Published : 2025-06-05

Children’s Play in Kindergarten: Ethical Dimensions

Abstract

The aim of the article is to review preschool practices related to children’s play and to reflect on them from an ethical perspective. The assumptions of new childhood sociology constitute the theoretical framework for the analyses carried out in the study. On this approach play is a form of expression of a child and their world where children’s peer culture is manifested. The ethical evaluation of the preschool attitude to play was made following the postmodern understanding of ethics, which emphasizes the significance of human responsibility for one’s own moral choices in reference to “internal ethical code.” The way kindergarten creates the conditions for children’s play was considered an issue requiring ethical assessment, including factors like: time, material space available for children, and rules underpinning social life in preschool institutions, reflected in teacher’s competence to interference in play. The analyses presented here warrant the conclusion that in the situation where there is no fixed code of conduct relating to children’s play, kindergarten is expected to seek a balance between children’s freedom and adult control, security and risk, privacy and supervision.

Keywords:

play, kindergarten, ethics, new childhood sociology



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Roczniki Pedagogiczne · ISSN 2080-850X | eISSN 2544-5243 · DOI: 10.18290/rped
© Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL & Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II

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