Chapter 2: Winnie-the-Pooh Sat in a Tre, or Did He?: A Contemporary Notion of Early Childhood Education Beyond Teaching and Free Play

The concepts of play and learning have long been the pillars on which discussions about early childhood education practices have been built. These two concepts have been used rhetorically as if they were opposites. With the introduction of goal-oriented practice, and focus on the introduction of a curriculum or similar guidelines, more and more emphasis in many early childhood settings has been placed on how to manage the perceived tension between children’s so-called free play and more structured teaching efforts. How early childhood practices are manifested and what opportunities they give for children’s development depends on which of these concepts or notions is preferred. In this chapter we will discuss these two strands as well as introducing a third alternative, a perspective built on developmental pedagogy and sociocultural psychology. We will explain how the teacher’s role differs according to these different perspectives, as well as the implications for children’s development in these three types of practice.