ABSTRACT
Considered from the perspective of postmodern pedagogy, how should we meet and relate to young children’s collaborative dramatic playing (pretend play, socio-dramatic play, role-play)? In the field of children’s peer culture, there has been a lack of studies of the significance the aesthetic dimension in children’s play. From an arts point of view, the political-pedagogical agenda for my research has, therefore, been to make visible the aesthetic and child-cultural significance of self-initiated, inventive fantasy playing. I will discuss theory and implications stemming from a three year ethnography of fourteen children aged from birth to seven and their three teachers in an early childhood daycare setting in Norway. To contribute towards an aesthetic pedagogy of play, I studied what kind of dramatic form-language constitutes the children’s communication in the drama medium of play; and what kind of reflection, interpretation, meaning seeking and meaning construction can take place and the significance of dramatic playing for the formation of an autonomous child-cultural arena.
