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Preschool children's war play: How do greek teachers and parents cope with it?

1998; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 6; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13502939885208171

1752-1807

Elsie Doliopoulou,

Themes in Literature Analysis

SUMMARY Lately, many children are born and live in countries where war takes place and in several cases they do not have the opportunity to grow up and enjoy peaceful life. In other countries where there is no war, children are exposed to violence and aggression daily as witnesses (or victims) of such acts or through the media, especially television. As a result young children show a great interest in war play, a play that has for many years concerned teachers and parents, whose opinions vary. On one side lies a developmental view which assumes that this play meets the developmental needs and desires of youngsters (expression of aggression, development of fantasy, need for power and control and so on), and on the other side lies the sociopolitical view which assumes that through this kind of play children are involved with aggressiveness, violence and militarism. In addition, there are people who think that both opinions are somewhat right, and are confused about what is best for their children. In the USA, two researchers, Carlsson-Paige and Levin, have extensively studied children's war play and how teachers and parents cope with it. We replicated two of their studies with Greek teachers and parents of preschool children. Teachers and parents were interviewed and completed a questionnaire with questions relevant to the research questions. The research questions addressed to the teachers were the following: 1) Do children in their class engage in war play, and if they do, what kind of play do these youngsters take part in? 2) How do teachers cope with this kind of play and how do they feel about what they are doing? 3) What is their opinion about the ‘Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’? 4) Do children in their class show interest about the Power Rangers, and if they do, what kind of influence have these characters had on these youngsters according to their observations? 5) What do parents of their class think about children's war play and especially Power Rangers? The research questions addressed to the parents were the following: 1) If their child engaged in war play: a) in what kind of play does he take part in? b) when and how did his interest for war play begin? c) how do they cope with this kind of play of their child? d) if their child watches TV, what kind of programmes does he like to watch? 2) If their child is not involved with war play: a) do they think that this happens because he is not interested in this kind of play or for any other reason? b) what they would do if their child participated in this kind of play? and c) if their child watches TV, what kind of programmes does he like to watch? The results and conclusions of this study are presented in this paper.