Chapter 9: ‘It Takes Too Long and Is Not Perceived as a Need’ – Play-Based Teaching in Teacher Education

In this article, the authors present research of play-based teaching in teacher education at a Norwegian university. Teaching at universities seems to be traditional, even though playing is a signature feature of teaching pupils in primary school. The authors explore the conditions for play-based teaching in an established main culture of teaching in teacher education. The authors also reflect on the possible implications of play-based teaching. This is a case study with observations of three university lecturers teaching groups of students who delivered letters anonymously to us after participation in play-based teaching. The findings show three very different realisations of play-based teaching: A lecturer-dominated workshop, where the educator lectured for one hour with relevant explanations and instructions, an alternating workshop, where the organisation was alternating between students` and the lecturer’s control, and a student-dominated workshop, where the lecturer gave out a preplanned task and left the students to work on this independently. The student letters contain a few critical comments on the use of time, but most of them are supportive. The study concludes that a culture of time and efficiency constrains the use of playful approaches, though this is rooted in the educators, not the students. Further, a restricted understanding of the concept of playful approaches among the educators is preventing the workshops in this study from becoming more than just rare occasions and exceptions from regular teaching. Playful teaching’s potential to act as a signature pedagogy or slow pedagogy within teacher education is not realised in this material.