Play in the classroom: a descriptive study of preschool teachers’ beliefs

The purpose of this study was to describe preschool teachers’ intervention during children's free play. A Weberian sociological framework was used to examine teachers’ beliefs and thus their decisions about play. Three preschool teachers were video filmed during free play and later interviewed about observed intervention episodes. The teachers were prompted to talk about what happened during the event, what they were thinking about, and for what reason they intervened. The teachers held differing beliefs and their actions were related to their belief systems. The teachers based their decisions upon their personal system of educational principles concerning how teachers should teach, how children learn, and early childhood curriculum. The reasons for intervention fell into one of the three Weberian constructs: cultural influences, social‐political influences, and economic influences. Cultural influences included decisions based upon the child's language development, social development, or value development. Social‐political influences included decisions based upon the teacher's role, conflict of rules, learning and the curriculum, and timing of play. Economic influences included decisions based upon the scarcity of goods, particularly the supply of materials and the teacher's time.