Children's Play in Diverse Cultures (SUNY Series, Children's Play in Society)

This book illuminates play as a universal and culture-specific activity. It provides needed information about the behavior of children in diverse cultural contexts as well as about the play of children in unassimilated cultural or subcultural contexts. It offers readers the opportunity to develop greater sensitivity to and better understanding of the important cultural differences that confront early childhood teachers and teacher educators.

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: United States, 11 January 1994

Format: Paperback, 240 pages

Age Range: 0+

Other Information: , black & white illustrations

Dimensions: 22.6 x 15.2 x 1.7 centimeters (0.33 kg)

Writer: Jaipaul L. Roopnarine, James E. Johnson, Frank H. Hooper

Table of Contents

1. The Need to Look at Play in Diverse Cultural Settings Jaipaul L. Roopnarine and James E. Johnson 2. Play in the East Indian Context Jaipaul L. Roopnarine, Ziarat Hossain, Preeti Gill, and Holly Brophy 3. Children's Play in Taiwan Hui-Ling Wendy Pan 4. Children's Play in Japan Michio Takeuchi 5. Peer Interactions in Polynesia: A View from Marquesas Mary Martini 6. Mainland Puerto Rican Children Lourdes Diaz Soto and Lillian Negron 7. Child's Play--una cosa naturale: An Italian Perspective Rebecca S. New 8. African Children's Play and the Emergence of the Sexual Division of Labor Marianne N. Bloch and Susan M. Adler 9. Meaning in Mud: Yup'ik Eskimo Girls at Play Kathleen Bennett deMarrais, Patricia A. Nelson, and Jill H. Baker 10. Culture, Play, and Early Childhood Education Celeste Lasater and James E. Johnson Index

About the Author

Jaipaul L. Roopnarine is Associate Profesor of Child Studies and Early Childhood Education at Syracuse University. James E. Johnson is Associate Professor of Education at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park. Frank H. Hooper is Professor of Child and Family Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Reviews

"This is an exciting book. I couldn't wait to read it, and I was not disappointed. Among its many excellent features is the way in which it illuminates the cultural-ecological model of play in early childhood. I doubt if anyone who reads the book will forget the vivid images it evokes of children's play in these diverse and fascinating cultures and the many evidences of the 'overlapping layers of environmental influence' that shape its forms and functions. "I believe that Children's Play in Diverse Cultures will prove a major stimulus for across- and within-culture studies employing cultural-ecological concepts. I became aware that some of the things I regarded as well-established 'truths' about child development do not apply in all cultures, and assuming they do can limit our educational practice. I feel stronger as an advocate for children as a result of reading this work." - Penelope Griffing