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Using purposive sampling, interviews were conducted with eight teachers who actively promote free play. Findings show that observing and supporting children’s free play reshapes teachers’ understanding of professional ethics, generating unprecedented joy and leading to a renewed professional ethical code.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/free-play-and-loving-care-a-qualitative-inquiry-of-chinese-kindergarten-teachers-professional-ethics/601366/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/free-play-and-loving-care-a-qualitative-inquiry-of-chinese-kindergarten-teachers-professional-ethics/601366.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"hdkawk","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-31","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":34},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What ethical problem do Chinese kindergarten teachers commonly face?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Many teachers view “loving and caring for young children” as a core professional ethic, yet they report fatigue and burnout linked to implementing this ethic in daily routines.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How did the study examine teachers’ experiences?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The researchers used purposive sampling and interviewed eight Chinese teachers who actively promoted children’s free play, then analyzed interview transcripts through interpretive engagement with relevant concepts and theories.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What role does children’s free play play in teachers’ professional ethics?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Children’s free play helps teachers change their understanding of professional ethics, bringing joy in teaching and supporting a redefinition of loving and caring that results in a new professional ethical code.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},601366,1792652072,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":34,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":56,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144},3985747859855,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","Free Play and “Loving Care”: A Qualitative Inquiry of Chinese Kindergarten Teachers’Professional Ethics  \nJie Zhang (张婕) East China Normal University Mollie R. Clark   \nThe University of Memphis Yeh Hsueh The University of Memphis  \nECNU Review of Education 2022, Vol. 5(4) 664–682 © The Author(s) 2022 Article reuse guidelines:  \n[sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/20965311221121677](DOI: 10.1177/20965311221121677)[ ](DOI: 10.1177/20965311221121677)[journals.sagepub.com/home/roe](journals.sagepub.com/home/roe)  \nAbstract  \nPurpose: Chinese kindergarten teachers commonly held “loving and caring for young children” asa core professional ethic, but many reported fatigue and burnout because of this ethical practice. This study presents a unique account of how children’s free play has helped transform teachers’professional ethics and increased their professional satisfaction.  \nDesign/Approach/Methods: Following a purposive sampling, we interviewed eight Chinese teachers who actively promoted children’s free play. The analysis of the interview transcripts led to an in-depth interpretation of the teachers’ experiences through a dialogue with various concepts and theories.  \nFindings: A major finding was that children’s free play facilitated the change in teachers’ understandings of their professional ethics. Their observation and support of children’s free play brought them the unprecedented joy of teaching, which helped them redefine loving and caring for children and gave rise to a new code of professional ethics.  \nCorresponding author:  \nJie Zhang, Faculty of Education, East China Normal University, 3663 North Zhongshan Road, Shanghai 200062, China.  \nEmail: [jzhang@pie.ecnu.edu.cn](jzhang@pie.ecnu.edu.cn)  \nCreative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative  \nCommons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page ([https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage](https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage)).  \nOriginality/Value: This study was the first to assess the Chinese kindergarten teachers’ ethics in the free play movement in China. It reveals, in the teachers’ own words, how their growing commitment to supporting children’s free play has transformed their beliefs and understandings of what a loving and caring teacher means.  \nKeywords  \nFree play, kindergarten teachers’ professional development, professional ethics, the ethic of loving care  \nDate received: 9 August 2021; revised: 18 December 2021, 17 March 2022, 18 May 2022; accepted: 10 June 2022  \nIntroduction  \nMost early childhood educators will recognize that pedagogy is conditioned by love and care forchildren (van Manen, 2016/1991) . Scholars have demonstrated that caring is one major moral character within the teaching context (Noddings, 1984, 1992; Sockett, 1993), including early childhood education (e.g., Clark, 1995; Goldstein, 1997) . The ethics of care is a useful conceptual framework through which we understand how early childhood teachers respond to difficult situations (Cherrington & Dalli, 2019; Öztürk, 2010; Tirri & Husu, 2002) .  \nA core professional ethic of caring for children in China’s kindergartens 1 has been stipulated in several national policy documents, for example, “The Professional Standards for Kindergarten Teachers (Trial Version)” (Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China [MOE of PRC], 2012) and “Kindergarten Work Regulations and Procedures” (MOE of PRC, 2016) . These documents require that kindergarten staff respect, love, and care for children. Later,“Ten Guidelines for Kindergarten Teachers’ Profession","cbCaiqOPF8LIqFpQ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiqOPF8LIqFpQ","pdf",729182,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction","[{\"question\":\"What ethical problem do Chinese kindergarten teachers commonly face?\",\"answer\":\"Many teachers view “loving and caring for young children” as a core professional ethic, yet they report fatigue and burnout linked to implementing this ethic in daily routines.\"},{\"question\":\"How did the study examine teachers’ experiences?\",\"answer\":\"The researchers used purposive sampling and interviewed eight Chinese teachers who actively promoted children’s free play, then analyzed interview transcripts through interpretive engagement with relevant concepts and theories.\"},{\"question\":\"What role does children’s free play play in teachers’ professional ethics?\",\"answer\":\"Children’s free play helps teachers change their understanding of professional ethics, bringing joy in teaching and supporting a redefinition of loving and caring that results in a new professional ethical code.\"}]","Free Play and “Loving Care”: A Qualitative Inquiry of Chinese Kindergarten Teachers’ Professional Ethics | PDF",1792092473,48]