MEDIATING CHILDREN’S DEVELOPMENT THROUGH STORYTELLING AND

PLAY ACTIVITIES: A SOCIO-CULTURAL STUDY OF A WALDORF

KINDERGARTEN IN CAPE TOWN

Ya-el Joy Levin

Student number 3993048

THESIS SUBMITTED IN FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE

DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Supervisor: Prof Rajendra Chetty

August 2023

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 DECLARATION

I, Ya-el Joy Levin, declare that this thesis, ‘Mediating children’s development through
storytelling and play activities: a socio-cultural study of a Waldorf kindergarten class’,
is my personal work and has not been submitted for degree or examination in any other
university. All sources I have cited or quoted have been referenced and fully
recognised by a complete list of bibliographical references.

I know that plagiarism is wrong. Plagiarism is to use another’s work and pretend that it
is one’s own. Therefore, each significant contribution to this thesis is my own
interpretation. I therefore declare that this thesis is my own work.

Signature: YJ Levin Date: 15 August 2023

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 ABSTRACT

The study focused on a Waldorf kindergarten, investigating the role of storytelling by

the teacher, and the free imaginative play of the children. It utilised the socio-cultural
theories of Lev Vygotsky as a theoretical lens. The research question centred on how
to observe the internalisation of language in a storytelling setting, and whether free
play allows for that. If the children expressed the stories in their play and
drawings, does this reveal aspects of internalisation? The literature review covered
Vygotsky’s theories of development, as well as play and storytelling. The neurological
aspects of development were also examined. Vygotsky was one of the first to
initiate the term ‘self-regulation’, which has now become one of the leading foci in
understanding the development of children emotionally and mentally. This study
investigated the roles of language and tools in both storytelling and free play. It also
reviewed aspects of the Waldorf philosophy which may have impacted the
environment of the study. The children, aged 4 to 7 years, were studied for a year
in an ethnographic socio-cultural discourse analysis. Having a socio-cultural lens
entailed scrutinising the social role of language in the child’s individual
internalisation, as well as imagination, zone of proximal development, private
speech, self-regulation and identify formation. The study revealed that children
internalised language through both the content of the storytelling, as well as the
structure of presenting it. The Waldorf kindergarten provided a specific method of
oral telling, puppetry and acting stories, with the same story repetitively over days or
even weeks. This offered a level of immersion where the dynamics of internalisation
could be revealed through the imaginative play of the children.

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 DEDICATION

I dedicate this thesis to my son, Kieron Luke, that he may also pursue a life of
knowledge and questioning.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I thank my parents, Merle and Jeff Levin, who without their inspiration and support, I
could never have embarked on this journey. And my partner, Andrew Parker for the
continual support over the years, and tolerating my busy weekends and holidays.

I also thank my supervisor, Prof Rajendra Chetty, who motivated me through the
process, to find my voice and determination, improve on my skills, critique, and joy of
the journey.

I thank my workplace, The Centre for Creative Education, for giving me time and
support through this study. My hope is that the inspiration can reach the students to
further their own journey in academic contribution.

Gratitude to the Imhoff Waldorf School, where I conducted the study and worked for
11 years.

Lastly, I acknowledge Lev Vygotsky. My family were also in Russia at that time, and
had to flee the Revolution. Whereas he joined both as participant and observer, with a
life ending too isolated and too soon. As the study went on, I found myself realising
new reasons for studying Vygotsky, being touched by his words, thoughts, and the
strength for the time and place where he lived.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION .........................................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT ...............................................................................................................iii
DEDICATION ............................................................................................................iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..........................................................................................v
TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................vi
LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................xiii
LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................xiv

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................1

1.1. Background and rationale for the study.....................................................1
1.2. Problem statement ....................................................................................2
1.3. The study...................................................................................................3
1.4. Research questions...................................................................................4
1.5. Research aims and objectives ..................................................................4
1.6. Significance and contribution to the study .................................................5
1.7. Organisation of the study ..........................................................................5

CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .......................................................8

2.1. Introduction................................................................................................8
2.1.1. Vygotsky’s education and life ....................................................................8
2.1.2. Vygotsky’s death and legacy ...................................................................10
2.1.3. Educational psychological research ........................................................12
2.1.4. Dialectical materialism as a methodology ...............................................12
2.1.5. Peircian Third – the interpretant ..............................................................14
2.1.6. Luria and Vygotsky ..................................................................................16
2.2. Socio-cultural theory................................................................................17
2.2.1. What was development for Vygotsky? ....................................................17
2.2.2. Early Relationships and development .....................................................18
2.2.3. Age-appropriate stages of development and private speech ..................18
2.2.4. Mediation .................................................................................................20
2.2.5. Internalisation ..........................................................................................21
2.2.6. Internalisation vs participation .................................................................22

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2.2.7. Vygotsky defined imagination..................................................................23
2.2.8. Vygotsky’s theory of zone of proximal development (ZPD).....................24
2.2.9. Play and the zone of proximal development – dramatic collision ............25
2.2.10. Critiques ..................................................................................................26

CHAPTER 3 LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................27

3.1. Introduction..............................................................................................27
3.2. Vygotsky defined play .............................................................................27
3.2.1. First definition of play: children create imaginary situations ....................28
3.2.2. Second definition of play: children create roles .......................................29
3.2.3. Third definition of play: children create rules ...........................................30
3.3. Dialectic in play .......................................................................................31
3.4. Perezhivanie and the dramatic aspect of play.........................................32
3.5. Lindqvist and the aesthetics of play ........................................................34
3.5.1. Play worlds ..............................................................................................34
3.6. Other theories of play ..............................................................................36
3.6.1. Psychoanalytical theories ........................................................................36
3.6.2. Erikson ....................................................................................................37
3.6.3. Piaget ......................................................................................................38
3.6.4. Fröbel and free play ................................................................................40
3.6.5. Brian Sutton-Smith and playfulness of language ....................................40
3.7. Research on play ....................................................................................41
3.7.1. Why is play diminishing? .........................................................................44
3.7.2. Play and toys in a Waldorf kindergarten..................................................46
3.8. Theory of a Waldorf school .....................................................................48
3.8.1. Path of development ...............................................................................50
3.8.2. Will and thinking as polarities ..................................................................50
3.8.3. Dream consciousness of the young child ................................................52
3.8.4. Emergence of adult teeth ........................................................................53
3.8.5. Imitation as a form of social construction ................................................53
3.8.6. Rhythm, breathing and self-regulation ....................................................54
3.8.7. Storytelling and young children ...............................................................55
3.8.8. Storytelling in a Waldorf kindergarten .....................................................56
3.8.9. Language and imagination in stories.......................................................58

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3.8.10. Psychoanalytical view of storytelling .......................................................60
3.8.11. The structure of a fairy tale in its aesthetic form......................................61
3.8.12. Perezhivanie and storytelling ..................................................................62
3.9. Imagination and transformative education ..............................................63
3.9.1. The meaning-making process .................................................................63
3.9.2. Binaries of language and concept ...........................................................64
3.10. Socio-cultural theory and neuropsychology ............................................65
3.10.1. Influence of neuroscience on the understanding of play .........................66
3.10.2. Mirror neurons .........................................................................................67
3.10.3. Attachment theory ...................................................................................68
3.10.4. Self-regulation and executive functions...................................................69
3.11. Conclusion ...............................................................................................70

CHAPTER 4 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................72

4.1. Introduction..............................................................................................72
4.2. The research questions ...........................................................................73
4.3. Ethnographic studies ...............................................................................73
4.4. Discourse analysis and ethnographic research.......................................75
4.5. Socio-cultural discourse analysis ............................................................76
4.6. Dialectics in Critical Discourse analysis (CDA) .......................................79
4.7. Triad vs dialectic ......................................................................................80
4.8. Qualitative method ..................................................................................80
4.9. Data collection .........................................................................................80
4.9.1. Identification of subjects ..........................................................................81
4.10. Methods of data collection.......................................................................82
4.10.1. Observation .............................................................................................82
4.10.2. Interviewing .............................................................................................83
4.10.3. Document analysis ..................................................................................83
4.11. Focus on storytelling ...............................................................................83
4.12. Questions arising.....................................................................................84
4.12.1. Adding questions throughout the research process ................................84
4.13. Transcription ............................................................................................85
4.14. Data analysis ...........................................................................................85
4.15. Data coding and interpretation ................................................................86

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4.16. Ethical considerations .............................................................................87
4.17. Conclusion...............................................................................................88

CHAPTER 5 FINDINGS .......................................................................................89

5.1. Introduction..............................................................................................89
5.2. Location and subjects..............................................................................89
5.3. Classroom structure ................................................................................90
5.3.1. Table area ...............................................................................................91
5.3.2. Mat area ..................................................................................................91
5.3.3. Imitation area...........................................................................................91
5.4. Nature table .............................................................................................92
5.5. Seasonal festivals ...................................................................................92
5.6. Rhythmic teaching ...................................................................................93
5.7. The daily rhythm as a binary of breathing ...............................................94
5.7.1. Observation: Transitions and repetition of activity and language ............95
5.7.2. Observation from notes: Self-regulation in terms of cloth folding ............96
5.8. How rhythm facilitates language .............................................................97
5.9. Ring time, repetition and seasonal rhythm ..............................................97
5.9.1. Types of movements and language which are done in every ring time: .98
5.9.2. Examples where polarities were also considered in the development of the
ring time:..................................................................................................98
5.9.3. Progression of the ring time in autumn....................................................99
5.9.4. Puppetry ................................................................................................101
5.9.5. Cloth puppets ........................................................................................102
5.9.6. Learning sequencing and structure from a puppet show ......................103
5.9.7. Action research: changing the structure of puppetry .............................104
5.10. Acting out the stories .............................................................................104
5.10.1. Types of stories to act ...........................................................................105
5.11. Presenting the data: Storytelling ...........................................................106
5.11.1. Aspects and themes in the first term .....................................................106
5.11.2. Stories presented in term one ...............................................................106
5.11.3. Aspects and themes in the second term ...............................................110
5.11.4. Review of storytelling in the second term ..............................................110
5.11.5. Aspects and themes in the third term ....................................................113

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5.11.6. Review of storytelling in the third term ..................................................114
5.11.7. Aspects and themes in the fourth term..................................................117
5.11.8. Review of storytelling in the fourth term ................................................118
5.12. Observing play in relation to the storytelling..........................................120
5.12.1. Play in the kindergarten.........................................................................121
5.12.2. How the tools of storytelling mediated the structure of play ..................122
5.12.2.1. Types of play: puppetry and ‘garden’ making........................................123
5.12.2.2. Examples of how children incorporated stories into their play ..............124
5.12.2.3. Internalisation over time ........................................................................126
5.12.2.4. Action research: new aspects of puppetry ............................................126
5.12.2.5. Types of play: dressing up and acting stories .......................................127
5.13. Data from parent interviews ..................................................................128
5.13.1. Meeting 1...............................................................................................128
5.13.2. Meeting 2...............................................................................................129
5.13.3. Comments from the parents ..................................................................129
5.14. Document analysis ................................................................................130
5.14.1. Creating a storybook from a story told in class .....................................130
5.14.2. Expressing images from the ring time stories and songs ......................130
5.14.3. Drawing as a means to express patterns ..............................................131
5.15. Conclusion .............................................................................................132

CHAPTER 6 DISCUSSION ................................................................................133

6.1. Introduction............................................................................................133
6.2. Individual development originates in social processes..........................134
6.3. Exploring Vygotsky’s definition of play ..................................................135
6.4. Types of mediation in the classroom .....................................................135
6.5. Three types of social interaction............................................................136
6.6. Mediating storytelling and how this influenced the children’s play ........137
6.6.1. Themes in the stories ............................................................................138
6.6.2. Example of a Nature story .....................................................................138
6.6.3. Remedial story ......................................................................................139
6.7. Interplay between fantasy and reality ....................................................140
6.8. Binaries of language and concept .........................................................142
6.9. How tools were used: the example of craftwork ....................................143

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6.10. Higher mental functions.........................................................................145
6.11. Perezhivanie: the joining of environment and self in experience ..........146
6.12. Examples of imitation and new creation ................................................148
6.13. Self-regulation and rules .......................................................................149
6.13.1. Class rules made by the teacher ...........................................................149
6.13.2. Rules made by the children ...................................................................149
6.14. Zone of proximal development and age differences .............................151
6.15. Conclusion.............................................................................................152

CHAPTER 7 Conclusion ...................................................................................154

7.1. Introduction............................................................................................154
7.2. Reviewing the research questions ........................................................155
7.3. Hypothesis.............................................................................................155
7.4. Socio-cultural analysis...........................................................................155
7.5. Private speech.......................................................................................156
7.6. Zone of proximal development ..............................................................156
7.6.1. Ways that imitation was fostered...........................................................158
7.7. Defining mediation.................................................................................159
7.8. Internalisation of stories in children’s play .............................................159
7.8.1. Imitating the archetypal characters .......................................................160
7.8.2. Imitating the structure of storytelling......................................................160
7.8.3. The plot or moods in the puppet shows ................................................161
7.8.4. Imitation through ring games .................................................................162
7.8.5. A story of imitation and discovery..........................................................163
7.9. Stories ...................................................................................................163
7.10. The dramatic collision and linking of emotion........................................164
7.11. Nourishing the foundations for internalising stories...............................165
7.12. Meaning making ....................................................................................166
7.13. The dialectic and process......................................................................167
7.14. Conclusion.............................................................................................167

REFERENCES .......................................................................................................170

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APPENDICES ........................................................................................................190
Appendix 1: Sally had made her own pictures out of the Three Little Pigs story ...190
Appendix 2: Princess and the rainbow ...................................................................190
Appendix 3: Rainbow and flower ............................................................................191
Appendix 4: Bird and the tree .................................................................................191
Appendix 5: Horse and house ................................................................................192
Appendix 6: The bird visiting the squirrel ...............................................................192
Appendix 7: Flower mandala ..................................................................................193
Appendix 8: Star and patterns ................................................................................193

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 LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: Comparison of Piaget and Vygotsky on ideas of symbolic play ..............40
Table 3.2: Aspects of will and thinking .....................................................................52
Table 4.1: Daily note chart .......................................................................................82
Table 5.1: Seasons and associated colours and elements for the nature table .......92
Table 5.2: List of term dates, festivals and themes ..................................................94
Table 5.3: Rhythm of the day, pertaining to in-breath-out-breath in activity ............95
Table 5.4: Transitions and associated activity and language ...................................96
Table 5.5: Activities, rhythms and rituals ..................................................................97
Table 5.6: Aspects and themes of the seasonal stories .........................................106
Table 5.7: Term 1 story schedule – summer to autumn festival.............................107
Table 5.8: Aspects and themes of the seasonal stories .........................................110
Table 5.9: Term 2 story schedule – autumn to mid-winter festival .........................111
Table 5.10: Aspects and themes of the seasonal stories .......................................114
Table 5.11: Term 3 story schedule – mid-winter to spring festival .........................114
Table 5.12: Aspects and themes of the seasonal stories .......................................117
Table 5.13: Term 4 story schedule – spring to summer festival .............................118
Table 5.14: Storytelling processes and play...........................................................123
Table 5.15: Example of storytelling influences on the children’s puppet plays ......125
Table 6.1: Modes of mediation observed in the classroom ...................................136
Table 6.2: The real and fantasy aspects of stories told in the classroom...............142
Table 6.3: The progression of craft projects ...........................................................144
Table 6.4: Example of duality of play .....................................................................148
Table 6.5: An example of negotiating rules ............................................................150

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure: 3.1 Continuum of adult interaction in play ....................................................46

Figure 5.1: Outline of the classroom area ................................................................90

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 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background and rationale for the study

I had been a Waldorf preschool teacher for a decade when I began this thesis. My
Master’s degree focused on Grade 1 literacy environments, investigating both brain-
based and Waldorf education. I was interested in the transition from orality to literacy
that a child underwent, and how this could be understood from a neurological and
developmental perspective. The history of writing involved a slow progress from picture
to letter, over thousands of years. It struck me how relevant this process was in the
wiring of the child’s brain and laying a foundation for the love of literacy. The image, or
picture, was a bridge between oral listening and written word. I was interested how
storytelling provided the opportunity for children to develop this imaginative capacity.
As a Waldorf teacher, the role of storyteller is similar to that in days of old, with oral
memorised telling, quietly by a candle (fire). This is meant to inspire the children to
imagine the stories themselves, using a right-brained consciousness. For both
Vygotsky, and Steiner from the Waldorf system, this imagination was essential to the
development of the child’s thinking capacities.

The year after I completed my Master’s degree, I took a gap year from teaching. My
purpose was to explore Waldorf schooling within an isiXhosa mother-tongue
environment. For a term, I took a post teaching in a small Eastern Cape Waldorf-
inspired school; a traditional round hut, holding 10 children. I had an isiXhosa assistant.
I was able to observe the effect of Waldorf storytelling and play curriculum on children
who lived rurally.

I recognised how their play imitated their home environments. Some of the children
who attended the preschool lived with their grandmothers, some of whom worked at a
local hotel, and thus were exposed to much adult after-hours activities. This was
revealed through the imitative play. Nearly every imaginative game seemed to
conclude with the arrival of a policemen, to collect a drunk person. In the ring games,
where children danced together in the middle, a little boy danced more like a drunk
man. It took me weeks to guide him to dance like a child.

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 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

I had developed a system of storytelling with my assistant, in order to tell the stories in
both isiXhosa and English. My intention was to bring small pictures in both languages
so I was sure they were following the story. Thus, I told a paragraph in English, and
she translated it into isiXhosa. I also tried to translate many songs and verses into their
mother tongue. Then I watched their play.

Certain stories, such as the folk tale of The Three Little Pigs (traditional), had repeated
verses, such as

“Little Pig little pig let me in.

No, no, no…Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin.”

This phrase entered their play, and it made me very curious about the internalisation
of language and whether I could study the relationship of language input and further
expression in the child’s play. At the same time, a colleague was sending me journals
on Vygotsky and his theories of language and imagination. I was inspired by the
concepts of self-regulation through imagination and rule-making in play. I could look at
the phenomenon of the children, and experience some of his ideas in practice.

This was how this thesis began. Initially I wanted to do the research in a second-
language environment, but I realised that transcribing each play session would be very
difficult. I took a new kindergarten class, and decided to pursue my study in that
environment. My greatest interest was whether one could observe the internalisation
of language, offered in stories, in the children’s own play.

1.2. Problem statement

Dahlin (2013:19) critiqued poststructuralism to deem children as a simple assemblage

of parts, where no stable individual identity, essence, “I” is involved. Development is
now seen as the ability to do activities assumed for an age level, and have missed out
on the inner processes which are occurring to get there. Vygotsky, and more modern
research, has positioned that play is a developmental activity for the pre-school child.
Yet pre-school environments are getting less oriented to play activities and more to
those considered teacher-led play and fulfilling assessment boxes in literacy, maths

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 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

and life skills. Those teaching pre-school for decades have known how play involves
all of these domains, yet teacher training is providing for separate activities, and
according to one teacher I was assessing, “There is just no time for play anymore.”
(teacher in training, April, 2019).

