Understanding playful pedagogies, play narratives and play spaces

Abstract

This paper is a tentative attempt to unwrap and understand one aspect of playful practice and the influences which determine its existence in early years settings. ‘Storying’ events, those occasions when teachers and children together ‘make up’ stories or parts of stories, develop roles or co‐construct fantasies, occur moment by moment in some settings and with some teachers. Understanding the place of such playful pedagogies at a moment in history when both curriculum content and teaching methods are the focus of considerable political dominance is also important. This paper will consider both the nature of storying events and the nature of the practice in which storying is allowed to occur. Influences on teaching will be examined, including architecture and play spaces, politics and policy, as well as the idea that storying with children is possibly intuitive practice. The notion that teachers' own values and principles have a key role to play in making and shaping pedagogical choices will also be considered. The term ‘teacher’ has been used in an inclusive way to encompass all those adults working in educational settings with young children.

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