19 The Lion and the Mouse

Negotiating Possible Roles 

Below are two examples of the same teacher trying to enter ongoing narrative play at two different times. The focus of these examples is the tension regarding possible roles within play. In the first example, the children have decided to play “The Lion and the Mouse”, a for them well-known story. Before the play starts, they negotiate if they are to ‘play or talk’ (turn 9) and then about the roles of this play (turns 13–22). The teacher takes an active part in these negotiations.

Excerpt 1

Although Max says that there cannot be three mice (turn 22), the teacher decides that it can be so, and the division of roles in the play thus changes on her decision. The teacher is then given the role of the lion. When her role is to enter the narrative, she cannot (as is) enter the house of the mice (she is too big), prompting her to try to change the original storyline by changing the character of her role in the play:

Excerpt 2

The actual (as is) obstacle faced by the teacher in the play (turn 80) is first con- firmed and explicated by a child (turn 81), before another child, through shifting tempi (turn 82; see Björk-Willén^[1] for an analysis of temporal shifts when going in and out of play) indicates a recontextualization in terms of as if that in effect solves the problem. In turn 83, the teacher suggests that she is “one of those lions who love to write”. She says “Look here, I play that I write” (turn 80), which indicates that she tries to implement this changed role-character into the original storyline within the actions of the play. This is an example of a tension between temporarily sufficient intersubjectivity (mutually playing out a storyline) and dealing with alterity (changing the role character in relation to the storyline). Writing/text is thus introduced into and contextualized in the play in a way that develops the narrative of the play. The children accept the changed role-character and the play continues with this addition to the storyline. Thus, the teacher is free to take the play in an unforeseeable direction. The play develops in a new direction, in what can be understood as a potentially tense ‘space’ between temporarily sufficient intersubjectivity (i.e., what is temporarily, implicitly or explicitly, sufficiently shared to go on with a joint activity) and alterity (i.e., suggestions on how to reframe the premises of the activity, or expand it in other ways than previously, implicitly or explicitly, agreed upon). The teacher meta-communicates her reframing, including explicating that she plays (turn 83).

Excerpt 6.3 contains another example from when the same teacher tries to intro- duce a character from another for the children well-known story into the current one.

Excerpt 3

Negotiating Possible Directions 

Dealing with alterity is also visible when possible directions are negotiated within ongoing play. Below are two examples of such tensions and how they are dealt with, through further re-negotiation. In the first example, the teacher has been invited by the children to participate in a role-play. The teacher has been assigned the role of the grandmother, and two girls are acting as older sisters. Almost as soon as the play starts, one of the children introduces the activity of reading a book:

Excerpt 6

Both the teacher and the children act as if (see turns 12–13), and, for example, by putting the blanket on the teacher’s shoulders (turns 20–21) the girls show that they have experience of being at the hairdresser’s. The teacher acts as if by asking questions about possible treatments (turn 18). Thus, within the frame of the play, as is (what actually happens to a costumer at the hairdresser’s) is interweaved with as if. There is no obvious goal or narrative in the play. Rather, it is open ended and continuously negotiated through the actions of the teacher and the children; actions that are in line with being hairdresser and customer. However, in turn 23, one of the girls introduces a different perspective (alterity) into the play by asking if the customer wants some make up. The teacher answers with some surprise in her voice, but still in her role as customer (turn 24). Her answer shows that it is not obvious that you can get a make-up at the hairdresser’s, but she aligns and hands over to the girl to decide if this can be incorporated and, thus, the direction of the play. Through this response, the child is free to take the play in new directions and she continues the extension by introducing the opportunity to get a make-up as a princess or a witch (turns 25 and 27). The teacher confirms the new direction, partly by saying that she wants to be a witch and partly by emphasising the quality of the place where you can get both a haircut and a make-up (turns 28 and 30). Thus, negotiating the new frame of the play is made within the frame of the play as if, rather than through stepping outside it. By dealing with alterity in this way, the teacher helps the children to combine two different previous experience (being at the hairdresser’s and getting a make-up as a witch or princess) into something new within the frame of the play. Combining previous experience into a new form is an important feature of creativity, as conceptualised from a Vygotskian point of view ^[2]. In response to this expansion of the play, the teacher a little while later leaves the hairdresser’s as a flying witch.