Dahlin (2013:17) recommended that we bring back some of the grand narratives of
child development to support what we have inherited from Rousseau, the Romantics,
and the educational thinkers that followed them. He was looking for the transcendent
aspects of childhood which can easily be lost in the measuring and testing practices.
Vygotsky grasped this as a unit of consciousness, which one can experience in the
drama of life, called perezhivanie. As skills-based assessment learning encroaches
the pre-school age, the need for research on the age-appropriate learning methods
increases.

If stories are universal to all cultures, there must be some affinity between a story and
the human brain development. Thus, an investigation into how the internalisation
process occurs in participating and listening to stories, through watching the children’s
play. The Waldorf classroom seemed idea, considering that they offered timeous
periods each day for free imaginative play, an environment which supported it, and a
full storytelling cycle.

1.3. The study

The study took place within a kindergarten class on a private farm school in Cape
Town, South Africa. Waldorf schools are independent, and do not receive government
funding as they follow their own curriculum. The classroom consisted of 18 children
between the ages of 4.5 and 7 years old. A child remained in kindergarten for two
years, before entering Class 1. Nine children were ages 4–5 years, and nine children
5–7 years. There were 7 boys and 11 girls. A child remained in the kindergarten for
two years.

I had the role of both teacher and researcher. This had challenges and benefits. An
obstacle was to capture the necessary events and dialogue while also holding the
teacher role. This could also potentially affect objectivity on the phenomenon, and I

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 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

needed to reflect on my own activity as well. The benefits included the trust the children
had in me, in order to reveal their own spontaneous play. The consistent time spent
with them to be able to capture observations was a further benefit. The longitudinal
span of a full year of research allowed me to recognise impacts of stories over time,
which in a smaller time frame may have been lost. Also, my presence as the teacher
meant that no extra person was in the classroom, which potentially could have
changed behaviour and influenced the research.

1.4. Research questions

The research questions for this study were as follows:

1. How did the mediation of storytelling by the teacher influence the children’s play
in a Waldorf kindergarten?
2. How did the phenomenon of play lead to insight into the socio-cultural
interpretation of internalisation, imagination, self-regulation, meaning making and
identity?
3. How did the Waldorf environment influence the findings?

1.5. Research aims and objectives

The main aim of this study is to observe and document the storytelling input which is
mediated by the teacher to the Waldorf kindergarten class. This includes:

1 The input of storytelling through the language, and what this delivers in terms of
image and meaning making.
2 The input of storytelling through the structure of the activity, such as oral telling,
picture books, puppetry and acting.
3 To observe, analyse and document the relationship between the storytelling
mediation and the children’s own free imaginary play.
4 To gain further insight into the nature of internalisation of language, as well as
through gesture and imitation, in order to support future language programs for
the pre-school age.

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 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

5 To undergo an analysis of a Waldorf kindergarten through the lens of socio-

cultural theory. This includes the dialectical relationships which occur with the
children, relating both socially and to mediating tools.

1.6. Significance and contribution to the study

Various researchers have attempted to link methods of imaginative teachings to

Steiner and Vygotsky, such as that of Shank (2016), who looked at critical literacies
within the model of both Egan, who is a Vygotskian, and Steiner. Yet no analysis has
been done to analyse a Waldorf kindergarten through a socio-cultural lens. Also, the
role of storytelling in the early childhood classroom has been investigated, but not in
relationship to this model of presentation, nor to investigate the relationship between
the storytelling and modelling play. Lastly, while internalisation has been discussed at
length in terms of how Vygotsky and his predecessors viewed it, this study allowed for
a long-term framework of examining it within a play-based classroom.

As Steiner’s teachings can be complex to read, and some consider them as dated
knowledge, the relevance of bringing these ideas into fresh language and perspectives
has potential to mix with more recent findings in the area of neuroscience and early
childhood literature. As self-regulation becomes an even greater issue among children
of earlier ages, there is purpose in researching methods which can become practically
executed in early childhood classrooms.

1.7. Organisation of the study

Chapter 1 introduces the subject of the study, providing information on the background
and purpose of the study. It presents the research questions, aims, objectives and
significance of the study.

Chapter 2 comprises the theoretical framework of socio-cultural analysis, based on

the work of Lev Vygotsky. It covers his life, and how his own education influenced his
understanding of the dialectical materialism within education and development. It also
looks at the Peircian model of the third, which adds another dimension to the dialectical
framework. Through Vygotsky’s input, socio-cultural analysis brought forward theories

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 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

on development, mediation, private speech, internalisation, self-regulation,

imagination and the zone of proximal development. It also examines Veresov’s
concept of dramatic collision in the nature of development, which play offers
opportunity for.

Chapter 3 outlines how Vygotsky defined play, with regard to imagination, roles, and
rules. It discusses Veresov’s dramatic collision and perezhivanie. Lindqvist also put
forward the idea of play worlds, and linked Vygotsky’s Psychology of Art into the
understanding of the dialectic relationship of language and aesthetics. Other theories
of play are covered, such as those of Erikson, psychoanalytical, Piaget and Sutton-
Smith. It presents the current research on play and reasons why play is diminishing in
current curricula. The theories and practices behind the Waldorf schooling method,
and kindergarten in particular, are covered in order to gain an understanding of where
the research was located. This includes Steiner’s view on development, his three-fold
understanding of thinking, feeling and the will, the role of the teeth in the young child.
Then storytelling is investigated as to the role for the young child, and an explanation
of the Waldorf methodology of presenting. Egan’s concept of the binaries for
imagination are presented, and the role of language in image making is explored. This
is then related to the newest findings in neurology, and how this circles back to what
Luria and Vygotsky began in social construction of thought through language.

Chapter 4 presents the methodology of the study, which is an ethnographic socio-

cultural discourse analysis. Socio-cultural discourse analysis is based on the
theoretical work of Mercer (2004), with a focus on the social mode of thinking, as a tool
for constructing knowledge. This is based on sociocultural theory, more particularly the
Vygotskian concept of language as both a cultural and psychological tool (Mercer,
2004:137). The chapter outlines the methods of data collection in the classroom, and
how the data was categorised, coded and interpreted. It discusses the ethics of the
project, and discusses the three methods of observation, open ended focus interviews
and document analysis of the children’s drawings.

Chapter 5 presents the phenomena observed in the data. It starts with the classroom
and garden set up, preparing the environment for the study. It looks at the rhythm as
a model of breathing, and how this influences the daily schedule. Different aspects of

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 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

the daily rhythm involving language are discussed, such as the movement ring activity
and transitions. How stories mediated in the ring time are based in nature, and how
this impacted the children. Ring games are also discussed. It outlines the methods of
presenting stories as the basis of the study, and a schedule for all the stories told
during the year is given, with a quarterly review. The data from the interviews with the
parents, and the document analysis of the drawings are also presented.

Chapter 6 discusses some of the major tenets of socio-cultural analysis, outlining three
major categories which influenced my research. Firstly, that all learning can be seen
as internalised social relationships. The second was that language was mediated by
tools and symbols in the classroom. The third section applied Vygotsky’s genetic
theory, which postulated that the social becomes the individual, to the observation of
classroom activities and the children’s behaviour. The phenomenon of the classroom
observation is now applied through the lens of the socio-cultural theory. The binaries
presented through the stories, as well as in the ring time, are discussed. Tools as
mediators are listed and analysed in terms of their role in language and play. This is
then related back to higher mental development and perezhivanie. The role of rules in
the children’s play is discussed as well as the occurrence of the zones of proximal
development.

Chapter 7 is the conclusion chapter where the data from the classroom, and the
analysis through the socio-cultural theory are put together for lessons and
understanding. Clarity of whether the research questions were answered is made, in
terms of understanding internalisation and the relationship between storytelling and
play of the children. An investigation into the role of imitation was made, which adds
knowledge to Vygotsky’s concept of zone of proximal development and social
construction. The concept of private speech and internalisation is then reviewed in light
of the research.

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 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

CHAPTER 2
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1. Introduction

This chapter discusses the relevant literature for the study, starting with Vygotsky’s life
and main theoretical input, involving his version of dialectical materialism within the
social environment. It presents his theories of development, and how these are
engaged in play and storytelling. Vygotsky was one of the first to coin the term ‘self-
regulation’, which has now become one of the leading foci in understanding the
behaviour and development of children emotionally and mentally. The theories of
Vygotsky discussed include private speech, zone of proximal development,
internalisation, imagination, meaning making and self-identity.

In Vygotsky’s developmental, or genetic viewpoint, language has a pivotal role in the

emergence of distinctly human forms of thinking and action in the child. The mind did
not necessarily express logical frameworks, but rather engaged in a process of
endowing experiences with meaning (Bruner, 1997:68). Mental development entailed
the mastering of culturally embodied symbiotic structures. This involved not only
language, but also a grasp of the cultural context in which that language was being
used. Language and development are linked, and take place within a social
environment.

2.1.1. Vygotsky’s education and life

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (1896–1934) was a Russian psychologist from the town
of Gomel, in today’s Belarus, which was mostly Jewish in population (Kotik-Friedgut &
Griedgut, 2008:17). His own father had helped the city to create a defence to the
continuing pogroms, and fought for human rights in Russia for the Jewish people (ibid.
19).

Vygotsky was educated by his mother at home, which at that time involved the basic
subjects of the Russian language, Russian and world history, literature, and
mathematics, as well as fundamentals of classical education, Greek and Hebrew

8
 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

language, as well as English, The Bible, Jewish history and culture (Kotik-Friedgut &
Griedgut, 2008:20). His own education helped to lead him to his theoretical findings.
In addition to his mother, he had a private tutor, who had been expelled from the
University for protesting; which in itself showed the openness and tolerance of his
parents’ educational choices. This tutor placed strong value on a student attaining their
own answers, using a model of probing with questions (ibid. 15). By asking questions,
the student could find where they had omitted answers, and feel that they had come
to this themselves.

Why examine Vygotsky’s Jewishness and its role in forming his

consciousness? Vygotsky’s Jewishness was an integral part of his early
life and identity. He embraced it wholeheartedly, absorbing Jewish
language, history, philosophy, and culture, alongside those of Russia and
of the world. (Kotik-Friedgut & Griedgut, 2008:15)

Their household was Jewish but within a cultural and historical rather than religious or
national sense (Kotik-Friedgut & Griedgut, 2008:20). He looked upon the cycles of
history as mirrored in his own time, with cultures holding the memory of the past as
they created the future. He compared the contemporary situation of the Jewish people
to that of the exodus from Egyptian slavery. The main battlefield, for him, was in the
internal development of consciousness, demanding responsibility and action. ”But, he
does not take any part in organised revolutionary politics, viewing them as partisan;
instead Vygotsky sought the universal” (Kotik-Friedgut & Griedgut, 2008:29).

Later in his life, he took great interest in the role of the Jewish people in Russian life,
and especially the theatre. For him, the Jews had been given a role in society as a
whole, and needed to find a general solution for the universal human condition. This
was essential to the development of his own socio-cultural theory. Yet this aspect of
his Jewish studies is widely unknown to many; even an entire issue of the Russian
journal Voprosy Psikhologii celebrated the centennial of his birth, had no mention of
his Jewish background in its 15 articles, despite elaborating on the importance of social
and cultural origins in the formation of his personality (Kotik-Friedgut & Griedgut,
2008:16).

Vygotsky started his research career soon after the October Revolution of 1917, which
impacted the trajectory of his career, and brought changes to all of Russian life

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(Vasileva & Balyasnikova, 2019). The revolution inspired a new ideology based on
science, supporting the newly established scientific research which was influential on
the trajectory of child development. Limits were imposed on what scientists could claim
in their research, according to a defined sense of right and wrong, and how phenomena
could be examined and explained.

He concluded in his two papers, “Consciousness as a problem in the psychology of

behaviour” (1925) and “The problem of consciousness” (1933), that the Hegelian–
Marxist dialectic process showed knowledge of social and mental life not as a natural
science, but of consciousness. This implied the possibility of a Marxist psychology
(Elhammoumi, 2010:663). It was through this that psychology became a human
science.

According to Elhammoumi (2010:662), when Vygotsky died on June 10, 1934, Marxist
psychology suffered the loss of a great mind whose work opened avenues in the fields
of psychological science. He died of tuberculosis aged 37 years. Yet he was also cast
out of the communist party a full seven years earlier (Fu, 1997:15). After his death,
his work had been denounced as reactionary bourgeois pseudoscience for sixty years.

Educational reform occurred in Russia and North America, in what was termed the
“Vygotskian boom” at the end of the 1980s (Yasnitsky, 2010:4). Yet he was penalised
by the communist party for his belief that despite similar learning environments,
individual children could perform differently (Elhammoumi, 2010:662). This focus on
the individual was not tolerated by an administration vouching for the sameness in all
people and environments. Fu (1997:10) relates that he was not known for his Marxist
ties in the West, then undergoing anti-communist sentiment. Yet in Russia this was
disputed, where he was then considered a Marxist scholar.

2.1.2. Vygotsky’s death and legacy

Not only was Vygotsky considered a talented psychologist, he was also a gifted
teacher, who fostered a generation of young scholars (Yasnitsky & Ferrari, 2008:119).
Vygotsky collaborated with a number of like-minded researchers, both peers and
students, the core of which was the Vygotskian Circle or the Big Three (Vasileva &

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 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Byasnikova, 2019). This was himself, Lura and Leontiev. There was also the Big Five
which consisted of the first generation of students of the first three: Zaporozhets,
Bozhovich, Levina, Morozova and Slavina. All of them spent years working with
Vygotsky and were influenced by his ideas. This cross pollination is often missed in
considering Vygotsky as an autonomous, independent thinker (Vasileva &
Balvasnikova, 2019).

His closest collaborators, Lura and Leontiev, and their own associates, conducted a
wide range of psychological studies, focused on verbal thinking and the intellectual
development of children. This also included the development of memory and attention,
concept formation, educational psychology, artistic influences, human development
pathology, neuropsychology and the ethno-cultural studies of minority groups
(Yasnitsky & Ferrari, 2008:119). Although these foci were eclectic, Vygotsky provided
a “highly ambitious theoretical and methodological framework” (Yasnitsky & Ferrari,
2008:119). According to Yasnitsky and Ferrari (2008:120), a complete analysis of the
complex interrelations among the immediate students of Vygotsky and those who
followed, still remains to be conducted.

Vygotsky challenged the behaviouristic thinking within the science of the day, primarily
linked to Skinner. His inspiration came from the classroom observation of children from
colliding cultures during the Russian Revolution. He accessed cultural nuances not
seen in the monocultures of that time. He observed that a uniting aspect among all
cultures was their use of tools to mediate communication and knowledge. These tools
included signs, symbols, texts, formulas, art, graphics, and even objects (Kozulin,
2003:15). Vygotsky noted that the human mind was not an isolated organ or system,
but socially constructed. The essence of human memory is with the help of signs.

Vygotsky (2016) in his seminal 1933 paper, “Play and its role in the mental
development of the child”, proposed two fundamental questions:

1. How play arises within development, and

2. What is the role of play as a developmental activity?

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 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

This paper became a blueprint for his theories of play, developed further in the cultural-
historical tradition (Bodrova & Leong, 2015:372).

2.1.3. Educational psychological research

Vygotsky articulated the importance of the societal context in education and that
learning is a step ahead, introducing further development (Vasileva & Balyasnikova,
2019). While undergoing a challenging task, supported by the teacher and peers, a
child developed and learned. The theories highlighted the importance of engagement
and interaction, rather than a teacher simply relaying decontextualised knowledge.
Communication for Vygotsky between individuals was in itself a communication of
consciousness, where symbols from the mind of one culture could be comprehended
by that of another (Vasileva & Balyasnikova, 2019). The human mind was constructed
by active involvement in the environment which it developed, which has also been
transferred into the field of neuroscience. A human mind, for Vygotsky, began with the
cultural line of development, and the internalised human-specific cultural tools, which
were often linguistic signs (Vasileva & Balyasnikova, 2019). For Vasileva and
Balyasnikova (2019), his work took place a century ago and since then all science has
made advancement. Yet despite the limitations or outdated aspects of his work, there
was potential for incorporating his thinking into modern psychological research. For
Vygotsky, a developing organism (a human being) could not be reduced either to
biological or social environments, but needed a systemic approach to analyse both
(Vasileva & Balyasnikova, 2019).

2.1.4. Dialectical materialism as a methodology

For Vygotsky (1978:65), to study something historically meant to examine it within a

process of change. He was a fearless opponent of dogmatism, even in the Marxist
psychology tradition (Elhammoumi, 2010:662). Vygotsky was determined not to be
identified as a Soviet psychologist, but rather considered Marxism as a scientific
approach, or methodology (Fu, 1997:10). Veresov (2010a:268) stated that although
his Marxism was more than political lip service, he was happy to associate himself with
historical materialism.

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 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

For Ratner and Silva (2017:2), he was one of the most important pioneers in Marxist
psychology, as he utilised the essence of Marxism to “explore the intricacies of
psychology as a distinctive order of reality. He informed psychology with Marxism
without reducing psychology to Marxist politics or economics” (Ratner & Silva, 2017:2).

Vygotsky drew upon and critiqued numerous theories, solving contradictions by his
explanation of psychological phenomena, thus bringing a new element to Marxism
(Ratner & Silva, 2017:3). He attempted to create a methodological approach to
investigate the human psyche (Mahn, 2012:102). The key to his approach was using
the dialectical approach of Marx and Engels, but to analyse complex systems through
their interconnections. This perspective was a shift away from children as solitary
individuals developing in a vacuum, to individuals within the social milieu. “That is,
people create their uniqueness precisely through participating in, contributing to, and
co-authoring social practices, while in so doing, gaining their unique voice and identity”
(Stetsenko & Ho, 2015:229). Appreciating both the unique and the social was seen as
valid.

Vygotsky’s focus differed from Marx and Engels, who were fixated on the external
structure of human society, of which individuals were only part (Fu, 1997:10). For him,
the first form of intellectual activity was in active, practical thinking, directed towards
reality (Elhammoumi, 2010:663). Elhammoumi (2010:663) suggested that Vygotsky
desired emancipation from the cognitivist and semiotic heritage, which became socio-
cultural theory. The purpose was to analyse the capacity for self-reflection to the extent
of human potential. Methodology was not based on a mathematical formula, guiding
towards rigid analysis. Instead, he digested it, in his words, ‘internalized’ it and
transformed it into his own principle, which dominated his way of thinking and directly
his study of human psychological development” (Fu, 1997: 10).

Vygotsky’s goal was to find a scientific explanation for the nature of higher
psychological processes. He attempted to make visible processes which were normally
hidden within habitual behaviour. The investigators themselves could create processes
which could stimulate the actual course of development of a given function.

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 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

According to Toomela (2014:315), the way that Vygotskian socio-cultural-historical

psychology has been interpreted today has deviated from his original ideas. This is
ordinarily not a problem, as it is natural that theories alter owing to new evidence and
conceptualisation of phenomena. According to Toomela (2014:315), in the case of
cultural-historical psychology, however, contemporary modifications do not always rely
on strong evidence or advanced theoretical thinking. There are strong reasons to
suggest that Vygotsky’s theory has been misinterpreted by contemporary mainstream
scholars (e.g. Veresov, 2010a, 2010b; Mahn, 2012). The same can be said for Luria’s
neuropsychology (Toomela, 2014:315).

