Education Commons^™

A Microethnography On The Role Of Play In An After School Program, Amanda Kolacia

HIM 1990-2015

This study explores parents' views on the importance of free play when it pertains to what their children do after school. By studying this information, teachers, childcare providers, and administrators can use these perceptions in an attempt to discover why children are no longer engaging in unstructured play as frequently as they once were. Through the responses of 59 parents who participate in a large afterschool program, this study revealed that although 81% of parents ranked free play as valued in their own childhoods, free play ranked low in terms of parents' acknowledgement of play in after school programs of …