Session 31
  In Roundtable Session: 73.060-8 - The Role of Play in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

Using semi-structured teacher interviews, children’s drawings, a parent questionnaire, and ethnographic observation, this qualitative study explored the relationship between children’s play and happiness in the early primary grades. Participants were recruited from public, independent, Waldorf, Froebel, and Montessori schools in order to gain a broad perspective. Three cycles of descriptive to conceptual analysis identified a continuum of play across the five school types: play for, as, and in learning. Further, children and parents consistently identified indoor and outdoor play as a modality of learning that makes children happy. This paper concludes with a discussion of play as a pedagogical continuum to support the integration of academic and developmental orientations to early years programming while simultaneously generating experiences of happiness.

Author

• Scott Frederick Hughes, Mount Royal University