In 1978, Vygotsky was dubbed by Toulmin (1978) as the “Mozart of psychology”, and
Luria as the “Beethoven” (Yasnitsky, 2010:3). This was the same year that Vygotsky’s
Mind and Society (1978) was published. From this publication, the theory of the ‘zone
of proximal development’ became one of his best-known concepts in psychology. Yet
his original work has often been rewritten, modified, adjusted and lost in translation
(Vasileva & Balyasnikova, 2019). According to Yasnitsky (2010:3), Mind and Society
(1978) itself was not written by Vygotsky, but was rather a collection of fragments,
based on his writings. Zavershneva (2010:64) reviewed personal notes written by
Vygotsky, alongside The Historical Meaning of the Crisis in Psychology (1927), which
was only translated into English in 1997. The notes show, among other things, how
much was altered to fit the ongoing administration. While Vygotsky was very
committed to the historical situation and society in which he lived, he also showed
concerns about the social demands of this new Russia (Hyman, 2012:474).

Vygotsky wrote that the search for method has become one of the more important
problems of understanding uniquely human forms of psychological activity. And that
method is simultaneously a prerequisite and a product, the tool and the result of the
study.

2.1.5. Peircian Third – the interpretant

West (2021:235) proposed a triad based on the semiotic model of Charles Peirce
(1931-1958) as opposed to a Vygotskian/Jakobsonian binary system in the role of
dialogic thought. Peirce was an American pragmatist and philosopher who viewed

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mediating objects, such as people, events and things, to become the triad in the
dialogical mediation (Raggatt, 2010:400). Peirce’s concept of double consciousness
could inform Vygotsky’s double stimulation method by providing a clear rationale for
the necessity of surprise in the struggle to address new versus old factors, and
advocated spontaneity within a dialogic means of apprehending new information. This
third component accounted for the transcendence from the social, where a more
psychological aspect could influence the thinking (West, 2021:236).

West (2021:237) outlined that within the binary connection between sign and object,
the character of the interpretant was not necessarily considered. She posited that there
was a pivotal role in the third-ness within the theory of the mind, to include the
participant. This was perhaps just pre-supposed, but somehow lost. Raggatt
(2010:400-401) proposed that any account of the dialogical self must begin with the
analysis of the self as a sign, or ‘semiotic self’, created by language and symbolic
behaviour, and needing integration.

The dynamic nature of the interpreter accounts for the progression from ‘I’ as ego only,
to ‘I’ as objective speaker, and later to ‘I’ as unconventional producer of the message
(West, 2021:237). West asked whether this third-ness could be linked to the dramatic,
social collision occurring in play (ibid. 237).

For the Peircian model, there was constantly a qualitative advancement in taking a
perspective. Finding ultimate truth by perspectives, opinions, propositions, and never
reaching a completion was an existing process. For West, this could have been a
missing piece in how the social became the psychological, and where imagination fitted
in (2021:237).

Peirce identified three phenomenological categories in Peirce’s concept of thirdness

(Raggatt, 2010:401):

1. Firstness involved the immediacy of sensations and feelings. These were

purely qualitative, without regard for outside considerations.
2. Secondness implied the perception of something intruding, or an otherness,
but not mediated by interpretation rather felt immediately.

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 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

3. Thirdness was the mental influence of one subject on another, relative to the
third.

This model could allow for multiplicity of complex structures. Relationships between
two of the sides led to a greater understanding of the third. Thirdness is expressed in
the symbolic relationships that held between others and objects, relative to the person
or subject (Raggatt, 2010: 402). For instance, an eagle is a bird, and can have various
signs or symbols for it. That is representing secondness. But then, furthermore, that
Eagle symbols could have different meanings, such as to a Native American tribe
versus a generalised American citizen. For one person that Eagle could denote a tribal
animal, as well as holding other meanings expressed through the symbol (Ragatt,
2010:402).

2.1.6. Luria and Vygotsky

Luria and Vygotsky first met in 1924 in St. Petersburg at the Second All-Russian
Congress on Psychoneurology. This was a search for a ‘new psychology’ grounded in
natural science as well as Marxist philosophy. At this time, behaviourism and the theory
of conditioned responses was the dominant mode of thinking. Goldberg et al. (2016:2)
describe that the proponents of this new science had just been in a scientific coup.
Vygotsky and Luria later joined with Leontiev, and formed a working group called the
Troika. They undertook a critical review of the state of Russia’s and worldwide
psychological movement, with the intention to create anew. They set a research
agenda to approach human psychological processes (Goldberg et al., 2016). They
formulated three lines of inquiry, which were phylogeny, ontogeny, and pathology.

Luria travelled to Uzbekistan, to study some of his most important contributions,

validating Vygotsky’s theories (Goldberg, et al., 2016:4). He dedicated his life to the
development of what was termed ‘neuropsychology’. He took Vygotsky’s notions of
language into studying speech development in localised brain pathology. He published
two books, and was a major contributor to Russian neuropsychology (Goldberg et al.,
2016:5).

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 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.2. Socio-cultural theory

The following section discusses Vygotsky and what became socio-cultural

perspectives on development, mediation, private speech, internalisation, self-
regulation, imagination and the zone of proximal development which comprise the
essential theories.

2.2.1. What was development for Vygotsky?

For Vygotsky, the human mind was the product of both human history or phylogeny
and a person’s individual history or ontogeny (Bodrova & Leong, 2007:11).
Development for Vygotsky was not simply a function to be determined entirely by X
units of heredity and Y units of environment. Rather, it was a complex mixture of
historical and cultural influences, which at any stage could reflect this past content.
The human mind was not considered as mechanical, but rather qualitative.

Development in a socio-cultural context consisted of the transference of lower to higher

functioning. Lower functions were considered as those faculties belonging to both
animals and humans, such as sensations, representations, perceptions. Higher
functions were specifically human, inclusive of abstract thinking, logical memory, and
voluntary attention.

Vygotsky theorised that the origin of thinking was in shared language, within the social
environment. Social change was individualised in psychological analysis, with the
following essential factors (Vygotsky, 1978:65):

1. The analysis of process rather than object.

2. The analysis revealed real, causal or dynamic relationships, as opposed to the
outer features acting as explanatory, rather than descriptive.
3. Developmental analysis which returned to the source and reconstructed the
points of development of a given structure.

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 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The result of development would be neither a purely psychological structure such as

presented in descriptive psychology. Nor would it be a sum of elementary processes,
but rather a new form which appeared in the process of development.

2.2.2. Early Relationships and development

Both Vygotsky and Elkonin understood that make-believe play reached its highest
levels of development in the preschool child (Bodrova & Leong, 2007: 29). But these
skills did not emerge overnight. Rather they began as infants, where they learn to
imitate other people’s actions and begin to communicate through gestures and
vocalisations. This required forming emotional bonds, and mastering language, where
infants then learn from adults as play mentors. Toddlers master simple acts out of daily
rhythms and imitate the adults, and then these moves to creating play partners out of
toys, dolls, pets and other objects. This is when adult’s and older children can move
the children from being ‘toy oriented’ to ‘people oriented’. Bodrova and Leong
(2007:29) translate a quote by Daniel Elkonin (1978:178) writing, “A child starts with
feeding herself with a spoon; then she uses the spoon to feed her doll; and finally feeds
the doll pretending to be the ‘mommy’ who feeds her ‘daughter’” (Bodrova & Leong,
2007: 29). At this stage the play is no longer about the spoon but the relationship
between the mother and daughter.

2.2.3. Age-appropriate stages of development and private speech

Vygotsky classified the process of development in terms of the child’s relationships

with tools and other humans. It was important for his theory that age did not limit
abilities, but rather social appropriation did. Yet he did outline various stages at which
children could function in their abilities.

In the first year of life, a child was completely dependent on the adult, placing emotional
communication as the leading activity in this time (Karpov, 2003:142). The infant’s
initial interest in language and the mobilisation of objects was considered a result of
that relationship. “Infants become interested in the external world because it has been
presented to them by loved adults” (Karpov, 2003:142).

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 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The young child learned differently from the older child or adult, and their ways of
making sense of the world relied strongly on play, imagination and exploration
(Nicolopoulou, 2010:2). In the Vygotskian framework, not only could development
impact learning, but vice versa, within a complex, non-linear relationship (Bodrova &
Leong, 2007:13). This shared context implied conversation. Thus, language facilitated
the shared experiences necessary for building cognitive processes (Bodrova & Leong,
2007:15).

Between the ages of 1 and 3 years, object-centred activity occurred, often

accompanied by non-verbal communication, and evolving into speech (Karpov,
2003:144).

According to Karpov (2003:145), Luria discovered that children in the third year of life
would self-regulate their activities by talking to themselves aloud during a problem-
solving activity; even imitating the caregiver’s voice. This egocentric speech was
considered to be internalised and became non-vocal inner speech. This was the
genesis of thoughts and learning tools for self-regulation. When speech and thinking
merged, there came a special kind of speech, which Vygotsky called ‘private speech’
(Bodrova & Leong, 2007:68). It could be audible, but was directed to the self, and
contained both information and self-regulatory commentary. The directions of the
caregivers to regulate behaviour was appropriated and children talked to themselves
while acting; sometimes even imitating the caregiver’s voice (Karpov, 2003:145).

Around three years old was when object substitution occurred, and Vygotsky utilised
the example of the stick becoming a horse, separating the meaning of the word horse
from its use as a play object. Object substitution become a means for the child to
separate their thoughts from the perceived objects and events, leading to the
development of symbolic thought. This began, according to Karpov (2003:145) with
imitation of their social relations in play. For Vygotsky, play was the leading activity for
the preschool child, and crucial to their development (Karpov, 2003:146).

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2.2.4. Mediation

A mediator for Vygotsky was something that stood as an intermediary between the
environmental stimulus and an individual response to it (Bodrova & Leong, 2007:51).
The role of the human mediator was, for Vygotsky, through the notion that each
psychological function appeared twice in development. Firstly, in the form of actual
interactions between people, and the second time as an inner internalised form of this
function (Kozulin, 2003:19). Hasan (2002:114) used the term ‘mediation’ to refer to a
process which was inherently transitive, thus requiring at least two participants.
Semiotic mediation could be paraphrased as mediation of something by someone to
someone else by means of the modality of language. For Kozulin (2003:19), there were
many forms of mediation, beginning with the adult’s own presence providing a secure
learning environment.

The basis to this organising system was the engagement of external artefacts, namely,
objects, symbols and signs, which had a history independent of their development
within the cultural framework (Kotik-Friedgut & Ardila, 2014:380). This complex
interaction of functions and external factors, which established connections within the
brain system, was in principle universal. Yet different mediators and means, or else
significant details within them, could have been developed in differing cultures. Kotik-
Friedgut and Ardila (2014:380) gave the example of direction of reading or writing, or
the degree of letter–sound correspondence, as how the deciphering of a mediator may
carry a historical quality. Kozulin (2003:19) outlined that one of the central concerns
of socio-cultural studies was to elucidate how the activities, which began as interaction
between child and adult, become internalised as the child’s own.

Hasan (2002:113) argued that Vygotsky attached a greater importance to language for
mediation than other modalities, yet the term ‘semiotic’ referred to all modalities. Hasan
(2002:113) discussed the varying roles of mediation, including:
someone who mediates, i.e.,

1. a mediator;
2. something that is mediated, i.e., a content/force/energy released by mediation;

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 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

3. someone/something subjected to mediation, i.e., the ‘mediatee’ to

whom/which mediation makes some difference;
4. the circumstances for mediation;
* the means of mediation, i.e., modality;
* the location, i.e., site in which mediation might occur.

According to Hasan (2002:113) these complex semantic relations were not always
evident, but submerged below the surface, and brought to life through assessing their
systemic relations. These factors functioned in a particular time and space.

2.2.5. Internalisation

The concept of ‘internalisation’ was never fully explained by Vygotsky, and Bruner
(1997: 68) termed this the deus ex machina (God out of the machine) in his system.
This is because he never intended to explain the mediation between the external and
internal as a logical process, but rather one where meaning was endowed from
experience.

Mental development consists in mastering higher order, culturally

embodied symbolic structures, each of which may incorporate or even
displace what existed before, as with algebra absorbing and replacing
arithmetic. These higher order systems are cultural products. (Bruner,
1997:68)

This internalisation was understood as how the child integrated social language from
the outside world and reformulated it within. Through a process of ‘internalisation’,
‘external’ or ‘social’, speech is transformed from a directly impersonal, communicative
means of regulating and directing the child’s behaviour into ‘inner speech’, the medium
of the child’s own personal consciousness and will and of his or her capacity for
purposeful and independent action (Jones, 2009:167).

Because private speech was silent, the ability to observe this was very difficult. Private
speech was considered abbreviated and condensed, thus also termed ‘egocentric’, as
it was only meant for the individual self (Bodrova & Leong, 2007:68). For Vygotsky,
this egocentrism was not a deficiency of speech but rather an indicator of another
function of speech at this age. Jones (2009:169) critiqued that Vygotsky’s position

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relied on certain assumptions. In theory, private speech must be adapted from external
speech, which was created for the purpose of communicating to others. Since it was
for the child only, it was freed from the demands of public comprehension. Jones
(2009:169) stated that Vygotsky utilised pre-existing theories of language, rather than
creating his own. For inner speech to be an instrument for self-regulation, it had to
absorb the abstract conceptual content of the external speech by which the adult
regulated the child’s behaviour (Jones, 2009:170). For Jones, the relevance of this
theory needed questioning.

Rohrkemper (1989:143) provided clarity on the emergence of self-directive inner

speech, based on a framework of “emergent interactionism”. Internalisation was not a
replication or mere introjection, but rather a social, interactional form of mastering tools,
symbols and language. Veresov (2004:45), in order to formulate concepts in
relationship to play and learning, contended that a deeper investigation into the
meanings of his genetic theory stipulated that the socially external world was
internalised. This included the potential for how it affected play, imagination, and
dramatic expression within the zone of proximal development.

2.2.6. Internalisation vs participation

For Hasan (2002:113), the most important aspect of language exchange in discourse
was to enable the speaking subjects to internalise the world as they experienced it.
Matusov (1998:331) contested Vygotsky’s perception of internalisation, placing more
relevance on Bhaktin’s notion of participation. Matusov (1998:328) outlined how
Vygotsky (1978:90) introduced internalisation in order to explain the mechanisms by
which socially cultural functions became individual psychological tools. Matusov
questioned, “How does the social become the individual?” (Matusov, 1998:331).

Rogoff (2008:65) used the term ‘guided participation’ for the interpersonal plane of
socio-cultural analysis. This focused on the mutual involvement of individuals and
those with whom they were socialising, communicating and coordinating involvement.
It was these interpersonal engagements which involved participation of all players. His
position was that both ends of the mediating continuum were social and individual, and
could be viewed as forms of participation (Matusov, 1998:332). He reframed the

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question to: “How does social-individual become individual-social?” (Matusov,

1998:332).

Matusov’s (1998:327) critique of the internalisation model was that he saw it as

ethnocentric – giving privileges to the mastery of solo activity as the crux of human
development rather than traditionally communal events which favoured participation.
Although modern Western societies were grounded in both solo and joint activities,
they placed societal value more on the individual’s mastery of solo activity than on the
individual’s mastery of joint activity.

2.2.7. Vygotsky defined imagination

Vygotsky listed the types of associations between fantasy and reality which were
central to his theory of imagination:

1. Everything which imagination created was always based on elements taken

from reality and previous experience. This law governed the operation of the
imagination.
2. The creative activity of the imagination depended directly on the richness and
variety of a person’s previous experience which provided the material from
which the fantasy was constructed (Vygotsky, 2004:15).
3. In terms of the final product of imagination, this consisted of transformed and
reworked elements of relativity and a large store of experience (Vygotsky,
2004:16). There was something new in these constructs of fantasy. For
example, a fairy tale had aspects or elements, some corresponding to reality
and others to fantasy. But together they created a final product of imagination.
4. A double mutual dependence existed between imagination and experience.
Firstly, imagination was based on experience, but experience was also based
on imagination. For instance, if I went swimming and first studied all the fish in
that river, then this information and corresponding images would influence my
swim. In the same way, by having swum in a river, my appreciation of learning
about the fish would be enhanced, compared to never having been in that
environment.

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5. Imagination and reality corresponded with emotions. Every feeling sought

specific images corresponding to it. Thus, emotions possessed a capacity to
select impressions, thoughts and images which resonated with a mood of that
moment (Vygotsky, 2004:18).
6. In the same way, images could create emotions.
7. All forms of creative imagination included affective elements (Vygotsky,
2004:18).

In analysing a fable or story, Vygotsky concluded that poetic fables used logical
thought and moral substance only as a poetic device (Daemmrich, 1972: 565).

2.2.8. Vygotsky’s theory of zone of proximal development (ZPD)

The zone of proximal development has been referred to as one of the most used and
least understood constructs in educational literature (Palincsar, 1998:370). Yasnitsky
(2010:4) stated this to be Vygotsky’s most famous concept, yet far from central to his
entire system of thought, only occupying a few dozen pages within six volumes of his
works.

Vygotsky theorised that in the ZPD the novice acquires semiotic skills from the more
developed other. This transference helped to regulate the children’s behaviour
(Karpov & Haywood, 1998:27). In this space, the young child became capable of
more skills and thinking processes by means of working alongside someone
more experienced.

Veresov (2004:43) highlighted two levels of development of mental functions

in Vygotsky’s analysis of the zone of proximal development.

1. The actual level, detected by the learning tasks the child can solve individually
and independently.
2. The potential level, detectable by the tasks the child could solve, in cooperation
with a teacher or more competent peer, with limited assistance.

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 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Thus, the zone of proximal development became the distance between the two levels,
actual and potential (Vygotsky, 1978:86). Proximal meant something which was close,
near or beside; thus, measuring the minimal distance between the two levels of
development (Veresov, 2004:43).

2.2.9. Play and the zone of proximal development – dramatic collision

Veresov (2004:43) consulted the original text (1935) by Vygotsky on zone of proximal
development (ZPD). It is understood that Vygotsky focused more on the intellectual
aspect of the skills transfer, such as a cognitive task in school. Thus, he questioned
how ZPD applied to a preschool setting, which lacked formal learning tasks (Veresov,
2004: 45). Veresov found Vygotsky’s own words were an indication that ZPD also
applied to early childhood (Veresov, 2004:45).

Play creates a zone of proximal development of the child. In play, the child always
behaves beyond his average age, above his daily behaviour; in play it is as though he
were a head taller than himself. As in the focus of a magnifying glass, play contains all
developmental tendencies in a condensed form and is in itself a major source of
development (Vygotsky, 2016:20).

Veresov (2004: 43) argued that proximal meant close, and thus the two states of being
were always near each other Thus the dramatic collision was the place where the
growth occurred between the two levels. This dramatic collision, mentally and
emotionally experiencing contradiction, is the form in which the relation between the
child and social surroundings (social situation of development) exists (Veresov,
2004:46). This emotional collision occurring in dramatic experience was then re-
experienced in a psychological way, such as in reflection. Such an emotionally
experienced collision brought radical change to the individual’s mind, making them
able to reflect about their own behaviour. “Without internal drama, an internal category,
such kind of mental changes are hardly possible” (Veresov, 2004:46). This led to the
regulation of thoughts and actions. The fact that Vygotsky referenced the ZPD within
play gave Veresov an indication that ZPD did indeed occur within a preschool
environment.

