ABSTRACT
In the Finnish National Curriculum guidelines on early childhood education and care (ECEC) 2016, adult participation in children’s play is recognized as valuable from the perspective of equity, and in its own right. Teachers are encouraged to create joint ‘playworlds’ (Lindqvist, 1995) with children. Simultaneously, in line with worldwide trends, preschools in Finland have rising expectations of efficiency with pressures to demonstrate performance. Under such conditions, it is more difficult to ensure that play activities in preschools occur with adult involvement in children’s play. National policies provide contexts for making decisions concerning ECEC. In this chapter, we highlight how possibilities for play are formed in complex interactions between national and local policies and cultural norms. We critically analyze possibilities and challenges for adult–child joint play in the era of accountability. Through two case studies, we explore the capacity of different play-based pedagogical activities to persist under pressures from intensification measures and scarcening resources.
