ABSTRACT

This is a case study of an ECEC teacher’s narrative of her subjective world, relative to “slide and mud play” at an ECEC center. The purpose of this study was to reconstruct the teacher’s understanding of play based on her own narratives of interactive time with young children, to examine the narratives from the perspective of living through E-series time, and to approach the meaning of play describing the experienced reality of the teacher. This study is based on an interview with the ECEC teacher Kana, who was involved with children’s play as an assistant teacher at the ECEC center. Kana’s five narratives were qualitatively analyzed. This study concluded that the rise of meaningful play occurs from the perspective of intersubjectivity between the relationship between the ECEC teacher and the child who creates the actual time. Kana’s narratives in this study are likely to lead to the creation of companionship between them, which, in turn, leads to the ECEC teacher’s realization of meaningful play.

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