Preschool teachers’ pedagogical positioning in relation to children’s imaginative play

In some Western contexts, the pedagogical practices of teachers are to intentionally involve in play-based learning through sustained shared conversations to extend children’s thinking (Meade, A., Williamson, J., Stuart, M., Smorti, S., Robinson, L., & Carroll-Lind, J. (2013). Adult–child sustained shared thinking: Who, how and when? Early Education, 53(Autumn/Winter), 7–12). In this study, video data of eight teachers interacting with four focus children during imaginative play and their interview data were gathered. Both Vygotsky’s (2004) concept of imaginative play and Kravtsov and Kravtsova’s (2010) concept of “double subjectivity” were used to identify six different pedagogical positions taken by teachers in children’s play. After analysing the video footage and teachers’ interview data, it was evident that the participating teachers drew primarily upon these six different types of pedagogical positioning in play to intentionally teach children. Our analysis sought to determine whether the teachers were imagining concepts with the children or whether they were outside of the play. This paper argues that the teachers’ pedagogical positioning is important for conceptualising teaching practice in Australia.