Chinese Parental Narratives of Young Children's Play at Home

• In Event: 77.045 - Changing Policies Changes Practices: Narratives of Early Childhood Education in Contemporary China

Abstract

Chinese traditional values, which are deeply rooted in Confucianism, have seen play as separate from early childhood learning and have encouraged repetition, drills and memorization (Luo, Tamis-LeMonda, & Song, 2013). Over the past few decades, China has imported progressive Early Childhood Education (ECE) to replace adult-directed, didactic, and academic-oriented practices prevalent in preschools. Chinese ECE experts and authorities have proclaimed the value of play over direct instructional techniques and have created a “universal discourse” by primarily focusing on children’s choices, exploration, freedom, and autonomy in ECE contexts (Li & Chen, 2017). However, the voices of Chinese parents about play and learning, have been silenced in schools and muted in educational research despite their potential to shape young children’s play experiences.

The current study explored the narratives of six middle-class mothers about play and learning of their pre-kindergarten children (children aged two to four years’ old who had not commenced formal ECE) in Shanghai, the most “Westernized” metropolis in China. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted. We were interested in the mothers’ first-hand perspectives and lived experiences and accordingly, used an interpretive framework. Drawing on narrative analysis in stories about their children’s kindergarten transition, we aimed to understand mothers’ views about the value of play and how they practiced play and early learning in the everyday context of family life.

We found that Chinese mothers no longer held the traditional view that play is not relevant to learning but rather they believed that “children learn though play”. They differentiated two Chinese concepts: “玩耍 (wanshua)” and “遊戲 (youxi)”, in both of which play and learning are believed to occur simultaneously . Drawing on narrative analysis in stories about their children’s kindergarten transition, we delineated three types of views that parents held about young children’s play and learning. Two mothers (traditional mothers) had a pragmatic view of play and favored “youxi”— adult-directed play-like activities designed for children’s academic preparation. Two parents (contemporary parents) valued play for happiness and believed that children learn though “wanshua”— free choice, independence and self-discovery. And the other parents (eclectic parents) trod a middle path and held a compromised view in terms of academic purposes and the child’s interests, fun, and freedom in play.

The changing and varying parental narratives about young children’s play may reflect a paradigm shift in the ECE system, which has been jointly shaped by Chinese traditions and contemporary Western notions of appropriate practice (Rao, Ng, & Pearson, 2010). The findings also suggest that parents might have their own views and agendas regarding play and its value in their children’s learning and development. These agendas are complex and sometimes contradict the advice of ECE policymakers and practitioners – who may therefore wish to incorporate more extensive discussions of play into their efforts on parent education.

Authors

• Xunyi Lin, Fujian Preschool Education College

• Hui Li, Macquarie University