Chapter 12: Making Room for Diverse Cult ural Expresions of Play in the Retheorization of Play Activities

Regardless of the theoretical perspective taken (Grieshaber & McArdle, 2010), it is now well understood that in European heritage communities, play is the leading activity (Veresov, 2006) of children during their early childhood years. But is play really a universal construct? Do all communities support the view that children should be given time, space, and resources to engage in play? How has play come to be understood within our culturally and linguistically diverse communities across the many nation states where immigration is occurring?

In this chapter these questions are taken up through examining how play is conceptualized within a cross section of the Australian community. Specifically, it examines how play is represented in the nationally agreed early childhood curriculum, while also considering how educators have come to document play practices and theorize their beliefs about play. The view put forward is that play is a cultural construction, valued differently across communities and over time, and enacted and understood differently by children, families, and early childhood professionals. Concepts from cultural-historical theory are used in this chapter for exploring the central questions posed and for providing a cultural and historical retheorization of play.