Book review: Inside role play in early childhood education: researching young children’s perspectives

Jan Ashbridge, Early Childhood Education, University of Cumbria, UK, reviews the book 'Inside role play in early childhood education: researching young children’s perspectives', by Sue Rogers and Julie Evans (Routledge, 2007, 140 pp., ISBN
0415404975).

This is a multi-faceted book which manages to do many things. It looks at play in the Reception class in a way that teachers of this age range will immediately recognise. While children and their play are not idolised or idealised, the authors are at pains to ensure that the child’s developmental needs are their starting point. These children are then placed in the context of our education system and the values that this system espouses. From the outset, the book brings in to focus the tensions and dilemmas of a play-based approach to early learning in a school context; this is addressed through a useful exploration of the way our society values different aspects of children’s learning and the lack of real value placed on play, especially when it appears relatively unstructured and unrelated to the more traditional and higher profile elements such as phonics, reading, writing or maths.