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2.2.10. Critiques

A common criticism is that Vygotsky placed too much emphasis on the role of speech
in cognitive development, not adequately exploring other types of symbolic
representations (Bodrova & Leong, 2007:35). There was criticism, especially in Soviet
psychology discussions, that Vygotsky placed too distinct a separation between lower
and higher psychological processes. Also, that he considered lower processes as
‘natural’ and ‘passive’ (Van der Veer & Van Ijzendoorn, 1985:1).

Another critical analysis was that Vygotsky himself, as well as his followers, placed too
much emphasis on the role of social interaction with the child, at the expense of
understanding the impact of biological factors such as heredity and maturation
(Bodrova & Leong, 2007:35). There was concern that he over-focused on others in the
shared activity and not enough on the child who had to learn to be an active participant.

It could be that some of the misunderstandings actually came from translations and
editing, as he lived at a time where information was very political. Translations of his
works have been a de-contextualised aggregation of texts, which underwent a complex
history of publications in the original Russian language (Vasileva & Balyasnikova,
2019). According to Van der Veer & Yasnitsky (2016) cited in Vasileva & Balyasnikova
(2019), a complete and accurate bibliography of his work is yet to be compiled, as
existing ones often have significant limitations. His texts themselves were not written
fully at times, consisting only of roughly written notes (Vasileva & Balyasnikova, 2019).
A significant portion of his work has not even been published at all, with archival work
only becoming accessible recently (Zavershneva, 2010:61).

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 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW

CHAPTER 3
LITERATURE REVIEW

3.1. Introduction

This literature review outlines Vygotsky’s own definitions of play, with regard to
imagination, roles, and rules. It then discusses Veresov’s dramatic collision, in terms
of the opportunity for development. This is then related to Vygotsky’s term
perezhivanie, deriving from Russian theatre and attempting to understand the dramatic
moment or experience. Lindqvist also put forward the idea of play worlds, and pointed
to Vygotsky’s Psychology of Art into the understanding aesthetics within the dialectic
relationship. Other theories of play are covered, such as those of Erikson, Piaget and
Sutton-Smith. The theories and practices behind the Waldorf schooling method, and
kindergarten in particular are covered, in order to gain more understanding of where
the research was located. This includes Steiner’s view on development, his three-fold
understanding of thinking, feeling and the will, and the role of the teeth in the young
child. Then storytelling is investigated as to the role for the young child, and an
explanation of the Waldorf methodology of presenting. Egan’s concept of the binaries
for imagination are presented, and the role of language in image-making is explored.
This is then related to the newest findings in neurology, and how this circles back to
what Luria and Vygotsky began in the social construction of thought through language.

3.2. Vygotsky defined play

The next section discusses theories of play, as well as specifically how Vygotsky
defined it.

Vygotsky outlined dramatic play as having three components, which differentiated it

from other activities:

1. Children created an imaginary situation.

2. Children took on roles and acted them.
3. These roles required a set of rules to play them. These rules emerged out of
the play itself (Vygotsky, 2016:8).

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 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW

Each of the three components of play: imagining situations, playing roles, and following
internal rules, had a valuable function in forming the children’s mental capacity towards
abstract and symbolic thinking. In turn, this influenced their ability to act internally and
control behaviours. The children began to withhold instant gratification, such as playing
other games, in exchange for existing imaginary experiences (Bodrova, 2008:361).
Every advance from one age level to another was connected with an abrupt change in
motives and incentives to act (Vygotsky, 2016:7).

Vygotsky believed that many accepted educational theories disregarded children’s

needs: from their inclinations, to interests and motives for action. For the small child,
these needs and incentives arose and were spontaneously expressed in play. For a
younger child, these desires had to be satisfied immediately, but as children grew
older, the imagination contained in play allowed them to delay this gratification
(Vygotsky, 2016:8). This was essential to the development of the concept of self-
regulation.

3.2.1. First definition of play: children create imaginary situations

Imagination was considered a new consciousness arising in the early preschool child,
which was not present in the very young child, and was absent in animals. He did not
believe that imagination was innate and relatively stable, but rather in a state of
continual process (Gajdamaschko, 2006:34). Critical to imagination was the role of
culture and history in the child’s development of the personality, alongside the
biological brain development. Therefore, Vygotsky noted that the incentive leading a
child to play was not symbolisation to begin with, but the desire for an imaginative
situation. Imagination did not develop all at once, but slowly and gradually, and from
simple to complex forms (Gajdamaschko, 2006:36). For Vygotsky, imagination was not
an antithesis of memory, but rather supported its development. The adult’s own and
others’ experiences support the imaginative process for the child (Lindqvist, 1995:46).

Vygotsky (2004:7) proposed that any human act which gave rise to something new
was referred to as a creative act. This was regardless of whether that was a physical
object or a mental or emotional construct. He considered imagination and thinking

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 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW

processes as forming a special unity that helped the child to make sense of the world
(Gajdamaschko, 2006:37).

Imagination described a circle, taking fragments of reality and transforming them,

where the new fragments re-entered reality. Therefore, imagination was both
emotional and intellectual, supporting the development of creativity (Lindqvist,
1995:46). Vygotsky cautioned against an over-intellectual approach to viewing play.
He contended that if play was considered only for its symbolic purpose, it would be
likened to algebra in action, and this was a misunderstanding (Vygotsky, 2016:9).

An action within an imaginary situation released the child from situational coherence,
where not only did he or she learn from direct perception of a situation, but also gained
from the meaning behind it (Veresov & Kulikovskaya, 2015:570). In order to influence
the child’s imagination, it first needed to be expanded, through experience and
language (Lindqvist, 1995:46). Emotions and reality were so closely linked, and the
images of imagination provided the emotions with an internal language.

3.2.2. Second definition of play: children create roles

Play was understood to develop self-regulation, in the inherent relationship between

the roles the children played and the rules they adhere to within the game (Bodrova et
al., 2013:113). Dramatic play from a socio-cultural perspective is seen to help children
overcome their own ‘cognitive egocentrism’, and build upon empathy for others.
Playing different characters also allows them to put themselves in the position of
others, viewing events or experiences from another’s perspective.

Play requires the child’s ability to transform objects and actions symbolically, which
lays the foundation for future academic skills such as reading comprehension, use of
mathematical symbols, and abstract thought. The private speech which is used in
pretend play is seen to affect the regulation of behaviour, eventually transforming into
self-regulation through internal thought (Bergen, 2002:2).

Children bring their abilities for forming relationships from earlier experiences into the
play. Those who carry an internal working model and coping strategy where they have

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 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW

experienced negative intentions, will be more likely to attribute the same to another in
play (Schousboe, 2013:23). Within play, children encounter conflicts which
emotionally can challenge them, both within the storyline being played, as well as in
social relationships.

Children, from a socio-cultural perspective, are constantly mediating each other in the
act of play. This is seen as experiencing each other’s point of view, as well as that of
the imaginary characters (Karpov, 2003:147). Because socio-dramatic play utilises
substitutes, such as objects that stand for other objects, this is seen as leading towards
the development of symbolic thought. As play becomes more mature, there is an
extension of planning time, resulting in shortened versions of the play. For instance, a
younger child pretending to feed a baby, will take great care not to miss a step.
Whereas an older child will conduct some symbolic gestures, and proceed to the next
episode. Imagination has become more complex (Bodrova et al., 2013:113).

3.2.3. Third definition of play: children create rules

Nicolopoulou, Barbosa de Sa, Ilgaz and Brockmeyer (2009:44) stated that what was
most illuminating in Vygotsky’s characterisation of play was elements which previously
were considered contradictory were fused. This included imagination and spontaneity,
with rule-governed action. For Vygotsky (2016:10), play contained rules, both implicit
and explicit, which determined the imaginary play situation. These were rules which
set limits on the child who performed the roles, and supported the child’s development
of self-regulation of their own and other’s behaviour. An imaginary situation was
already laden with rules, as play and reality collided.

An example of implicit rules is if a child played a game where she was a mother with a
doll; she would adhere to unwritten laws of being the mother. In this, she was
relinquishing desires she might have to perform this role; only actions which reflect the
rules of the characters will be acceptable. The rules were not spoken, but implied. This
could also spontaneously involve imitation, which would dictate the activity of the child
in the pretending role. These rules the children imposed on themselves rather than
receiving them from others. Thus, the rules of self-constraint became those of self-
determination (Nicolopoulou et. al., 2009:44).

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 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW

Just as an imaginary situation contained rules in a concealed form, so was the reverse
– that every game with rules contained some imaginary situation (Vygotsky, 2016:10).
Yet according to Vygotsky, the rules of play differed from the rules that a child learned
in life, such as sitting quietly at the table.

Piaget and Vygotsky differed in their analysis of the role of rules within play. For
Vygotsky, every play world was guided by rules and imagined situations, and the
question is how much those rules dominated (Winther-Lindqvist, 2013:30). In pretend
play, the imagination dominated and rules were implicit. As the child grew older, games
with rules became more explicit, and the imagination was subordinate. Many
curriculum compilers have based assessments on play as rule based, more reflective
of this later development.

Piaget saw this as two different activities, play and games with rules, whereas
Vygotsky viewed it as two versions of the same phenomenon (Winther-Lindqvist,
2013:33). In the socio-cultural understanding of play and rules, they were the norms
and implicit contracts for how to interact in an activity. These norms could be followed,
violated, reworked and challenged, as in reality.

3.3. Dialectic in play

The roleplay of a child supported the experience of taking on other perspectives

through the roles played. Kravtsov and Krsavtsova (2010) cited in Fleer (2013:75),
discussed how children took a dual role in play, both within and outside the play. They
could achieve enjoyment in playing, while also pretending to be a patient in hospital,
in pain or crying. This contributed to the child’s ability to master their experience and
self-regulate (Fleer, 2013:76). Children could overcome unpleasant hinderances and
emotional experiences when given the opportunity to work collectively with topics of
serious emotional importance (Schousboe, 2013:26). The contradiction between
imagination and reality created a movement allowing the consciousness of concepts
to be experienced and potentially contemplated by young children (Fleer, 2013:82).

Children gave new meaning to objects through play; changing the purpose of an object,
and moving away from reality. When they did this together with others, there was a

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collective imagining occurring (Fleer, 2013:77). In role play, children moved closer to
reality in their exploration of rules of everyday life. For example, a mother, or bus driver,
has a complex set of rules governing his or her behaviour (Fleer, 2013:77). These two
movements, where they became closer to reality through imitation and role play, and
further away by object substitution, allowed for both collective and individual
imagination – the child as an individual, while simultaneously playing the roles of
his/her society. Therefore, play contributed to a dialectical relationship between
collective and individual imagining (Fleer, 2013:77). This dual or dialectical relationship
in the play became essential to development. For Vygotsky, there was not an
opposition between imagination and reality, but a dialectic. For Lindqvist’s
interpretation of Vygotsky, the dialectic theory was a materialistic one: the external,
human activity reflected in their internal consciousness (Lindqvist, 1995:44).
Therefore, in order to influence the child’s imagination, it must be first expanded
(Lindqvist, 1995:46).

Kravtsova and Kravtsova also noted this “second expression” with the focus on the
child’s dual positioning or double subjectivity in their play (cited in March & Fleer,
2016:73). They explain that children occupy two positions simultaneously. They are
both in the fantasy situation and the visual field, flickering tension between the two.
This is how Vygotsky described the imaginary situation (March & Fleer, 2016:73). Both
feeling and thinking came to the fore as the child experienced the emotions and actions
of the fairy tale characters in relationship to this soperezhivanie, or co-experiencing.

3.4. Perezhivanie and the dramatic aspect of play

The concept of perezhivanie was discussed by Vygotsky in his early work, The
Psychology of Art, completed in 1925 but translated and published only later (1971).
This work was the product of his research between 1910 and 1922 (Lima, 1995:490).
Vygotsky described the individual way children internalised their environment through
the metaphor of a prism (Hammer, 2017:72). Although children could share the same
experiences, all had their own individuality in internalising them. This was likened to
the refraction on the angles of a prism; the child absorbed the environment in a unique
way, building on memories, emotions and thinking, and experienced it accordingly

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(Hammer, 2017:72). Originally a Russian word, perezhivanie has numerous

interpretations, both in Russian and English.

Perezhivanie was an attempt to quantify consciousness into a unit which defined the
unification of emotion and thought (Meshcheryakov, 2016:32). The dialectical method
prompted Vygotsky to critique aesthetics and psychology, revealing the internal
contradictions in existing theories and procedures, and confronting the idealist and
empiricist approaches (Lima, 1995:491).

Dewey (1939) promoted the English interpretation of perezhivanie as “having an

experience” directed at the experience of activities (Ferholt & Nilsson, 2016:297). It
related to what humans do and suffer, strive for, believe and endure. The action of a
subject had its own plot and rhythm, or personality. In Russian, the word was more
expressive of the emotional–personal content of consciousness. Vygotsky interpreted
it as the connecting link between internal peace of mind, and the reality which
surrounded it (Meshcheryakov, 2016:32). A common Russian explanation of the word
is ‘a unit of personality’ and Vygotsky saw it as a process of ‘aesthetic creation’
(Meshcheryakov, 2016:34).

The typical translation of perez was experience, or more specifically, emotional

experience (Blunden, 2015). The word derived from the verb perezhivat. Zhivat meant
‘to live’ and pere, to carry over something, or let something pass underneath it. So
perezhivat could actually be defined as being able to survive after a disaster. This
could also be linked to the act of development itself. Often it was considered from the
perspective of an adult state, having moved through childhood and through conflicts,
and therefore finding one’s personal ability to achieve harmony or completion
(Blunden, 2015).

Critiques of Vygotsky and his followers understood perezhivanie as primarily an

intellectual process, where the subject was able to comprehend their own social
system. This is contrary to Vygotsky’s idea, where first the subject had a sense of
wholeness, and this determined their development and response to a situation. As an
adult this would become mature, including a depth of personal understanding of

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experience. When younger it would be less analysed, a purely subjective experience

(Blunden, 2015).

3.5. Lindqvist and the aesthetics of play

Lindqvist (1995:35) argued that aesthetic qualities such as artistic, cultural and social
structures were reflected in consciousness (Lindqvist, 1995:40). Her focus was on
drama pedagogy; drama having roots in play. The dramatic instruments of tension,
contrast, symbols, rituals and rhythm were important both to role play and drama. She
recognised from Vygotsky’s theories that humans were always in a dialectical
relationship between themselves and their environment. The child developed concepts
of the world through a process which was reproductive and creative, or interpretive.
This is considered the dialectical theory or influence in pedagogy (Lindqvist, 1995:40).

Play was based on the young child’s poetic, rhythmic approach to objects and
language. From an aesthetic view, these forms were regarded as part of a lyrical and
musical pattern. Basic elements such as sound, movement and rhythm affected a
person throughout life (Lindqvist, 1995:136). Play tended to follow a similar structure
to drama, having an introduction, escalation, climax, descent and crisis. The dramatic
situation was play in the making, where the actors played characters for an audience.
The oscillation between the players and spectators made for the drama; the subjective
and objective united. There was seen to be a continual dialogue, resulting in a
transformative experience (March & Fleer, 2016:70).

3.5.1. Play worlds

Lindqvist developed the concept of play worlds, which was an educational practice
which included adult–child dramatisation of texts from children’s literature. Through
involving children in joint play, the idea was to interpret and dramatise the themes
(Lindqvist, 1995: 70). The pedagogy of play worlds was framed through telling or
reading of the story, where the children and teacher worked together to play the
narrative. The notion of play worlds could support significantly the understanding of the
dramatising of stories.

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 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW

Fleer (2020:38) outlined six aspects underpinning Lindqivist’s study of play and culture
in preschools, and how play worlds differed. They were:

1. Lindqvist (1995:37) argued that in role play, all are free to make their own
interpretations, whereas in drama everyone participated in a common fiction.
Thus, play worlds differed from free play owing to a defined plot and dramatic
narrative.
2. In play worlds, the adult takes an active role within the children’s play. Nilsson
and Ferholt (2014:942) concluded that play worlds increased the ability of the
teacher to listen to the children, thus increasing the narrative competence of
the children.
3. Fleer (2020:39) wrote that the use of drama pedagogy to inspire children’s play
was rarely discussed in early childhood education literature. Lindqvist
(1995:38) suggested an expansion of drama pedagogy into play, rather than
an over-reliance on psychology, thus developing an aesthetic play pedagogy
as unique to the play worlds.
4. While Lindqvist (1995:4) expressed concerns about the overemphasis on
psychological understandings of play and children, she did explain that
consciousness was the key concept and principle of individual development.
Thus, she advocated for a cultural perspective on play uniting art, culture and
social processes. The assumption is that play actions act as the window into a
child’s imagination, and this gives insights into the cultural development of the
child in becoming conscious of the world (Fleer, 2020:39).
5. According to Lindqvist (1995:4), play did not divide emotion, thought and will
but rather united them. It was through the interplay of emotion and intellect
where imagination arose; which she substantiated through Vygotsky’s
Psychology of Art (1971).
6. In play worlds, the dialectics between the world of the child and adult created
a contradiction, which acted as a productive force of development. Children,
while seeking to reproduce their world in play, end up producing their own
version and scripts, thus coming to understand the roles in society in which
they live (Fleer, 2020:40).

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3.6. Other theories of play

Göncü, Pratt and Kouba (2002:418) defined pretend play as a pleasurable and
intrinsically motivated activity in which participants transform the meaning of objects,
identities, situations and time. Yet they stated that developmental psychology has been
ambivalent in embracing the study of children’s pretend play, and yet publications on
pretend play since 1983 have revealed enormous research directed that way. The
prior work of Göncü (1987 cited in Fleer, 2009:283) coined the term ‘free flow play’,
which could also be thought of as imaginative, free, fantasy, or pretend play. This is in
contrast with more structured forms of play such as guided play, games, practice or
directed exploration. Beardsley and Harnett (1998), as noted by Fleer (2009:283), used
terms such as pretend play, role play, fantasy or imaginative play, as well as dramatic
or socio-dramatic play.

Play is considered a multidimensional construct with many potential meanings across

time, culture and contexts (Fisher et al., 2008:306). A diverse range of behaviour can
be considered play, from individual play to group games, which makes it difficult to
articulate an all-encompassing definition. Cognitive theories of play such as those of
Piaget (1962) or Smilansky (1968), or social theories of Parten (1932/33) were more
prevalent in Europe than in Russia, than theories of Vygotsky (Fleer, 2009:306). The
development of play theory occurred concurrently with other developments in
education.

3.6.1. Psychoanalytical theories

Psychoanalytical theories of play, based on Freud and his colleagues, supported

healing of emotional problems, leading to the emergence of play therapy (Fleer,
2009:283). Freud saw play as wish fulfilment, which assisted children in mastering
their fears and anxieties (Berk, Mann & Ogan, 2006:75). He maintained that our
feelings, emotions and experiences create behaviour, and these influence children’s
play. He argued that in playing, the child uses objects to recreate both pleasurable and
unpleasant experiences from the real world. The child seeks equilibrium and pleasure
by determining their own play to gain a sense of mastery over events that in life they

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 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW

may have very little control over. He regarded play as the pursuit of pleasure and
avoidance of pain.

