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Findings trace a discursive shift from romantic, child-centered play to play as progress, emphasizing developmental benefits and learning outcomes. The paper argues that rhetoric of play-as-progress sustains play’s prominence in Ontario kindergarten policy, reflecting schooling ideologies that accountability-era policymakers favor.",{"@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/rhetorics-of-play-in-kindergarten-programs-in-an-era-of-accountability/594657/",{"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/rhetorics-of-play-in-kindergarten-programs-in-an-era-of-accountability/594657.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Ben ","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":81},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What analytic framework does the paper use to study Ontario kindergarten programs?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The paper conducts a deductive analysis using Sutton-Smith’s “rhetorics of play” to interpret how play is framed within published Ontario kindergarten programs.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How have the dominant discourses of play changed over time in Ontario kindergarten programs?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The predominant discourses shift from a romantic view of play as a natural, child-centered activity to a discourse of play as progress, stressing developmental benefits and learning outcomes.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"Why does the paper argue play-based learning remains prominent in Ontario kindergarten programs?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It argues that the rhetoric of play-as-progress is key to maintaining play’s prominence, aligning with the ideologies of schooling that accountability-era policymakers support.","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},594657,1792160852,{"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":81,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},2336478951081,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","Rhetorics of Play in Kindergarten Programs in an Era of Accountability  \nShelley Stagg Peterson  \nOISE/University of Toronto  \nDianne Riehl  \nToronto District School Board  \nAbstract  \nIn this paper we conduct a deductive analysis, using Sutton-Smith's “rhetorics of play,” of the published kindergarten programs that have guided Ontario kindergarten teaching since 1944. Our analysis is used togain an understanding of how we in Ontario have arrivedat a point where playbased learning has been taken up by developers of the provincial kindergarten program and approved as a pedagogical focus by politicians. The predominant discourses appear to have changed from a romantic view of play as a natural, child-centered activity, to a discourse of play as progress, with an emphasis on the developmental benefits of play and learning outcomes of play. We believe that the use of the rhetoric of play as progress has been key to the continued prominence of play in Ontario kindergarten programs. It represents ideologies of schooling to which policy-makers seem to be attuned in this era of accountability.  \nKeywords: play, kindergarten curriculum, rhetorics of play, discourses of play  \nShelley Stagg Peterson is a Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning atthe Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. A former elementary teacher in Alberta, she now conducts research on assessing and supporting young children’s oral language through play in northern rural and Indigenous communities in Alberta and Ontario, conducting action research with teachers and early childhood educators.  \nEmail: [shelleystagg.peterson@utoronto.ca](shelleystagg.peterson@utoronto.ca)  \nDianne Riehl is currently a Vice Principal in the Toronto District School Board. She was previously on secondment as an Education Officer at the Ontario Ministry of Education responsible for co-authoring and leading the implementation of the Full-Day Kindergarten Program across Ontario. She has an M.A. in Early Childhood and has research interests in play and self-regulation.  \nEmail: [dianneriehl@gmail.com](dianneriehl@gmail.com)  \nIntroduction  \nIn the Canadian province of Ontario where we live and work, the current full-day kindergarten program, as envisioned by policy developers, is emphatically play-based. It is based on the principle that “play is a means to early learning that capitalizes on children’s natural curiosity and exuberance” (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2010, p.13) . As former primary teachers, we are excited about this new pedagogical emphasis—it is a return to the approach that we had embraced in our teaching since the 1980’s when pedagogical discourses assumed play tobe integral to children’s learning in kindergarten. We are finding that our enthusiasm is not matched in some cases by educators in contemporary kindergarten classrooms, or by some parents of kindergarten children across the province, however.  \nOne author is an urban Ontario school district’s vice-principal in a K-8 school and former early childhood consultant, who was seconded by the Ontario Ministry of Education (OME) to develop and support the implementation of the new full-day kindergarten program. She has met a number of kindergarten teachers across the province who says that they feel apprehensive about taking up a play-based pedagogical approach. In her consultative work, she has found that teachers who expressed uncertainty about implementing play-based approaches have defaulted to using didactic methods that do not recognize the complex, differentiated, open-ended, child-centered nature of play, including assembling pre-made standardized crafts or completing fill-in-the-blank literacy-related activities during periods ofthe day designated as play center times. Other teachers set out materials and then stand back and watch as children play with the materials. Still others use play as a classroom management technique (e.g., as a reward for the completion of work) . It appears","cbCaisDwiVJGcQPH","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaisDwiVJGcQPH","pdf",562788,13,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction","[{\"question\":\"What analytic framework does the paper use to study Ontario kindergarten programs?\",\"answer\":\"The paper conducts a deductive analysis using Sutton-Smith’s “rhetorics of play” to interpret how play is framed within published Ontario kindergarten programs.\"},{\"question\":\"How have the dominant discourses of play changed over time in Ontario kindergarten programs?\",\"answer\":\"The predominant discourses shift from a romantic view of play as a natural, child-centered activity to a discourse of play as progress, stressing developmental benefits and learning outcomes.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the paper argue play-based learning remains prominent in Ontario kindergarten programs?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that the rhetoric of play-as-progress is key to maintaining play’s prominence, aligning with the ideologies of schooling that accountability-era policymakers support.\"}]","Rhetorics of Play in Kindergarten Programs in an Era of Accountability | PDF",1792079579,33]