Play and creativity are fundamental to Early Childhood Education (ECE), shaping cognitive, social, and emotional development (Bodrova & Leong, 2019). Despite widespread recognition of their importance, the conditions that best support these elements remain underexplored. This symposium seeks to investigate the conditions necessary to foster play and creativity in early childhood settings with a focus on the role of adults, namely parents. Research on play has highlighted the role of the adult as an important variable for the richness of play (Devi, Fleer, & Li, 2018; Bredikyte, 2022). This has been conceptualized in combination with ECE Pedagogy. Parental involvement also plays a crucial role in a child's educational development. Research over the years has consistently shown that when parents actively engage in their children's education, positive effects are far-reaching, fostering a love for learning, boosting self-esteem, and developing essential life skills (Epstein, 2018; Romsaitong & Brown, 2020).

The empirical studies included in the symposium shed light both on the power of play for developing children’s learning and on parents’ perspectives on play, its role in pedagogy, and their willingness to support play in ECE settings and at home. The objective of the Symposium is to contribute to a research-based agenda for ECE teachers’ play education. The Symposium combines perspectives from different countries and creates the space for dialogue between researchers to elaborate on the following research questions: how can teachers support the developmental potential of children's play regarding creativity?, what role can parents and families have in terms of conditions for play in ECE settings?, what strategies and approaches to involve parents in discussing pedagogy connected to play are relevant in ECE?, how can teachers’ education and professional development support including families in play in ECE settings and more play-oriented pedagogy?.

The most important task of the Symposium is to highlight how research can provide contributions to professional learning so that teachers can become playful, spontaneous, and ready to support children’s families in engaging and supporting play. This includes the instruments (PERS and CERS, for example) and research designs (practitioner-research, for example) that have been used and their potential in initial teacher education. Also important is that the results from the studies may highlight areas that can be further elaborated, as is the case of the combination of parental involvement research and play research.

Bodrova, E., & Leong, D. J. (2019). Tools of the mind: The Vygotskian approach to early childhood education. Pearson. Brėdikytė, M. (2022). Adult participation in the creation of narrative playworlds: challenges and contradictions. International Journal of Early Years Education, 30, 1-15. DOI:10.1080/09669760.2022.2107895 Devi, A., Fleer, M., & Li, L. (2018). ‘We set up a small world’: preschool teachers’ involvement in children’s imaginative play. International Journal of Early Years Education, 26(3), 295-311. Epstein, J.L. (2018). School, family, and community partnerships in teachers’ professional work. Journal of Education for Teaching, 44, 397-406. Romsaitong, P., & Sricha Brown, S. (2023). A Systematic Review of Parental Involvement in the Education of Their Children. ASEAN Journal of Education, 6(1), 33–40. retrieved from https://so01.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/AJE/article/view/269791