3.6.2. Erikson

Erikson based his theories on Freud’s psychoanalysis: the social aspects which
influenced human development were more significant in shaping a person’s identity.
He argued that children’s play was much more than the sum of its functional parts
(Hoffman & Miller, intro to Erikson, 2019:254). In varying stages, a child found a sense
of regulation as a result of the interplay between the inner voice, physiological and
emotional urges of the individual, and the nature of surrounding social influences
(Batra, 2013:250). In varying stages of development, children learned to grapple with
new instincts and means of comprehending themselves and others, supporting a
sense of identity and regulation.

Two years prior to publishing his most famous work, Childhood in Society, where he
first developed these psychosocial stages within development, he wrote a brief essay,
“The meaning of play” (1948) (Erikson et al., 2019:253). In this, he explored the
nuances of children’s play and how play related to psychological and physical aspects
of development. Although he had a long-standing interest in play, this went relatively
unnoticed compared with his other work. Trained as a psychoanalyst and working in
child welfare in California, he had ample opportunity to observe children’s play, and
considered it a functional tool for understanding children’s thoughts and emotions. He
regarded it not only as symbolic and meaningful, but also diagnostically helpful, like a
window into the child’s psyche, for it lacked the mendacity that words often contained
(Erikson et al., 2019:254). In his obituary, the following was quoted:

You see a child play, and it is so close to seeing an artist paint, for in play a child
says things without uttering a word. You can see how he solves his problems.
You can see what’s wrong. Young children, especially, have enormous
creativity, and whatever is in them rises to the surface in free play (New York
Times, 1994, in Erikson et al., 2019:262).

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 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW

For Erikson, the third stage of his psychosocial model of development, 3–5 years old,
was related to the internal grappling between initiative versus guilt. This was a time
when children interacted with their peers and engaged in pretend and social play.
Where Freud had viewed play as equivalent of adult fantasy, Erikson believed that
children used play for more than expression and enjoyment, but also to work through
conflicts and find potential solutions (Hoffman & Miller, in Erikson et al., 2019: 262).

3.6.3. Piaget

Closely after Erikson, the cognitive development theories of Piaget (1962) and
Vygotsky (2016, originally published in 1933) emerged, emphasising play as a
cognitive, voluntary activity which contributed to development, cognitive and creative
thought (Erikson et al., 2019:262).

Piaget saw play as the means of the preschool child to practise and solidify symbolic
schemes. Central to his theory of intellectual development were the complementary
processes of assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation was likened to a digestive
process, where the world was made part of the organism, or child. In a similar way,
information was also internalised. Play occurred when what was already known
through assimilation predominated (Berk et al., 2006:78). Accommodation occurred
when the child adapted to the external world. Piaget theorised that both processes
allowed the child to be in equilibrium, helping the child adjust to new environments and
information. This was seen as fundamental to the development of intelligence and
adaption.

Sutton-Smith (2008:98) critiqued Piaget’s theories of play in his 1966 article in

Psychological Review entitled “Piaget on Play: A Critique”. He positioned that Piaget’s
writings were a distraction from a focus on play itself, as an existential, separately
motivated reality, rather than just in terms of its’ role in cognitive development.

The most unfortunate consequence of Piaget’s rationalisation of children’s imagination

was that it served to make the imaginative function and the play function become
confused in much modern, rationalistic, pro childhood thought about play (Sutton-
Smith, 2008:98).

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 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW

Sutton-Smith (1966:104) argued that Piaget’s concepts of assimilation and

accommodation derived from his original studies of lower organisms such as molluscs.
He believed that what applied to them could also be transferred to the higher organism,
leading to his notions of adaptive intelligence, imitation and play. These were
formulated as particular types of relationships between accommodation and
assimilation. When the accommodation of external reality was dominant over
assimilation, there existed imitation. When assimilation of the external reality to pre-
existing concepts occurred, this constituted play.

For Piaget, imitation and play were polarised examples of activity of intelligence
(Sutton-Smith, 1966:105). This is very different from what has been observed and
theorised by Vygotsky as well as others, that imitation and play are linked in activity
and not opposed.

Both Feuerstein (1980) and Vygotsky (1986) developed their theories under the
influence of Piaget, who was called the ‘father’ of cognitive developmental psychology,
yet both were dissatisfied with aspects of his approach (Presseisen & Kozulin, 1992:6).

Gaskins and Göncü (1978:104) outlined that Piaget and Vygotsky had differing
perspectives of focus and views on the role of symbolic play. Piaget’s concern was the
origins of symbolic play, which included the step-by-step progression of how the child
uses a symbol and what place play holds in their structuring. Vygotsky focused on
specific characteristics of play, which influences the development of thinking. They
presented a chart which outlined the differences between the two theorists on these
issues.

Both Piaget and Vygotsky recognised a new ability in the child occurring at the onset
of symbolic play, which allowed a separation of mental contexts from the object or
symbol. Yet Vygotsky believed this separation of the field of vision and meaning was
necessary but not sufficient in explaining symbolic play (Gaskins & Göncü, 1978:104).

Table 3.1 gives a comparison of Piaget and Vygotsky on critical issues of symbolic
play (Gaskins & Göncü, 1978:104).

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 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW

Table 3.1: Comparison of Piaget and Vygotsky on ideas of symbolic play

Perspectives Piaget Vygotsky

Change to representational Need for imaginary

assimilation due to the situation due to
Origins of symbolic play
development of symbolic unrealisable tendencies
function. and desires.
Temporary mechanism for
Zone of proximal
consolidation of schemas;
Developmental outcomes development; separates
action-based support for not-
of symbolic play meaning from objects and
yet independent mental
actions.
representations.
Consolidation, but also the
Generalised tension
pleasure of mastery,
Functions of symbolic play reduction and wish
recapturing and reconstituting
fulfilment; developmental.
experience.

3.6.4. Fröbel and free play

The term ‘free play’ is associated with the German pedagogue Friedrich Fröbel (1782–
1852), who opened a Play and Occupation Institution, on which many kindergartens
were based (Lindqvist, 1995:24). Children’s play was one of his central tenets, and
even the word kindergarten is fashioned from his perspective of children and nature.
He considered play as the highest stage of a child’s development at this time, allowing
for an active representative to their inner world (Fröbel, 1885:30). Fröbel
recommended that nature and surroundings should be brought to children clearly and
purely. Play and speech formed the element where the child lived, imparting capacities
for life. He asserted: “Play is the purest, most spiritual activity of man at this stage and
at the same time, typical of human life as a whole – of the inner hidden natural life in
man and all things” (Fröbel, 1885:31). For Fröbel, play had great significance,
representing the budding of what the child would experience in the future.

3.6.5. Brian Sutton-Smith and playfulness of language

Sutton-Smith emphasised that play could be both pleasurable and scary, and create
as well as destroy social order. Over a long period of research, starting in the 1940s,
he studied the relationship between children’s play and the use of teasing, racy
rhymes, and cruel jokes. These were all considered a form of play, and eventually
developed into emotional regulation (Sutton-Smith, 2008:91).

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 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW

Sutton-Smith stated that play began as a child’s training in social duplicities; a dualism
in human thought between responses to danger and uncontrollable emotions which
affect the amygdala of the brain. Play supported the transcendence of life’s distresses
and boredoms, and was filled with dualities for Sutton-Smith (2008:118). It allows the
individual or group to substitute their own enjoyable fun for other representations of
reality in order to feel that life is worth living. He reflects on the work of Greta Fein
(1995), when he suggests that play creates shared subjective worlds, where ordinary
social rules about people in life can be violated, where the players can enjoy these
deviations (Sutton-Smith, 2008: 118)

For him, the act of teasing offered strategies for children to struggle with the dangers
of society, experienced by and between parents and children. He reflected that teasing
his own children was just fun, until he realised it was also a form of socialising, and
even developing them cognitively (Sutton-Smith, 2008: 110). Sutton-Smith, reflecting
in 2008 on the development of technology and media stimulation in children’s lives,
where they provide some socialisation but mostly focus on highly cognitive learning.
Yet in a civilisation which invests so much on entertainment, children have lessened
ability to playfully join or lead their own entertainment or others. Children’s own private
pretending counteracts these subjective drives with their own autonomous energy
(Sutton-Smith, 2008:119).

3.7. Research on play

According to Göncü, Pratt and Kouba (2002:419) most of the studies on the
development of social pretend play utilise a combination of Parten’s (1932) categories
of social participation, and Smilansky’s (1968) categories for cognitive play. Both of
these researchers revealed that preschool children spend a good deal of their play
time in cooperative dramatic play. There have been attempts to understand the
emergence of cooperation in social pretend play, and to explain inconsistencies in
results on solitary and parallel play (Göncü, Pratt, & Kouba, 2002:419). Research has
also been devoted to understanding how children make transitions to and from social
pretend play and how they maintain it.

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 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW

Bodrova et. al. (2013:115) noted both Vygotsky and Elkonin’s standards of what
constituted mature play. As play advances, the need for substitution becomes less, as
children replaced objects with gestures or words. Even the ability to take on roles,
engaging in specific actions, speech and interactions which fit that character, required
a certain level of maturity. The mature play is characterised as producing high quality
scenarios which integrates many themes and can span several days or even weeks
(Bodrova et. al. 2013:116). If the level of maturity is not reached, then play has been
considered not to fulfil the level of development which Vygotsky outlined. Bodrova et.
al. (2013: 117) stated that 7 year olds in the time of their research no longer exhibited
the same self-regulation levels, and were more similar to 5 year olds in the 1940’s.

In today’s classrooms, even an hour or two of uninterrupted play has become a rarity,
and many of the activities that teachers considered to be ‘play’ were actually teacher-
directed activities (Miller & Almon, 2009:18). A report by the Alliance for Childhood on
the situation of play in the US states:

Too few Americans are aware of the radical changes in kindergarten

practice in the last ten to twenty years. Children now spend far more time
being instructed and tested in literacy and math than they do learning
through play and exploration, exercising their bodies, and using their
imaginations. Many kindergartens use highly prescriptive curricula linked
to standardised tests. An increasing number of teachers must follow
scripts from which they may not deviate. (Miller & Almon, 2009:15)

Examination of the effects of academically oriented programmes in kindergarten

revealed that they do not necessarily guarantee future academic success, especially
in the long term, and actually may exacerbate children’s problems in the social and
emotional realms (Bodrova, 2008:358). Socio-dramatic play requires the skills of good
intervention, interactions and flexibility, which potentially contribute to skills needed for
school. With this single-minded academic focus, the emphasis on didactic, content-
based approaches comes at the expense of more child-centred, play-oriented, and
constructivist approaches (Nicolopoulou, 2010:1). Achievements in academic realms
can replace those in self-reliance, problem solving and spatial thinking (Curwood,
2007:30). Curwood gives the example of when the block area is replaced by a maths
centre, where similar lessons can be learned, but in more fun ways for the children.
These more enjoyable approaches are then dismissed as obsolete or crowded out by

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other priorities (Nicolopoulou, 2010:1). Nicolopoulou (2010:1) reported the same

tendencies transforming pre-kindergarten preschools as well. The risk is that by the
time children enter school, they are already burned out by third grade (Curwood,
2007:30).

There has been a great deal of research over many decades on play, showing links
between creative play, with language, physical, cognitive and social development
(Almon, 2004:87). According to a study by Smilansky (1968, cited in Almon, 2004:87),
children showed a greater capacity for social make-believe correlated with a greater
imagination and less aggression, greater ability to express themselves through
language, and understand others.

Smilansky’s study (1968) found that disadvantaged children played fewer socio-
dramatic, thematic and fantasy games, which limited them in the future. There was
reduced creativity expressed through skills in the school years, as this required
imagination (Almon & Miller, 2011:3). According to Barblett, Knaus and Barrat-Pugh,
while there has been considerable literature on play-based learning, a limited
emphasis has been on educators’ views of play and its current state (Barblett et al.,
2016:37).

A longitudinal study of three types of kindergarten curricula (one academic and skills-
based, the other two play-based) revealed that high-risk children participating in the
direct instruction programmes had a greater need later for special education. Research
into their lives later, as 23-year-olds, showed more arrests for more felonies, emotional
and marriage problems, and less likelihood of engaging in volunteer work (Almon &
Miller, 2011:3).

Lessons were learned in the 1970s in Germany. A longitudinal study comparing 50

play-based classes with 50 cognitive early learning centres, found that by age 10 the
children who had played in preschool excelled over the others in various categories.
They were more advanced in reading and mathematics, as well as being better
adjusted emotionally and socially. The children who had play-based preschool also
surpassed scores in creativity and intelligence, oral expression and a sense of

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‘industry’. As a result of this study, the German kindergartens returned to being play-
based (Miller & Almon, 2009:7).

Research is consistently backing up imaginative play as a catalyst for social,

emotional, physical and moral development in young children. The children are given
time to lay the critical groundwork for later understanding in literacy and numeracy
(Curwood, 2007:32). The majority of research has been centred on the role of learning
within play to support the increasingly cognitive curriculum and outcomes (March &
Fleer, 2016:69). What has been missing from recent research, according to March and
Fleer, has been a holistic focus on children’s engagement in play, combining emotions,
creativity and other forms of development concomitant with learning.

3.7.1. Why is play diminishing?

Although the provision of play in early childhood curricula has its pedagogical
establishment in both research and practice, there is an increasingly strong emphasis
on accountability and assessment, leading to a corresponding decline in
understanding play’s contribution to child development (Bergen, 2002:2).

According to Almon (2004), one of the reasons for play disappearing from the early
childhood curriculum was that it was difficult to assess. Some teachers and policy
makers fear that prioritising play may result in lower academic success. There was
also an increasing demand for higher levels of achievement in activities deemed
‘school ready’. What used to be expected of a Grade 1 or 2 child, is now delegated to
kindergarten, and kindergarten to playgroup (Singer et al., 2006:4). Increasingly
lessons are delivered in direct instructional methods instead of explorative ones. And
although most teachers agree that play is important, time has decreased to about 30
minutes a day, and many teachers and administrators are unable to articulate the
relationship between play and learning (Miller & Almon, 2009: 25). The pressing need
to meet targets means that for many institutions, play is either marginalised or used
exclusively as a learning tool (Jenkinson, 2004: 95).

Childhood educators in Western Australia asked, “Whose agenda does early childhood
knowledge serve and for what purpose?” (Barblett et al., 2016:36). This trend was

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 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW

confirmed by research of 200 Western Australian early years educators, who

discussed their greatest concerns in early childhood pedagogy. What emerged was
the erosion of play-based learning and the tensions around using play as a legitimate
pedagogical tool. The results of the study furnished various reasons the teachers
perceived as contributing to the erosion of play, among others, the curriculum, with the
focus on results for entry to Grade 1. One teacher in the study claimed: “They are
wasting all this wonderful time that they could be playing and socialising, learning the
oral language, and we’re hammering away at robotic skills” (Barblett et al., 2016:38).

Figure 3.1 shows a continuum between loosely structured and highly structured play
(Miller & Almon, 2009: 11). This perceived formalisation has been termed
‘schoolification’. Many participants in the study described the drive for direct instruction,
where children sit for long periods and the teacher provides a scripted programme
(Barblett et al., 2016:39). Those interviewed felt that play was misunderstood,
undervalued and not explained well by colleagues and staff in leadership. This included
support from principals and the greater school system (Barblett et al., 2016:40). One
participant in the study stated:

We sort of feel like we’re fighting an uphill battle to keep it going [play] and you
can learn through play-based [education] and trying to prove ourselves over and
over and over again; it’s really, really difficult. (Barblett et al., 2016:40)

Another issue around play in the classroom is that children’s imaginative play rarely
followed the logical, anticipated path that adults would expect (Wisneski & Reifel, 2011:
182). A common critique around educators and their understanding of play is that it is
too rigid and scripted. Miller and Almon (2009: 11) created a scale from teacher
directed to only free play. It is also a misinterpretation that play requires no adult
mediating or intervention at all.

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 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW

Figure: 3.1 Continuum of adult interaction in play

As play has diminished, anxiety, depression, suicide, feelings of helplessness and

narcissism have also increased in children, young adolescents and young adults
(Gray, 2011:443). Half a century ago, children would play for hours outside with other
children, with parents trusting that they would return at dark. Although a generalised
vision, it extends to many post-modern cultures. Gray (2011:443) argued that parents’
fear of others (strangers or acquaintances) causing danger to their children, as well as
injuries due to play, has influenced children’s time outdoors. This in turn has driven
children to electronic media.

Physical exercise has also diminished, leading to many health-related issues, including
an increase in obesity, diabetes, and poor coordination. The value of play in children’s
experiencing a sense of risk has been lost, such as climbing trees or exploring, thereby
allowing children to access a world beyond the immediate (Almon, 2013:9). Even
recess at schools has become a debated topic. Current kindergarten conditions are
contributing to high levels of frustration, stress and even aggression towards other
children (Miller & Almon, 2009: 48).

3.7.2. Play and toys in a Waldorf kindergarten

One of the first Waldorf educators, Herbert Hahn, wrote a book (1930) titled On the
Seriousness of Play. Playing, for Hahn, was not just a distraction from more important

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tasks, but rather a place where children could follow their own impulses and create a
world around them, without any particular purpose (Suggate & Suggate, 2019:81).
Steiner called play ‘the work of children’, as when they are playing, in their own mind
they are working. Free play was contrasted with guided play, where it was not directed
from the outside by educators, and was the foundation of later development (Suggate
& Suggate, 2019:82).

From the perspective of Steiner education, play is also viewed as an activity through
which important physical, intellectual, and emotional (body, soul, spirit) development
can occur, as play allows a forum for children’s internal creative impulses to unfold
(Suggate & Suggate, 2019:82). Steiner education emphasised access to sufficient
space in the classroom environment and time in the daily rhythm for play, as well as
unrestrictive materials in order to allow a child’s individuality and creativity to unfold
through play.

The ancient Greek philosopher Plato (as cited in Johnson, 1907:27) discouraged too
many toys in a nursery as they detracted from originality. He advocated pretend tools
for carpentry and encouraged free play. Frödén and Rosell (2019) conducted a study
of toys and toy play in a Swedish preschool. They investigated the triadic relationship
between the children, toys and education, and how this contributed to the children’s
imagination. They stated that toys in the Waldorf preschool were primarily utilised to
strengthen the child’s creativity by stimulating imagination (Frödén & Rosell,
2019:186). They reference Steiner’s views that imagination is not in contrast to
cognition or perception, but rather a binding link between them. Toys for a Waldorf
child consisted of simple objects, such as plain dolls, blocks with shapes or pieces of
wood, other aspects of nature, and cloths. Steiner stated (1906/2007) that it is a
mistake to give a child a beautiful doll with realistic features; they would be happier
with a piece of wood or anything that stimulates the imagination. Toys in their study
are defined as physical objects intended to be played with (Frödén & Rosell,
2019:187). Using the word ‘toy play’ refers to free play using toys, which is self-chosen
and initiated by the children.

