Teachers' ethic of play care

Abstract

This study addresses ethical challenges Norwegian first-grade teachers face when scheduling play. Choosing play as an educational content is understood as ethical because it affect children’s life in school and is part of teachers’ continuous consideration of good quality in school. Teachers’ ethical decision-making raises questions about what school could be and how schools ought to contribute to meaningful good lives for children. Through qualitative interviews and observations, the authors explore how first-grade teachers experience and act on conflicting expectations of promoting both children’s play and acquisition of basic skills. Analyses reveal a complex foundation for ethical decision-making reflected in three tensions: children´s play and curriculum, children’s and teachers’ perspectives on play, and chaos in and control of children’s play. These tensions are related to the span from rules and principles to an ethical caring to natural caring for children’s play. The study show that scheduling play involves challenging institutionalized traditions and taken-for-granted assumptions about educational content. Teachers seem to be guided by values in their ethical decision-making, but without knowledge of play, choosing play as educational content becomes a risky choice.