In this ethnographic research, discovery of how preschool-aged children use play to wield their individual power in the outdoors is documented in a single classroom. Embedded as a participant-researcher and working from constructivist and critical theory orientations, the researcher seeks to understand how children use their play to construct the shared classroom cultural understanding of what it means to hold and wield power. Children age two and a half through five years old engage in a number of activities to experiment with what it means to be powerful. Imaginative play, physically risky play, as well as solo play are all explored. In light of the findings, various theories of power as expressed through the lens of critical theory will be used to analyse student and teacher voices.
ARTICLE HISTORY
In Trump’s America, the profession of education is under attack. The privatization of public schools and the deprofessionalization of professional teachers has become even more dire than in the past. In this article, the authors discuss the need for preparing future teachers to embark on their careers in such an inhospitable time. They believe that part of the role of teacher educators should shift into preparing teachers to be activist educators as well as professional educators. The authors use concrete examples to discuss why and how teacher education programs should help prepare pre-service teachers to be activist educators.
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