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 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW

3.8. Theory of a Waldorf school

Rudolf Steiner is best known for his pedagogical thinking, the founding of Waldorf
schools in the early 20th century, as well as his connection with Goethe (Cain, 2016:5).
He is often overlooked in respect of his great contribution to modernist thinking, the
visual arts, art theory, history, and architecture (Cain, 2016:6). He developed
anthroposophy out of his conception of Goethe’s worldview (Muschalle, 2019:3). This
involved Geothe’s concept of ‘judgement through intuitive perception’ or rather, the
‘intuitive power of judgement’ (Muschalle, 2019:3). Waldorf schooling is seen as an
artistic education, based on Goethe’s ideas of humanity and nature (Nobel, 1996:11).
Steiner believed that the aesthetic could be accessed as a form of spirituality in a
threefold way, using Goethe’s influence:

1. Firstly, there are objects which we observe through the gateway of the senses,
the phenomena we see, hear, taste, touch and smell.
2. These then make impressions on us, which elicit an emotional reaction.
3. Lastly knowledge is acquired about these objects. (Steiner, 1994:24)

For Goethe, the intuitive understanding was a type of thinking which perceives an
ideal-spiritual content of the world, and not only the sense perceptible elements.
According to Muschalle (2019:4) it involves using an inner gaze, rather than a type of
thinking which visualises, but rather one free of any sensory impressions and therefore
open to receive.

Waldorf or Steiner schools are based on the teachings of Rudolf Steiner in Germany,
1919, when the first post-war school opened. Steiner observed the realities of how
easily people entered the First World War, and wanted to develop an education which
would inspire an inner freedom. His first school was in 1919 in Stuttgart, for the children
of the workers of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory (Rawson, 2022: 1). Avison
(2008:87) discussed Steiner’s agreement with John Stuart Locke, that the government
should not have a role in the curriculum development of children, as the need for critical
thinking would always surpass the desire for governmental control.

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His intention was a school available to children of all classes. Sadly, these days
Waldorf schools are private and mostly expensive, although they are spreading
throughout the world and in many areas. Today there are about 3000 institutions, in 70
countries; some of which are called Steiner schools, others Waldorf schools, and some
others different names (Rawson, 2022:1). There are 16 official schools in South Africa,
and many Waldorf-inspired schools which are not registered, but follow the curriculum.
After 1994 in South Africa, there was a huge interest in Waldorf education in the
townships (Suggate & Suggate, 2019:xiii).

During its 100-year history, Waldorf has changed and adapted to each new stage of
its life. Yet its devotion to a well-balanced education based on a deep understanding
of a child’s development has remained constant (Suggate & Suggate, 2019:xiii).
Steiner has been omitted too often from educational discourse, possibly owing to a
spiritualised language, an extensive understanding of the material and energetic world,
and large developmental concepts. Steiner never intended Waldorf education to be a
“neat system of educational ideas and principles”, but rather an impulse to awakening
(Dahlin, 2017:v).

The theory behind Steiner is called spiritual science, or anthroposophy, derived from
Greek and meaning (anthropos) human, (sofia) wisdom (Suggate & Suggate, 2019:7).
Steiner intended his epistemology to complement other approaches to knowledge. He
created an approach to understanding the world and self, downwards into the details
of existence, and upwards into more hidden workings, and laws of the universe. In his
last years of life, Steiner defined anthroposophy as a path of knowledge and
development which attempted to lead the spiritual in the individual, to the spiritual
within the world (Suggate & Suggate, 2019: 8). Steiner’s theories reached towards
nutrition, biodynamic farming, architecture, care of those with special needs and
education. Education, for Steiner, was not abstract idealism or unreflected pragmatism,
but needed to be based on careful contemplation and inquiry, both on the nature of the
human being and the purpose of education (Suggate & Suggate, 2019:11). Steiner
stated that one can become a great philosopher, but without knowing how to sew a
button on trousers, there is no merit (Nobel, 1996:17).

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3.8.1. Path of development

Steiner laid out a path of development of the unfolding soul attributes of willing, feeling
and thinking, which emerged in 7-year cycles of growth (Suggate & Suggate, 2019:62).
Early childhood was the first and crucial stage, from birth until the emergence of adult
teeth, occurring from the age of 7 years. There was a strong emphasis in the first stage
on the development of the body (Suggate & Suggate, 2019:63).

The cycles are presented as follows:

0–7 years: The development of the will

7–14 years: The awakening of the feeling
14–21 years: The awakening of thinking

The full 21-year cycle was considered the development of the person and the individual
Self, or ‘I’.

Steiner outlined a threefold existence: through the body we link to the objects around
us; through the soul we experience them; while through the spirit insights are disclosed
to us (Steiner, 1994:24). Observation and thinking are the two points of departure for
human spiritual striving, used both in activities involving common sense and
complicated scientific research (Steiner, 1979:23). Steiner’s philosophy divided the
soul’s experience into three parts: thinking, feeling, and willing, relating to both physical
and psychological capacities (Harwood, 1967:9). The will is connected to the limbs and
digestion, the thinking to the head, and the feeling to the trunk.

3.8.2. Will and thinking as polarities

Steiner presented the polar aspects of the unconscious will in activity, and conscious
thinking in stillness, in his 1919 lectures to the first Waldorf teachers (Steiner, 1996a:
40). The child under seven years old is seen to be developing the will, which means a
focus on movement, activity, and a ‘dreamlike consciousness’.

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 CHAPTER 3: LITERATURE REVIEW

Steiner also wrote about two countering energies within the human: sympathy and
antipathy (Steiner, 1996b:53). Sympathy is the connection to the will, the movement of
the body, and the blood. It is also connected to imagination. Sympathy is a force which
seeks to do and connect. The will is linked to the limbs, as well as the digestive system,
‘willpower’ and activity (Suggate & Suggate, 2019:28). Steiner cautioned that many
tend to describe the will in terms of thinking (Steiner, 1996b:52). Rather he saw the will
as a seed which was unconsciously working towards something in the future.

Thinking was the other polarity, seen in pictures, as an act of reflection. “Everything
that evolves through thinking is the metamorphosis of pictures” (Steiner, 1996b:50).
He considered this to be similar to holding a mirror, which presented only a picture of
reality. Thinking involved reflections on representations, requiring a sense of being
awake, whereas the will was involved in activity and a sense of unconsciousness. An
example of this was how the digestive system conducted itself almost without our
feeling it, unless there were digestive issues and pain was involved. Day-to day-
digestion, however, was conducted unconsciously.

Thinking, or what he termed ‘antipathy’, correlated with the nerve system, the head,
and the ability to reflect and be objective. Sympathy is connected to warmth and
activity, whereas antipathy to coldness and stillness. For Steiner, you could grasp
human nature without understanding the sympathetic and antipathetic polarities
(Steiner, 1996b:56). Table 3.2 outlines the different aspects of will and thinking in the
human being.

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Table 3.2: Aspects of will and thinking

Qualities Will Thinking

Nature Sympathy Antipathy

Temperature Warm Cold

Limbs, digestive system, blood, sexual

Parts of the body Head
organs

Movement Active, in constant movement Stillness

Where it lives Activity and deed Mental picture

Level of
Unconscious Conscious
Consciousness

Experience Experience Reflection

In between the will and thinking, is the emotional aspect of feeling. This is related to
the chest, and is rhythmic. It encompasses both conscious and unconscious activity,
and therefore is seen as a dreamy state balancing the two. For Steiner (1996b:79)
feelings were related to the will; feeling was the will made active. He understood that
thoughts were more conscious than feelings, and early feelings were more felt in the
body, in response to the environment, such as hunger or beauty (Suggate & Suggate,
2019:27). Steiner was inspired by the work of Goethe and the role of art in education.
For Steiner, the world of art and aesthetics allowed freedom of the human being
(Nobel, 1996:101). For Steiner, when the spiritual and sensible were woven together,
this allowed a freedom for creative and artistic expression. It was in these moments
that the human could desire and act morally and out of love (Nobel, 1996:103).

3.8.3. Dream consciousness of the young child

Steiner stated that when we look objectively at what constitutes thoughts, they come
to us through pictures. In the activity of thinking, we have only pictorial activity, and
other than that, thoughts do not exist (Steiner, 1996b:50). In order for children to find
the inner image, they need to access a dreamy consciousness. In this state of mind,
there is a weaving together of concepts, words and descriptions to form a picture
(Glöckler, 2004:73). Children have a different perception from that of adults; they are

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not yet awake. They cannot separate the inner from the outer world, and
consciousness is therefore comparable to a dream state. Their dream consciousness
of fantasy life is like being in a theatre where thoughts come alive. Yet within that
awareness is an alert self, taking everything in (Glöckler, 2004:80).

3.8.4. Emergence of adult teeth

The emergence of adult teeth is a landmark stage of development according to Steiner,

and a transformational period for the human being (Steiner, 1996a:50). Not only are
new, permanent teeth emerging, but the substance of these new teeth is very different
from that of the milk teeth – much harder. For Steiner, prior to the emergence of adult
teeth, the spiritual qualities of the child are still active within the body. Around this time,
children pass into the period of imagination and fantasy. Life forces previously needed
for building up the physical body are now freed for the use of the feeling realm and
imaginative thinking.

3.8.5. Imitation as a form of social construction

The first seven years of life are dedicated to the development of the body, as the will
has an affinity with the limbs and digestive system (Suggate & Suggate, 2019:63).
Steiner understood the dangers of curricula becoming too intellectual and abstract,
and that children’s hearts, hands, and feelings should also be educated (Steiner,
1996a:22). He proposed that children should be given the opportunity to imitate life
directly (Howard, 2006:9). A child is as open and vulnerable as a sponge, absorbing
all their surrounding impressions. Their will is malleable in this stage, giving them an
extraordinary capacity to imitate their environment (Suggate & Suggate, 2019:63). In
a certain way, the whole child is considered a sense organ (Steiner, 1996a: 36). Much
of the learning occurs in the young child through this imitation (De Souza, 2012:51).
The task for the kindergarten or early childhood Waldorf educator is to adjust their work
by doing the practical daily tasks of life in a way that is suitable for imitation by the
children (Howard, 2006:9).

Mathison and Thorjussen (2016:19) outlined four major themes in Waldorf

kindergartens: sensing, movement, imitation and play. The mood, words and gestures

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of the teachers are imitated by the children in their play. Sensing is a way that children
experience both the external environment and their own physical body; movement is
a means of expression of this. Through imitation, children internalise their
surroundings, while expressing their interpretations and responses to those events
(Mathison & Thorjussen, 2016:19). Imitation is considered as nourishing the child’s
physical and emotional development – a form of bodily and situated thinking. In this
view, doing meaningful acts becomes the foundation of independent thinking. Steiner
believed that children who are able to imitate good adult behaviour are better prepared
socially and democratically when they grow up (Steiner, 1996a:45).

3.8.6. Rhythm, breathing and self-regulation

Rhythm was understood to be a contributor to children’s sense of regulation in their

habits and activities (De Souza, 2012:51). These include washing hands before eating,
setting a table, putting away toys after playing with them, and other aspects of caring
for the environment. Preschool is a period when children are most open to learning,
and therefore an appropriate environment for teaching the foundations of a healthy life
and body (De Souza, 2012:51). Activities which can be participated in and imitated,
train the child for the future.

Steiner stated that the main focus of the early education of the child is in teaching the
child to breathe (Steiner, 1996b:41). Thus, the rhythm in the Waldorf kindergarten is
likened to the activity of breathing, with in-breath bringing focus and out-breath release.
Certain activities more focused and teacher-directed are considered as in-breathing,
such as crafts, art, ring time and stories. Free play represents the out-breath activity,
and is not directed from the outside by the educators, but rather child-directed. This is
understood as laying the foundation for later development (Suggate & Suggate,
2019:82).

Chen (2017:133) studied the formation of emotional regulation in young children

through family routine. Her study ascertained how family routine formation, in the
relationships between parents and children, creates conditions for emotional
regulation. She found that at the beginning of routine formation, parents’ demands on
the child change their social situation. At times this requires conflict resolution, where

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contradictory relations between parents and children occur. These relations affect both
parties, where the parents learn to be calm, use pre-emptive reminders, and children
begin to regulate their emotions. Chen noted that this is the social situation of
development, the true zone of proximal development, which contributes towards
emotional regulation in young children.

3.8.7. Storytelling and young children

Stories for young children invite them into an experiential world rich in language,
beauty, feeling and intention. When told from the heart, stories can be easily
internalised. Storytelling supports the child in developing concentration and memory
(Shank, 2016:2).

Stories in olden days were the lifeblood of oral cultures, and the storyteller was the
heart of the tribe or group (Sanders, 1995:5). The rhythm and rhyme of stories in pre-
literate cultures helped preserve their knowledge base and stimulated vivid mental
images (Egan, 1986:7). Stories reassured people of their identity, and bound a group
together (Sanders, 1995:5). Just as they provided a bond for people in the past to align
themselves with complex societies, so they provided young children with the security
of knowing how to feel about what was learned; they offered affective direction. In early
language development, oppositions or binaries were created, including size, speed,
temperature, and morality (Egan, 1989:456). Stories and fairy tales served to bring the
child’s most scary thoughts and fears into the open, where they could be experienced,
discussed and transformed (Sanders, 1995:11).

Egan (1986:2) contends that most reflection on children’s mental life had been
conducted by those interested in education, while neglecting aspects of the child’s own
psychological state. The first area of neglect was the role of orality in literacy
(Egan,1986:3). Zipes (1979:6) stated that one must grasp the socio-historical forces
which played a role in the transition from the oral folk tale to the literary fairy tale. Fairy
tales were often considered subversive, taking history into their own hands. Zipes
(1979:5) also suggested that fairy tales were gathered from petit bourgeois society,
and questioned how that supported a capitalistic society. Today, many known fairy
tales have been altered, so that the modernised versions are nothing like the prior ones

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(Zipes, 1979:7). Originally a fairy tale was oral, expressing the way people viewed
nature and their social order; telling tales of wishes to satisfy needs and wants.
Therefore, storytellers were both carriers and transformers of a social order in a given
epoch. Each epoch and community altered the story as necessary. Today we live side-
by-side with both oral and literary traditions, yet according to Zipes (1979:4) there are
differences in the roles in the past.

Egan (1986:7) reflected on the Romantic views of childhood, namely those of

Rousseau, who expressed contempt for the over intellectualisation of children. Their
ruin, he stated, was in the

… apparent ease with which they learn…you fail to see that this very
facility proves they are not learning. Their shining, polished, brain reflects,
as a mirror, the things you show them, but nothing sinks in. The child
remembers the words and ideas are reflected back: his hearers
understand them but they are meaningless. (Egan, 1986:7)

Originally the folk tale was, and still is, an oral narrative form, told by non-literate and
literate persons, expressing the way they perceived nature and social order, while
satisfying needs and wants (Zipes, 1979:7). Gerhard Kahlo demonstrated that most
folk tale motifs could be traced to rituals, habits, customs and laws of primitive pre-
capitalist societies. Even the ideas of kings and queens could be considered more
archetypal in a time where “the kings in the ancient folk tales were the oldest of the
clan according to the genuine, original meaning of the word” (Zipes, 1979:7). Yet Zipes
is critical of the changes which occurred in the stories that promoted capitalist
societies.

Traditional storytelling has its origins in prehistory, and has been considered the oldest
known teaching tool (Bryndova, 2018:7). Feeding the imagination through storytelling
has been negated in school curricula, possibly as a consequence of assessments and
the increase in digital technologies in the classroom (Faulkner, Kirkby, Manley &
Perrin, 2014: 68). Some argue that speaking and listening have long been undervalued
in the curriculum.
3.8.8. Storytelling in a Waldorf kindergarten

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Since the study takes place in the Waldorf kindergarten, focusing on storytelling and
play, it is relevant to know the philosophies and practices surrounding the activity.
According to Egan (1986:9), psychological research has focused on the features of
young children’s intellectual activity. Yet he referred to the mental life in oral culture to
be similar to that stage of the young child. “If one takes Rationality as the ‘natural’ way
of thinking, then clearly most of humanity most of the time have been involved in
massive confusion” (Egan, 1986:11). Rationality, for Egan, was not the natural way to
think for humans, but rather an effective means of taking practical control over the
world. Instead of seeing myth and expressions of oral cultures as failed attempts to be
rational, we should consider them powerful and positive techniques for making sense
of the world in the absence of writing (Egan, 1986:12). In oral cultures the lore of the
social group had to be preserved in living memories (Egan, 1986:13). Faulkner et al.
(2014:70) considered that Waldorf practices engaged students to become both
listeners and tellers of stories.

Waldorf education has long supported the notion that stories and storytelling provide
a moral education (Rahiem, Abdullah, Krauss & Rahim, 2020: 476). There was a stage
in human development, according to Steiner, when a picture consciousness was
common to all (Meyer, 1988:13). Fairy tales arose out of a mode of early thinking that
was pre-logical and pre-abstract. It was, one might say, concrete ‘picture thinking’. In
other words, it was the type of thinking one finds in young children (Peterson, 2002:36).
Thus, stories mirror children’s own awakening, bringing meaning to their own
challenges, hopes, fears and longing (Peterson, 2002:36).

Telling a story to a child at the right age with the appropriate archetypes supports
growth and points to the next stage of development (Peterson, 2002:36). Peterson
referred to the story of Little Red Riding Hood (or Little Red Cap) which has been
accused of violent images, for instance involving the wolf eating the grandmother.
While this image is very powerful, he stated, it was not the bloody gore and severed
limbs which the children were receiving. Rather, it was an image of the forces of
‘wolfness’ completely taking over ‘grandmotherliness’ that spoke to the children. The
characters become part of them, and they have an opportunity to meet their inner being
(Peterson, 2002:37). “Understanding a fairy tale is similar to interpreting one’s dreams.

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In fact, the dream world and the fairy tale world are essentially identical” (Peterson,
2002:37).

According to Goldshmidt (2022:27), Steiner introduced stories as one of the most

relevant means of fostering educational and teaching processes. The curriculum first
recommended by Steiner has undergone many changes as it expanded to many
cultures, languages, peoples and countries around the globe. In each setting there was
an attempt to link to local mythologies and stories, while at the same time incorporating
universal principles of child development. For Steiner (in Goldshmidt, 2022:28),
students should gain content of the world through story and parable before these
internal images are permeated with abstract understandings and thinking which only
emerge in adolescence. The purpose was to first create a bridge for the child to their
own soul or inner world (Goldshmidt, 2022:29).

3.8.9. Language and imagination in stories

Rawson and Rose (2002:97) discussed the archetypal qualities of language, which
has three innate qualities. Firstly, it enables expression of feelings and intentions,
which is apparent even in a pre-verbal stage of development. Secondly language
provides through syntax, certain structures which enable a person to order the
relationships they experience in the world. Without this syntax, we would not be able
to understand the world, and the relationships of mental structures for thinking reflect
those used to formulate thoughts through speech. They outline (Rawson & Rose,
2002:98) that it is possible to use words without understanding the concepts behind
them, as well as to think without words. Yet underlying both thinking and speaking are
laws of a universal nature. The third innate quality of language is that words
themselves, and in meaningful combinations, reveal something of the being of nature
of the real and living world. Names also reflect intrinsic qualities, origins, and cultural
meanings.

For Meyer (1988:13), the characters in fairy tales were not allegories or symbols, but
real figures with well-defined destinies and transformations. In all this there is more
psychology than ordinary self-analysis can yield. But this soul reveals itself only to a
vision which proceeds beyond sense-perception and sequential thinking to a direct

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experience of the formative powers in nature and in the life of the soul. Steiner called
this ‘imagination’, because of its link to creative pictures; an inward experience which
renews the soul’s life of feeling and perception (Meyer, 1988:13).

Almon (1992:76) related how the development of the imagination was an essential step
towards thinking. Approaching academic subjects without it was a “dull affair at best”;
without imagination one could not picture an event in history, a verbal problem in
mathematics, or a character in a book. And those needing to master academic subjects
at a kindergarten level would suffer an even deeper problem: that this imaginative
process would be aborted before even being born.

