The perceptions and roles of teachers and caregivers on play in promoting children’s early learning and development in a rural Kenya

Adults, including teachers and parents have an important role in supporting children’s learning and development through play. This paper aimed to explore parents’ and teachers’ viewpoints and roles on play in promoting early learning and development in children, which has little emphasis in existing studies. This paper employed a cross-sectional study using a mixed-method approach to gather data from preschool teachers (n=96), parents (n=126), and policy implementers (n=6) in Kenya. We used questionnaires, focus group discussions, and interview guides to collect qualitative and quantitative data through face-to-face interviews with teachers and parents and mobile interviews with policy stakeholders. We performed qualitative analysis through reviewing the study transcripts, coding, and generating emerging themes that later guided the draft of the narrative report. Quantitative data were coded, cleaned, and reviewed before they were descriptively computed on the Stata version 18 to generate graphic representations. Our findings revealed that teachers and parents jointly perceived play to be pivotal on children’s learning and development. In addition, parents and teachers recognized that it is their role to engage children in play, provide play materials, and supervise children. Based on our results, we suggest that preschool teachers and parents collaboratively identify days to jointly develop play materials in preschool centers. This strategy may present a better understanding of the adults’ primary role of facilitating play and play-based learning. Our findings may serve as a resource and source of information for preschool teachers, parents, and policy stakeholders to consider play not only as a development pathway but also an element of learning and contributor to school readiness in children.