| Summary: | The purpose of the study is to find out preschool teachers' approach to free play. We want to investigate how preschool teachers perceive their participation in children's free play and what factors that may differ, as well as shed light on how the importance of free play in preschool can be understood. We have performed qualitative interviews with six preschool teachers from one and the same preschool and then interpreted them from a hermeneutic perspective. In the analysis, the answers of the preschool teachers’ have been interpreted with the use of phenomenological approach, to give a broader picture of how preschool teachers think, experience and relate to free play. Based on the preschool teachers' answers, it appears that free play is viewed as an important activity for the children and that the preschool teacher's participation is necessary in many situations. At the same time, they say that they participate far too seldom, but if opportunities were given, they liked to participate more often. The preschool teachers believe that this is because of all the "musts" that includes in their occupational responsibilities, such as administrative tasks. Furthermore, we conclude that the preschool teachers' main purpose for participation is to be a supportive educator, but also that the purpose may differ between the children’s different ages.
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