For Armon (1997:8), the concept of moral imagination for Steiner meant that each
person already possessed a morality within that only needed to be awakened. The
teacher was to awaken and yet not touch an inner, free individuality. “A proper
foundation during the early years enables children to develop moral impulses from
which they can form their own moral judgements in freedom after puberty” (Armon,
1997:8). This was through a sense of interest and artistic attitude which the teacher
built in the children’s moral imaginations.

Shank (2016) investigated Waldorf education and imagination, linked to critical

literacies as a way of bringing transformative education into mainstream schools.
Steiner schools worked from the understanding that reading and writing are built on
strong oral foundations, and that thinking emerged from clear speech. Thus, Waldorf
kindergartens provided an environment rich in oral language, where the story brought
children into an imaginative world filled with feeling, beauty and intention.

In addition to the rich oral language, development was supplemented with recitation
and internalisation of imagination-rich poems and verses accompanied by meaningful
gestures (Shank, 2016:5). Action songs and singing games contributed to oral
language development, while also nurturing a reverence for the beauty and active
quality of language. Overall, Waldorf approaches to language and literacy
development reflect a conceptualisation of literacy that extends beyond cognitive
processes to acknowledge the centrality of the imagination, the body and emotions in

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the construction and representation of knowledge (Shank, 2016). Thus meaning,

through imagination, exists in the combining of word and action, thought and picture.

3.8.10. Psychoanalytical view of storytelling

Bettelheim (1977:8), who worked therapeutically with fairy tales, described the use of
contradiction from a psychoanalytical perspective. He described the function of
psychoanalysis very much in the way one could view the fairy tale itself:

Psychoanalysis is seen as having the purpose of making life easy. But that
is not what Freud intended. Rather it was created to enable man to accept
the problematic nature of life without being defeated by it, or giving into
escapism. Freud’s prescription is that only by struggling courageously
against what seem like overwhelming odds, can man succeed in wringing
meaning out of his existence. (Bettelheim, 1977: 8)

He stated that almost every fairy tale has both good and evil manifested in physical
form, showing both good and evil as omnipresent in life and every human. The journey
of the fairy tale was shown through the duality, presented to humans as a moral
problem, which one struggled to resolve. Characters in fairy tales were not ambiguous
like humans, combining both good and bad aspects simultaneously, but rather were
polarised.

Bettelheim (1977:10) suggested that the child identified with the hero, not for their
goodness, but rather their condition within the struggle that made a deep and positive
impression on them. For Bettelheim (1977:10), the valuable experience was whether
one met life with the belief of the possibility of mastering the difficulties presented, or
with the expectation of defeat. Bettelheim (1977:11) considered that these deep
conflicts existed in children, which most modern literature denied, leaving the child
unable to cope with what life presented. Children were faced with desperate feelings
of anxiety, loneliness, isolation and even mortal fears, usually difficult to express.
These could become transferred into fears of darkness, or animals, as well as body
issues. Parents could become uncomfortable from the child’s conflicts, even
attempting to belittle or distract them. The fairy tale, on the other hand, confronted
these anxieties and dilemmas very seriously, directly addressing them. It offered
characters, tests, qualities and solutions which the child could easily grasp at their level

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of understanding. Here is an example of the two levels, that where the child is, and
the child could become, within the zone of proximal development.

An underlying theme of the fairy tale was an eventual state of happiness; that reaching
an emotional security of existence was to achieve a truly satisfying bond with another
(Bettelheim, 1977:11). This supported the child in beginning to separate the strong
attachment to the mother or caregiver, and reach out to another. This developmental
step in the strength of the stories teaches the child that only by going out in the world
and facing strife, can they find themselves.

3.8.11. The structure of a fairy tale in its aesthetic form

Bettelheim (1977:57) stated that while a fairy tale may have many dreamlike features,
its value was also a consistent structure, with a definite beginning. This evolved into a
plot which moved towards a satisfying solution. Hohr (2000:92) investigated how the
structure of fairy tales, as written literature, combined simplicity of form and content,
making them a powerful tool for experience and emotional reflection. Hohr (2000:92)
referred to the theories of Meletinsky et al. (1969), proposing that the classical fairy
tale could be seen as a sequence of tests and challenges which the hero had to face.
This structure often followed the following pattern:

1. The initial action was triggered by a negative test, consisting of a misfortune

or a desire for an object.
2. After passing this test, the hero was imbued with some magic object or
qualities which helped him pass the main test. According to Meletinsky et al.
(1969), the actions of this test restored a balance, but usually on a higher level
(Hohr, 2000: 92).
3. In addition, there were often two supplementary tests. The first consisted of
the disappearance of the hero, or appearance of an imposter. The second was
the re-appearance of the hero or punishment of the imposter.

The structure of the fairy tale was a hierarchal sequence of action-reactions which
converged at a wedding as a formal goal (Hohr, 2000:92).

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Joseph Campbell’s The hero with a thousand faces (1993) was first published in 1949
and outlined the ‘Hero’s Journey’ as an archetypal structure within stories and fairy
tales. He discussed eighteen stages which the protagonist undergoes within a story
structure, in order to face challenges and transform the self. Often the main character
arrives at the adventure through a blunder, and is even resistant to it (Campbell,
1993:51-59). The Kings and Queens are considered conscious parental images within
the journey (Campbell, 1993:63). Whereas other characters make up the role of allies,
protectors, friends and enemies; all these are reflective of an archetypal pathway of
development and transformation. Rahman (2014) conducted a thesis on the
archetypes of the hero and the hero's journey within five different Grimm’s Tales.

3.8.12. Perezhivanie and storytelling

Imagination was considered the essence of the concept of perezhivanie in early

childhood development. For Vygotsky, the fairy tale was possible, both intellectually
and emotionally. Since the preschool child lived in the present moment, both past and
future collided; time and space appeared spatially (Vygotsky, 2004:90).

Zaporozhets took Vygotsky’s work further by bridging art, fairy tales and perezhivanie,
coining the term ‘emotional perezhivanie’ (Zaporozhets, 1986:72, cited in March &
Fleer, 2016:71). This did not refer only to a subjective meaning to themselves, but also
to those around them. It involved successes and failures, victories and defeats; the
experience of the individual, or the ‘I’. This generated an ‘empathic perezhivanie’,
playing an essential role in the development of pro-social motives of behaviour (March
& Fleer, 2016:72). Zaporozhets understood this as the emerging of empathy in the
child, who could experience another person without fully reflecting on themselves
(Zaporozhets, 2004, cited in March & Fleer, 2016:73). This notion was extended into
the Russian term soperezhivanie, which translates as ‘co-experience’.

Dramatic perezhivanie is related to the nature of human development, where no growth

occurs without contradictions (Fleer et al., 2017:249). Zaporozhets drew on the work
of the Russian psychologist Gal’perin to describe how emotional images reflect reality
in relation to human needs and interests (March & Fleer, 2016:71). Emotional imagery,
or “emotionally coloured field of reflection”, carry with it a motivational force. The child

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emotionally empathises with the hero, living through the characters of the storyline.
Here the child can anticipate and experience emotions at an intra-psychological level.

3.9. Imagination and transformative education

Shank (2016) integrated both the work of Steiner and Vygotsky, utilising Egan’s
theories of imagination and practising in a Waldorf environment. She studied the
relationships between imagination, literacies and transformative education.
Imagination extends beyond the production of mental images, to include engagement
with human experience and possibilities well beyond the domains of the learner’s own
experience. Imagination is the tool of meaning-making, and the humanising of abstract
concepts. It is not only a rich tool for learning, but also a conduit of identity formation,
divergent thinking and envisioning of preferred futures (Shank, 2016:1).

3.9.1. The meaning-making process

The purpose of understanding the role of the image-making capacity, imagination and
creation in the young child is to elucidate the role of making meaning through
education, and particularly for this research, through storytelling.

According to Mahn (2012:105), Vygotsky’s exploration of the unification of speaking

and thinking with meaning at the centre has remained relatively unexplored. Vygotsky
believed that children constructed meaning through shared activity, thus shared cues
and adult strategies for interpreting the child’s actions built on meaning (Bodrova &
Leong, 2007: 70). Vygotsky referenced the words znachenie slova to represent the
‘unit’ or “meaning through language” (Mahn, 2012:105). The development of
perception, attention and memory as an early social interaction provided a foundation
for the development of later communicative abilities and basis for symbolic
representation (Mahn, 2012:106).

Fleer and Hammer (2013:243) stated that despite extant research on play and
emotional regulation, this should be expanded to fairy tales. The significant factor of
the fairy tale is that it provides emotionally charged imagery. While the situations are

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often different from a child’s personal experience (such as meeting a wolf along the
road), the imagery has a predictable nature, while also being contained.

3.9.2. Binaries of language and concept

Egan and Gajdamaschko (2003:89) described how cognitive tools of learning gave the
educator a “focus of attention that could make better sense of the task before us”. This
was significant in education for the emerging self-awareness or developing personality
of the young child. Egan (1986:282) discussed the use of binaries in the language of
stories in order for children to make sense of the world and find their own middle path.

The basic structure of a fairy tale or folk story contained powerful binary opposites,
such as good/bad, brave/cowardly, security or fear. Foster (2000:38) described how
every story had a moment of transformation which shifted a binary from one polarity to
another. Vygotsky (1971) called this transformative moment the melodic curve of the
story (Ferholt & Nilsson, 2016:296). Stories always began with a critical moment
involving a collision, conflict, or contraction. The dramatic moment was seen as an
analytical tool of development: participants of the story or drama are not passive
observers, but are personally and emotionally involved until the crisis is resolved (Fleer
et al., 2020:130). Every story begins with a need, which is then fulfilled through a
journey.

By experiencing the polarities of binaries within the stories, children could create an
inner picture of the story. Binaries allowed for the categorisation of information,
considered to provide the basis of thinking (Foster, 2000:38). They also allowed the
child to experience both polarities and intentionally find the centre; thus, finding their
own consciousness or sense of self. A typical example of this is the ‘too hot, too cold,
just right’ concepts in the folk tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears (traditional).

Egan confronted in his work, Teaching as Storytelling (Egan, 1986:2), the general
assumption that children’s understanding emerged from the simple and concrete to the
complex and abstract. He argued that these assumptions lacked a true understanding
of the early child’s imaginative capabilities. He stated that imagination was not a
“sugar-coated adjunct to learning” but the very heart of it (Egan, 2005:36).

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Egan’s idea, which was integrated in Shank’s (2016:2) approach, was that binary
opposites supported children to make sense of stories far removed from their own
concrete experiences. His method or model required teachers to identify what was
most important about a topic in their ‘human dimensions’ in order to affectively engage
with it (Shank, 2016:2). The human emotions and intentions made the content
meaningful. These binaries included good or bad, survival or destruction, or greed and
generosity, which are polarised aspects of emotional qualities.

In oral cultures, people only could know what was remembered. Thus, techniques such
as rhyme, rhythm, and meter assisted the memory in order to preserve tribal lore
(Egan, 1986:282). Similarly, all oral cultures discovered that if lore could be encoded
into stories, they were more memorable than any other technique. “It is not too much
to say, then, that the story is one of the most important social inventions” (Egan,
1986:282). Not only do stories ensure memorisation, they also stimulate an emotional
commitment to that lore, the social group and individual’s sense of identity (Egan,
1986:283).

3.10. Socio-cultural theory and neuropsychology

A full circle has been made from Vygotsky’s initial theories confronting behaviourism.
Between him and Luria’s influence on neuropsychology, he has initiated and added to
knowledge of the connection between brain and emotions, self-regulation and
neurological programming. Goldberg, one of Luria’s students, referred to Vygotsky and
Luria as “Russian mavericks” (Goldberg, 2005:98) for their non-conformist dedication
to work in cross-cultural research and formulating how culture and language shape
individual cognition.

Luria went on to do ground-breaking work in neuropsychology (Kotik-Friedgut & Ardila,

2014:380). Cognitive neuroscience has only recently gained respect and appreciation
for its ability to combine both culture and psychology. Luria has been described as one
of the most referenced psychologists in the world, and yet he paid the most credence
to his teacher and colleague, Vygotsky (Goldberg, et al., 2016:2). The fundamental
postulates of Luria’s contribution were that the brain, or rather higher cognitive

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functions, developed through social interactions, as well as being neurological

biological systems (Goldberg, et al.,2016:2).

Stetsenko (2019:250) outlined new developments in the interdisciplinary field of human

development where the nature–nurture argument is still ongoing. The resolution is
through “interactionist consensus”, where both genetic and environmental influences
are considered to interact. Yet as Stetsenko (2019:250) cautioned, assumptions could
still be biologically reductionist, thus perpetuating inequalities and injustices.

3.10.1. Influence of neuroscience on the understanding of play

The 1960’s had the first efforts to apply cognitive psychology to education, both in the
way information was processed, as well as constructed (Ferrari, 2011:31). Studies of
child development gained momentum, concluding that the stage of infancy and early
childhood was the optimum period of development (Frost, 1998:1). By the late 1990’s
an attempt for a comprehensive model emerged, inclusive of the greater context of
family structure and culture. This led to the neuro-scientific revolution at the turn of the
century (Ferrari, 2011:31). In 1996, the USA had over 3000 brain researchers, calling
the 1990’s the ‘decade of the brain’ (Frost, 1998:1). Yet it became apparent that
promising neuroscience to cover all educational ideas is not a solution, but only a
support. Notions of brain plasticity spread from physical basis to spiritual, altering the
prior paradigm that the brain cannot change in adulthood (Schwartz & Begley, 2009:7).
This is a circle back to Vygotsky’s own attention on the earlier behaviouristic models
into his developmental one.

Vandervert suggested that human play evolved from animals, which helped them deal
with unexpected circumstances. “As animal play evolved toward human play, rule-
governed imagination allowed play to help predict events through sequence detection”
(Vandervert, 2017:202). He referred to Vygotsky, concluding that although play and
culture appear different, they actually developed from the same brain mechanisms.
Culture was defined by Vandervert as the beliefs and activities which are learned by
socialisation, then shared by members of a group. Socialisation was the process where
one learns the meanings and practices that enable one to make sense and behave
within a group (Vandervert, 2017:203). He considered the role of the cerebellum in

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repetitive and predictive activities, learning internal models which could then serve as
a base for creative expression (Vandervert, 2017:205).

3.10.2. Mirror neurons

Recent models integrating the psychological and biological view the brain system as a
product of the interaction between genetic code and environmental influence. Early
experiences form our characteristic means of relating to others and coping with the
flow of emotions. This is the invisible history of each individual (Gerhardt, 2004:15).

Mirror neurons are found in masque monkeys, firing up while watching an activity of
another, experienced in the brain the same way as doing it themselves. Their discovery
has been seen as the great leap forward in the study of human evolution
(Ramachandran, 2000). These neurons fire up when watching a significant activity
such as grasping, movement of hands or mouth, while being immobile.

Mirror neutrons are, in effect, the ultimate ‘as-if body device’. The mirror neuron system
achieves conceptually what is hypothesised. However, it is not the only way a person
can process actions. According to Giudice, Manera and Keysers (2009:350) other
visual processing mechanisms enable humans to view and understand movements
that are not within their action repertoire. But the mixture of observing through the
mirror neurons and then performing the action help to solidify the experience. It allows
the child to better predict future movements and potentially replicate actions alongside
somatosensory feelings (Giudice et al., 2009:350). While acknowledging the relevance
of mirror neurons in developmental psychology and neuroscience, there is also little
which has been known on the ontogeny of them.

There are researchers who are still sceptical, favouring explanations involving genetic
predisposition (Giudice et al., 2009:351). From an evolutionary standpoint it is
reasonable to link survival mechanism with action recognition, and that learning
through observation may be pre-programmed or innate. But the critical issue becomes
how they could be programmed and this controversy remains unsolved.

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3.10.3. Attachment theory

One of the most progressive fields in child development is the work of John Bowlby
and Mary Ainsworth in the 1960s, in attachment theory. They attempted the integration
of scientific development with psychoanalytic thinking in order to comprehend
emotional life within its biological content (Gerhardt, 2004:4).

Attachment theory considered the early communication between the infant and
caregiver, and how this contributed to developing the affective realm of the child.
Bowlby and Ainsworth studied the effects on personality development due to
separation from the mother in early childhood (Bretherton, 1992). The proposition was
that for children to emotionally thrive, they needed a close and continuous caregiving
relationship which laid the foundation for trust in further relationships.

Attachment theory introduced secure, insecure, and avoidant relationships with the
caregiver, known as an attachment style, and further influenced relationships and
feelings of trust in life. This could also be influenced by parents’ feelings and their
situation as new parents or caregivers (Gerhardt, 2004:25). Bowlby described secure
attachment as the warmth in infancy from an intimate and continuous relationship with
the mother, bringing satisfaction and enjoyment (Bowlby, 1951:13). The opposite was
the intense depression potentially experienced from feelings of abandonment by the
person they dearly loved and needed, and all the behaviours that came with that. This
could result in avoidant attachment, where the child who does not feel their needs are
met, rejects the parent and relationships in the future (Bowlby, 1951:57). Attachment
theory proposed that infants and young children organise their proximity-seeking and
exploratory behaviour with reference to one or a few adult figures by the end of the first
year. This is an evolved system designed to promote the survival of the child as well
as enhancing feelings of well-being (Birmingham et al., 2017:107).

Page (2017:5) focused on the significance of attachment-based relationships among

adults, infants and toddlers in early childhood education. The underlying principle is
that young children thrive from positive close relationships, which are challenged by a
history of abuse in the field. She wished to provide appropriate training to early
childhood practitioners on contemporary perspectives of attachment theory. In the past

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it was used as a form of ‘stick and carrot’ in relation to toddler day care, using Bowlby’s
theories to guilt trip the parents (usually mothers) for going to work so early in their
child’s life (Page, 2017:6). She coined the term Professional love in early years settings
(PLEYS) for her research and training, guiding caregivers on an internal model for
securing attachment in early childhood education.

Muscat (2022:21) integrated symbolic representation with attachment theory by

recognising that the first signs of symbolic substitution tend to be transitional objects
to which children become attached. These objects were physical reminders that the
child was loved by their attachment partner. Although the object itself was concrete,
the child’s meaning assigned to it was a process of symbolic substitution. The
conventional meaning of the object was gone and replaced by the one they attached
to it. This was a new way of bridging Vygotsky’s higher mental capacities with the true
emotional needs of a child in that early stage.

3.10.4. Self-regulation and executive functions

The term ‘executive functions’ (EFs) has been defined as an umbrella term for a highly
complex set of cognitive abilities, describing the psychological processes involved in
the conscious control of thought and action (Fleer et al., 2020:125). Most researchers
agree that executive functioning encompass a variety of higher-order cognitive
processes under continuously changing and multiple task demand. Before children are
able to self-regulate their behaviours, they gain control through ‘other regulation’
whereby their behaviour is guided by others as they learn to initiate desired behaviours
(Bodrova & Leong, 2007, 22).

There has been recent interest in children’s emotional regulation and its influence on
children’s social competence (Spinrad et al., 2004:40). Attachment researchers have
proposed that caregivers initially act as the external regulators of the infant’s rhythms
and feelings, leading them gradually to their own capacity (Bernier et al., 2010:328).
Bernier, Carlson and Whipple, investigated the connections between early infant
experiences on brain development and executive functioning, such as working
memory, impulse control, and set shifting (2010:326).

