Mother-child collective play at home context: An analysis from cultural historical theoretical perspective

A plethora of literature in early childhood education have focused more on teachers’ support on children’s play based conceptual development in preschool settings, however very less studies have given attention on parental support on children’s play based conceptual development in home settings. The key aspect of this paper is to investigate how parental support develop the mathematical concepts of children through collective play at home context. The data has been collected through video, audio and semi structure interviews from four Indian families and their children (4 to 5 years old and median age 4.5 years) who migrated in Australia. For data analysis, Hedegaard’s (2008) three levels of analysis- common sense interpretation, situated practice interpretation and thematic interpretation were employed. Drawing upon Vygotsky’s (2004) theory of imagination in children’s play, Fleer’s (2010) pedagogical model of “collective and individual play” and Kravtsov and Kravtsova’s (2010) idea of “subject positioning”, this paper specifically investigates parent’s interactive support for the child’s mathematical conceptual development in collective play. The paper analyses the play experience of a five-year-old boy, Jay (pseudonym used) and his mother’s co-construction of play in home context. The finding of our analysis shows, mother’s interactive approach promoted to develop Jay’s mathematical concepts for example idea about space and area through collective play. The paper argues that parents' active involvement in children’s play is not only important to develop the play itself but also important to provide better learning opportunities for children.