Coordinating as If and as Is

A second reason why teachers seem to succeed or fail in their attempts to enter and participate in children’s ongoing play is how they and the children coordinate as if and as is. As seen in previous excerpts in this chapter, the participants consistently shift between these modes of talking; the line between these being highly permeable. However, this permeability sometimes makes it unclear for the participants if an utterance is to be understood as if or as is, that is whether or not it is to be taken as an action in the play. Uncertainty regarding as is and as if becomes particularly visible in narrative play. Playing as such implies as if, but when playing a canonical story in line with the original storyline, the storyline gains standing as is. The previously presented example of Billy Goats Gruff (Excerpt 6.3) is an example of how adhering to a well-known narrative frame hinders the children from being free to take the play in unforeseeable directions.

In the following, the delicate issue of coordinating as if and as is is illustrated with excerpts from two other play activities. In the first example, a teacher is trying to initiate a play with trains with a boy (approximately 2 years old). She does this by asking meta-questions to the child:

Excerpt 7

When the teacher asks, “then who wants to drive that ambulance” (turn 1), the child answers “my dad” (turn 2). In real life, the father of this child is an ambulance driver, why both the question from the teacher and the answer from the child can be understood as is. Then the teacher asks who is driving the grandparents’ car (turn 3). Again, this question is about who of them that should move the car physically in the play. The teacher offers to do this (she has no role in the play, thus the “I” [turn 3] in the utterance refers to her as teacher, as is). However, the child’s answer indicates that he is talking as if. If connecting this second answer to the answer to the first question, both answers could be as if within the play (hence, the two different writings in the excerpt, one in plain writing and one in italics). Thus, it is possible that the teacher talks as is while the child answers as if. At this point, there is no indicator that the two participants have established some intersubjectivity, allowing them to go on with a shared activity; they may, in effect, be engaged in parallel ones, talking past each other.

Sometimes this doubtfulness regarding whether actions are to be taken as as if or as is becomes a matter for meta-communication. In Excerpt 6.8, three children (Linn, My and Sam) sit under a table. There is a blanket over the table giving the impression of a hut.

Excerpt 8

When the recording starts, one child is trying to get the teacher’s attention by saying that she had it first, referring to a pretend telephone (turn 1). However, the teacher neglects this as is talk and instead starts to communicate as if with another child (turn 2). Thus, she clearly shows that she is now taking part in the children’s play, as if. However, later, in turn 16, the teacher is no longer sure if one of the children is talking within the play or not. Something in what the child says makes the teacher unsure about whether the child is talking as if or as is. To re-establish mutual ground (temporarily sufficient intersubjectivity), the teacher asks, “In the play or for real” (turn 16), which the child answers, “in the play”. Through this meta-communication, mutual ground is re-established.

Discussion

In this chapter we have focused on when and why teachers seem to succeed (or not) in their attempts to enter ongoing play. In this analysis, the theoretical notions of intersubjectivity and alterity have been important. To become a participant in children’s ongoing play means to balance the tension between intersubjectivity and alterity, that is, sufficient mutual ground for engaging in a shared activity and being open to unforeseeable development, respectively, as well as coordinating as if and as is. This is of substantial importance in the moment of entering in order for the teacher to get access to a play, but as mentioned, our analysis shows that it is not only the teacher’s first attempt to enter ongoing play that is critical. When the teacher has become a participant in ongoing play, the balancing and coordinating continues and then the ability to latch on to what the children enact and say becomes critical to the development of the play. To become and remain a participant in children’s ongoing play the teacher needs to be sensitive to children’s initiatives and be able to balance between these and their own contributions within the activity. This is a matter of contributing to and maintaining play, and thus an important play skill required by teachers.

Attribution

Chapter copied from: Chapter 6 :The Lion and the Mouse: How and Why Teachers Succeed in Becoming Participants in Children’s Ongoing Play in Pramling, N. et al., Play-Responsive Teaching in Early Childhood Education, International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development 26, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15958-0_7. Shared under a CC BY 4.0 license.