Citation

Delaney KK. Early Child Dev. Care 2017; 187(5-6): 878-895.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/03004430.2016.1219853

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study examines how acceptable play was framed for a class of pre-Kindergarten children by their teacher and classroom aide. Using comic subjectivity theory [Zupančič, A. (2008). The odd one in: On comedy. Cambridge: MIT Press], the author explores how children's playing at pretend violence (bad guy and pretend gun play) is forbidden, but playing at real violence (in the form of active-shooter lock-down drills) positioned the children in the classroom as victims of violence, rather than agentic powerful players. As gun violence in the United States continues to invade school spaces, this paper crtitically examines how 'acceptable' play for young children is being framed and defined by outside forces rather than pedagogical and professional knowledge.

Language: en

Keywords

Play; power; violence