ABSTRACT
Drawing on the work of Vygotsky, focusing on the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and Bruner’s scaffolding, I acknowledge that teachers have a focal role in supporting children to enhance their play skills. Studies explored the ways teachers choose to participate in children’s play; directly or indirectly, using narrative interventions, as co-players or assessors. Guided by the theoretical framework of participatory pedagogies I endorse teacher active involvement in their professional development. Thus, in taking on the role of the pedagogic mediator, I, the researcher collaborated with an early childhood educator and supported her planning and involvement in children’s constructive play. This work suggests that (1) context-based participatory professional development supported the teacher to learn to observe, document and interpret children’s constructive play actions and thus begun to unfold her role in constructive play; (2) the use of a Constructive Play Teacher Guide guided her to observe children’s actions, reflect and then consider how it was best to act; and (3) pedagogic documentation was employed by the teacher as evidence and transformation of praxis and a means to support children’s learning. These outcomes allow me to propose a teacher education framework for participatory praxis in constructive play.
