ABSTRACT
Play practitioners have continued over the past decade to focus and report both qualitative and quantitative data on the vast and interconnected learning components that exist through play in Early Childhood Education (ECE). While the current literature discusses key benefits of learning through play, there is a disconnect in the streamlining of play as a pedagogy once students enter higher education. Specifically, as it relates to ECE pre-service educators who need to be skilled in the implementation of play practices. The value ECE pre-service educators give to play needs to be modeled in order for ECE pre-service teachers to develop flexible and playful mindsets. Research on the importance of play exists; however, there is a paucity in the literature that focuses on how ECE pre-service teachers are taught play. Specifically, the type of environmental and curricular aspects programs should embed in order to prepare ECE pre-service teachers to create unstructured, spontaneous, and intrinsically motivated play settings that will support young children’s development. Hence, this programmatic shift could support a holistic view of child development and have societal implications resulting in a critical praxis which could influence not only ECE pre-service teachers, but how families and society view and foster play.
