CHILDREN’S CONCEPTUALIZATION OF CHILDHOOD IN RELATION TO PLAY ACTIVITIES

Anastasia Fakidou, Kostas Magos

Abstract


Children’s play articulates the social ideologies and discourses of childhood and play. This study combined espousals from childhood studies, and play theories to analyze children’s conceptualization of childhood play, and trace social influences of their conceptions. The research consisting of 112 fifth-grade students who live in an urban environment indicated that their conceptualization of childhood referred to many types of play. In contrast to the discourse of the competent child, they almost exclusively appropriated the romantic discourse of the innocent child who plays outdoors with other children or alone, unsupervised by adults, far from institutionalized learning, intellectual games, urban activities, and new technology toys. Their conceptualizations reflected gender stereotypes of play and the influence of a competitive social structure.

 

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social ideologies/discourses of childhood, play theories, children’s concepts of childhood play, gender play

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v9i11.4529

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