Early childhood teachers’ roles in free play

Abstract

In the world of child play, where do adults stand? What is the place of adults in children’s play? These questions have been considered in the literature regarding play in efforts to provide children with ample play opportunities. This study aims to examine teachers’ roles in free play. In this study, data are used to examine the type of roles teachers most frequently use during free play. Participants of the study were 141 public school early childhood teachers. Results showed that the leader role was the least preferred, while the onlooker-stage manager role was the most frequently chosen among the five teacher roles in free play. Moreover, participating teachers’ involvement in play is influenced by children’s age groups, years of teaching experience, number of children in the classroom and number of learning centres. © 2017 TACTYC