43.044 - Considering Guns, Jail, Arrest, Cops, and Robbers Play in Early Childhood and Care Centers

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

In a time of increasing violence, racism, and tensions surrounding guns, including school shootings in the U.S., how are dramatic play games that touch on these subjects taken up, given meaning, and negotiated in early childhood and care centers by preschool children and their teachers? This session examines this central question in four preschool contexts through multiple analysis gun and jail play. Our focus is on social-cultural contexts, and how race, class, and gender factor into how caregivers and children in Early Childhood and Care settings address these issues both officially and subversively within their classroom through pedagogy and curriculum.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Critical Perspectives on Early Childhood Education

Chair

• Allison Sterling Henward, The Pennsylvania State University

Papers

• Understanding Children's Jail Play in South Korea: Tracing Young Korean Children's Intra-Actions Through Jail Play - Pool Ip Dong

• The Understanding of Children's Cops and Robbers Play - Shin Ae Han, University of Georgia - Athens

• It's a Space They Can Work Through It: African American Head Start Teachers' Approach to Jail Play - Allison Sterling Henward, The Pennsylvania State University

• Gun Play, Funds of Knowledge, and Children's Rights - Sonya Gaches, The University of Otago

Discussant

• Michelle Perez, New Mexico State University