Abstract

ALMEIDA, Elisa Carneiro Santos de  and  FERREIRA, Lúcia Gracia. “My backyard is bigger than the world...”: play as experienced by early childhood education teachers. Rev. Diálogo Educ. [online]. 2025, vol.25, n.85, pp.725-738.  Epub July 24, 2025. ISSN 1981-416X.  https://doi.org/10.7213/1981-416x.25.085.ds15pt.

This article, derived from doctoral research, aims to understand the ways in which early childhood education teachers perceive and experience play. It is based on the conception that being a Playful Teacher is a construction shaped by the Professional Development of Teachers in Early Childhood Education. The research adopts a qualitative approach, with data produced through three instruments: a questionnaire, the Caderno de Memórias Brincantes (Playful Memory Notebook), and oral narratives generated through the Narrative Interview, mobilizing playful experiences of three teachers working at a public daycare center in Rio Real (BA), Brazil. The comprehensive-interpretative analysis of the narratives enabled the emergence of meanings and characteristics that helped us understand the ways of Being a Teacher in Early Childhood Education, related to the repertoire of play transmitted throughout life, play in school, play outside school as freedom, the challenges of adult perceptions of play, and its influence on teaching practice. The results indicate that reviving each teacher’s relationship with play is a challenge to be faced, particularly when understood as a specificity of this profession. We conclude that play needs to be recognized as teaching knowledge, running through the entire professional journey of early childhood teachers.

Keywords : Play; Early Childhood Education; Teacher Professional Development.

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