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Research indicated that children with secure attachments had fewer behavioural
problems, compared with those with insecure attachment styles (Fearon, Bakermans-
Kranenburg, Van Ijzendoorn, Lapsley & Roisman, 2010:436). It is important to note
how self-regulation is embedded in and shaped by primary relationships. Drake, Belsky
and Fearon note the importance of mechanisms by which these relational processes
support the child’s broader adjustment to his/her environment (Drake, Belsky &
Fearon,2014:1350). The ability of a person to be conscientious or aware of
surroundings as a stable trait is enhanced by secure attachment.

Spinrad et al. (2004:52) investigated regulation strategies with mothers and infants,
thereby laying the foundation for social competencies in the future. Attempts at
communication such as talking, distraction and soothing during interactions of negative
and positive emotions were related to children’s later self-regulation abilities, especially
around 30 months. A human infant brain and body systems are dependent on these
experiences, where the caregiver acts as an ‘external psychobiological regulator’
(Schore, 2001:13).

3.11. Conclusion

Vygotsky, and then Luria, laid the foundation for what is now known as
neuropsychology (Kotik-Friedgut & Ardila, 2014:378). For Vygotsky, higher
psychological processes emerged when individuals acted within their cultural
environments. The external factors, considered as stimuli, mediators or symbols,
established the functional connections between brain systems, which was a universal
process for the human being. Vygotsky highlighted the important relationship between
brain development, social world, and individual identity and regulation. In some ways
his theories were in contradiction to biological determinism, as found in behaviourist
theories of the time. Yet through his research into the social language, he arrived at a
new version understanding self-regulation and development, which led to a biological-
neurological-psychological theory.

This literature review covered Vygotsky’s life and how this impacted his theories.
including his methodological approach to Marxism, using the dialectical method. In the
case of Marxism, this dialectic focused on society, while Vygotsky’s lens was on the

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transfer from foundational skills to higher thinking, through language. Although

Vygotsky has become known for a focus on language, thus at times critiqued as over
emphasising thinking, he also understood that development occurred according to
both social and biological ages. His recommendation was that children, until age 7
years, learned through play. A strong element from Vygotsky, often overlooked, was
his concept of perhizhivanie. This was discussed in both storytelling and play.

Shank (2016) presented a theoretical basis for linking Egan’s work on binaries with
Waldorf imaginative teaching. Veresov (2004:42) emphasised an understanding of
Vygotsky’s genetic experimental theory, and how it involved a dramatic contradiction.
This application to self-regulation bought a complex element to the notion of
internalising of language. Storytelling is also a way in which the child engages with the
binaries, and thus contradictions. The function of language as painting internal pictures
while using imagination could be a key to the internalisation process.

The literature covered Vygotsky’s theories of zone of proximal development, self-

regulation, imagination, and emotional identity. It also examined the role of storytelling
in education, including factors of the brain hemisphere which develop during the early
childhood years. An elucidation was provided of Waldorf kindergarten, as this was the
curriculum of schooling in the study. Bridges between the socio-cultural analysis and
Steiner or Waldorf education are presented in the findings.

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CHAPTER 4
METHODOLOGY

4.1. Introduction

This project is an ethnographic study of a Waldorf school kindergarten classroom, with

the focus on socio-cultural discourse analysis. Ethnography investigates a culture
within real-life circumstances, over time, using observation, interviews and document
analysis. Both methods and data are triangulated against each other for reliability.
Analysis consists of organising data into categories of coding, and these units of
analysis need to be identified early in order to construct the framework (LeCompte &
Goetz, 1982:39).

Socio-cultural discourse analysis is based on the theoretical work of Mercer (2004),

with a focus on the social mode of thinking, as a tool for constructing knowledge. This
is based on sociocultural theory, more particularly Vygotsky’s concept of language as
both a cultural and psychological tool (Mercer, 2004:137). The method is a means of
assessing the contribution of language to collective and personal thinking.

Socio-cultural research is not a unified field, but what does reflect in all of it is an
interest in the processes which are shaped by culture, and contribute to the thinking
and learning experience (Mercer, 2004:138). Mercer described the primary function of
language as a cultural and psychological tool for getting things done. From the
perspective of this study, language also has an aesthetic capacity, which is
developmental in itself; contributing to imagination, individuation, self-regulation and
expression.

Socio-cultural discourse analysis also investigates the mediating objects alongside

language itself, such as tools being utilised to tell the stories. This includes puppets,
toys, costumes, signs and symbols.

In socio-cultural discourse analysis, it is understood that language is internalised

through private speech, yet this is a silent process and difficult to document without
disturbing the event itself. Thus, this study held an underlying hypothesis that if a child

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is playing out the stories which have been told, or using aspects of them, that this
would reveal a process of internalisation.

4.2. The research questions

The research questions for this study were as follows:

1. How did the mediation of storytelling by the teacher influence the children’s
play in a Waldorf kindergarten?
2. How did the phenomenon of play lead to insight into the socio-cultural
interpretation of internalisation, imagination, self-regulation, meaning making
and identity?
3. How did the Waldorf environment influence the findings?

4.3. Ethnographic studies

Ethnographic studies focus on groups of people by studying their way of life in

everyday activities (Henning et al., 2004:42). The purpose of ethnography is to conduct
a study within natural settings, with no manipulation of variables or addition of
externally imposed structures (Wiersma & Jurs, 2005:244). It is a means of capturing
the rituals and actions which bind a group of people together (Henning et al., 2004:42).
The focus in this thesis was on a classroom, considered to be an organisation or
community that interacted in regular and structured ways (Wiersma & Jurs, 2005:246).

Ethnographic research differs from positivistic research in the method of data

gathering, as well as the procedure of hypothesis formulation (LeCompte & Goetz,
1982:43). In ethnographic research, the hypothesis was often derived or revised from
the data. The frame of research was inclusive of the subjective perspective of both the
researcher and participants, which had the potential of providing “a depth of
understanding lacking in other approaches to investigation” (LeCompte & Goetz,
1982:43). These potentially subjective aspects need to be outlined for transparency
and for an understanding of the conclusions.

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An interpretive ethnography for the next century is one that is simultaneously minimal,
existential, auto-ethnographic, vulnerable, performative, and critical. This ethnography
seeks to ground the self in a sense of the sacred, to dialogically connect the ethical,
respectful self to nature and the worldly environment (Denzin, 1999: 510).

There has been controversy in defining ethnography. Some regard it as a philosophical

paradigm, others as a method used only in research when appropriate, with variations
in between (Atkinson & Hammersley, 1994:248). This controversy has resulted in
various schools of ethnography, with some favouring a greater ‘scientific stance’ in
their methods, and others rejecting this “in favour of an engaged advocacy and a
critical stance” (Atkinson & Hammersley, 1994:249).

Atkinson, Okada and Talmy (2011:86) concurred, citing Geertz (1973) who argued that
ethnography was more of a viewpoint than a matter of methods. This perspective
emphasised the following:

1. The complexity and particularity of the social scene studied.

2. An understanding of the scene from an insider’s viewpoint.
3. The researcher’s awareness was a constitutive part of the final analysis

These pointers came together to classify the term ‘thick description’ (Atkinson et al.,
2011:86).

The researcher herself was now seen as a co-creator of meaning within the studied
reality (Henning et al., 2004:18). This challenged the ethnographer, and questioned
the validity of social scientific research itself (Atkinson & Hammersley, 1994:252). The
researcher became the meaning maker of the enquiry, attempting to create a balance
between the reality ‘out there’ and a narrative of her own subjective knowledge of this
reality (Henning et al., 2004:39).

Hammond (2011:298) stated that classroom research raised questions of how much
time is needed in the classroom to do justice to observing the micro-culture. From an
ethnographic perspective, for Hammond, this must have been substantial, enabling the
researcher to become familiar with the broader contexts. These included the school,

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routines, patterns of interaction, and interpersonal features. Research showed that

time spent in the classroom generated large quantities of data which potentially created
a challenge for analysis (Hammond, 2011:299). The socio-cultural discourse analysis
became a lens in which research was both collected and analysed. Thus, data was
categorised early, in regard to episodes which reflected socialisation, and inclusive of
dialogue of the children during play.

4.4. Discourse analysis and ethnographic research

Henning et al. (2004:36) noted that the distinction between methods and methodology
is that methods constitute the way of doing the research, whereas methodology
comprises the coherent group of methods which complement each other and fit
together in order to deliver the data and findings. They reflect the research question
and suit the purpose of the research. They also need to triangulate and challenge the
data.

Ethnographers and discourse analysts have debated whether their approaches are
complementary or oppositional (Atkinson et al., 2011:87). Historically, ethnographers
did not collect verbatim spoken interaction data from people they studied, or even focus
on language at all. Classroom and pedagogical research took a linguistic turn in the
1970s and 80s, when researchers began to analyse the fine details of interactions in
the classroom (Lin, 2011:67). These two approaches are now combined in highly
effective ways (Atkinson et al., 2011:89). Evidence of conversations has been able to
enrich the knowledge of social interactions, and behaviours, norms and values.

Ingram and Elliott (2020:4) maintained that almost every researcher working in
discourse analysis would have their own conception of what it actually was. Broadly, it
could be used to describe the data which was being analysed, including any spoken
or written expression of meaning, interaction, or forms of communication such as
gesture, eye gaze, or even the way someone dresses. It could also imply the outcome
of the discourse analysis. While traditionally discourse analysis referred to texts, it also
included all language exchange, and even non-verbal communication.

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Mercer (2010:4) compared linguistic ethnography with sociocultural research.

Ethnography provides a rich, detailed description of observed events through the
researcher’s continual involvement within the social environments studied. Mercer
(2010:3) stated that both methods agreed on various issues, including that classroom
education could be understood through the nature and function of qualitative talk. Also,
that cultural and local norms shape the process of teaching and learning, and that
classroom meanings are continually negotiated. Categorisation systems can either be
developed by the researcher or taken off a shelf (Mercer, 2010:4).

Classroom discourse analysis refers to analytical texts in classroom contexts, but also
to the talk which occurs in a classroom situation, inclusive of spoken interactions
(Hammond, 2011:294). Hammond investigated the theoretical, methodological and
practical issues and procedures arising in classroom discourse analysis. There was a
distinction between approaches of classroom talk with a focus on “turns, sequences
and meaning” rather than actual grammatical patterns of speech (Hammond,
2011:294).

There was also a contrast in features between conversations which occurred during
classroom instruction compared with those about everyday events or taking place at
recess. Common features of classroom interaction included initiating topics, turn
taking, asking and responding to questions, all of which highlighted the roles and
responsibilities of teachers and students (Hammond, 2011:293). Therefore, although
large quantities of data may have been accumulated through the research, the focus
was on accounts of specific discourse features which took place in social interactions.

4.5. Socio-cultural discourse analysis

There is no single coherent, unified socio-cultural approach to research on language

and education. Researchers consider education and cognitive development to be a
cultural process, where knowledge is not only known individually, but shared among
members of communities, as people construct understandings together (Rojas-
Drummond & Mercer, 2003:100).

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To utilise a socio-cultural methodology means focusing on those aspects of the theory

that are essential to data collection. Social cultural methodology has been used to
analyse both the teacher’s talk with students, and their talk among themselves, both in
paired and group activities. Mercer (2004:137) defined the term ‘methodology’ as
referring to an integrated set of methods and procedures. The term ‘sociocultural
discourse analysis’ was used to refer not only to one particular method, but several,
both qualitative and quantitative.

The dialectical methods of Vygotsky centred around his explanation of dynamic

interdependence of social and individual processes. John Steiner and Mahn
(1996:192) outlined three major analytical themes which they considered the basic
tenets of socio-cultural analysis:

1. Individual development, including the development of higher mental

functioning, has its sources in social processes.
2. Human action, undertaken independently or socially, is mediated by tools and
signs.
3. The above themes must be examined through genetic or developmental
analysis, which Rogoff (2008:58) termed guided participation.

Data from the classroom observations and dialogue in this study were analysed using
this approach.

Rogoff (2008:58) recommended three planes of analysis relating to personal,

interpersonal, and community processes. She referred to developmental processes
which corresponded to these planes as apprenticeship, guided participation, and
participatory appropriation. These were inseparable concepts which reflected differing
planes of focus in socio-cultural theory. For Rogoff (2008:60), the process of
participation in these domains prepared the child for later participation in related
events. She proposed that Vygotsky’s interest in the mutuality of the individual and
socio-cultural environment was apparent in his focus to find a unit of analysis which
preserved the essence of the events rather than splitting them into elements which no
longer functioned as a whole. Thus, parts making up the whole activity could be

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considered separately as foreground, without listing their interdependence on the

whole.

For Mercer (2004:140), the design purpose of socio-cultural discourse analysis was to
understand how spoken language was used as a tool for thinking collectively. It
represented the interface between theory and particular research questions. This
determined not only how the data was analysed, but also what kind of data was
gathered.

Mercer (2010:6) noted that qualitative methods revealed the nature, patterns, and
quality of spoken interactions. Methodologies included ethnographic, sociolinguistic
and conversational analysis, with ethnographic and sociolinguistic methods often
combined. Sociocultural discourse analysis was less concerned with the organisational
structure of spoken language, and more with the content, function, and means of
shared understanding that was developed within the social context over time.

According to Mercer (2010:10), one of the toughest methodological challenges lies in

appropriately recognising that talk functions in a temporal context. Classroom
education generally exists in a continuing, cumulative experience for the participants,
which researchers, even in a longitudinal timeframe, can only partially share. Thus,
understanding what occurs in talk within the classroom needs an appropriate timescale
as well as methods. While there is an urgent need for empirical evidence, there is also
the need for strategies for teachers who benefit from the learning. This line of
educational research could contribute to educational policy and training (Mercer,
2010:11).

Gough and Bock (2001:95-96) cited Gee (1990:150), who defined discourse as “socio-
culturally determined ways of thinking, feeling, valuing and using language in different
contexts in our day-to-day lives”. They identified two types of discourse: primary
discourse resulted from face-to-face interactions, while secondary discourse was
learned through social institutions beyond the family, such as schools, workplaces (and
currently, the internet). Some degree of specialisation was required to participate in
secondary discourse (Gough & Bock, 2001:96).

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Jones (2011:9) described the ethnography of communication as a study of how

language is used in sociocultural contexts. Originally this was developed in the 1960s
and 70s by anthropologist Dell Hymes, and was communicated as a primary unit of
analysis – the speech event. This was a communicative activity comprising one or
more speech acts, within a contextual frame. This was considered the connection
between ethnography and discourse analysis. Jones (2011:9) focused on data
collection and transcription as cultural practices of discourse analysis. At the same
time, he questioned how the cultural tools for data collection (voice recorders and video
cameras as examples) supported the creation of new forms of analysis. Central to his
perspective was that all actions, including thought, were mediated through cultural
tools. Mediated discourse analysis allowed the consideration of data collection and
transcription as situated practices, tied to particular times, places and configurations
of cultural tools, and to a particular kind of people with disciplinary narratives (Jones,
2011:10).

4.6. Dialectics in Critical Discourse analysis (CDA)

Fairclough (2001:231) presented critical discourse analysis (CDA) as the analysis of

the dialectical relationships within discourse, inclusive of language as well as body
language, gesture, visual images, and other social practices. Every practice is an
articulation of diverse social elements within a relatively stable configuration, the two
coming together in a dialectical fashion. These elements are recognised as different,
but not discrete, or fully separate, and therefore never fold into each other.

Fairclough (2001:233) outlined three broad categories within social practices which
support the methodology of analysing the dialectics in discourse.

1. Discourse is part of social activity within a practice. For instance, if one works
in a shop, one needs a specific language to do the job. (Place)
2. Discourse figures in representations. Social actors within any practice produce
representations of other practices, as well as reflexive representations of their
own. They decontextualise other practices, which means they incorporate
them into their own practice. Different social actors will represent them
differently according to how they are positioned within the practice.

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Representation is a process of social construction of practices, inclusive of

reflexivity (Fairclough, 2001:232). These representations then enter and shape
social processes and practices. (Object)
3. Discourse figures in ways of being in the constitution of identities. For instance,
a teacher or leader would use a specific language. (Identity)

4.7. Triad vs dialectic

West (2011:665) outlined the sense of identity within a triadic-based system of semiotic
analysis rather than only two points. While Vygotsky put forward a dialectic or binary
connection between sign and object, according to West (2011:665) he did not consider
the changing character of the interpretant. This could also have been the ‘missing link’
in the zone of proximal development for Veresov (2004:44). Veresov contended that
the perezhivanie or dramatic collision allowed for development and unfolded hidden
aspects within the social interaction. Thus, not only were the events relevant in the
documenting, but also in the colliding or transformational aspect of that event.

4.8. Qualitative method

A socio-cultural discourse analysis within ethnographic research methodology entailed

a qualitative study. Observations were continuous and involved all potential
interactions (Wiersma & Jurs, 2005: 252). All the record taking during the observation
period was considered field notes. The emphasis was on capturing perspectives of the
individuals being observed, entailing picking up subtle cues and nuances (Wiersma &
Jurs, 2005: 253).

4.9. Data collection

Wolcott (1987:40) noted that data collection in an ethnographic study involved both
data collection and interpretation, each informing the other. Ethnography did not entail
only ‘thick description’, but that the researcher be able to discern what data needed to
be collected (Wolcott, 1987:41). Culture, according Wolcott (1987:41), was not waiting
to be discovered, but could be inferred from the words and actions of members in the
group under study. For Frake (1964:134), describing a culture was not exclusively

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about recounting the events, but specifying what was necessary to make those events
probable. One had to become discerning in the cultural patterns within the behaviour
being observed (Wolcott, 1987:44). The socio-cultural lens supported this
discernment, outlining what kinds of events to look out for. Wolcott (1987:48) discussed
the role of the participant-observer in educational ethnography. The disadvantages of
being an insider, such as teacher as well as researcher, included the potential for lack
of objectivity. Also, one could neglect valuable events owing to the concurrent teaching
role. These obstacles were potentially compensated for by the potentially qualitative
insight into the culture and individuality of the children, as my presence was over a
longer period of time. Wolcott (1987:48) stated that those who study a group of which
they are members potentially benefit from a deeper understanding of the complexity of
the system. I had the benefit of proximity to the children’s play and the ability to take
notes in real time. Hedegaard (2009:80) encouraged research being done by teachers
as they tended to have a closer insight into the classroom practices and reactions of
the children, aligned with the social values and activities. Both the negatives and
potentials needed to be considered within the reflection of the data.

4.9.1. Identification of subjects

The study took place at a Waldorf school in Cape Town, located in the South Peninsula
region. The subjects of the study were located in a kindergarten class of children,
mixed ages 4–7 years old. There were 18 children in the class, and I myself, as the
researcher, was also the teacher, with a permanent assistant teacher. The school was
located in a region with three surrounding formal/informal settlements, and had an
active sponsorship programme. The class had one sponsorship child who was an
isiXhosa language speaker.

Each day descriptive notes were taken during class. This included all conversations or
events which occurred during the research. Documenting of all mediation of the day
as well as play events was done daily. One hour of reflection two days a week provided
an opportunity to connect developing theories, reflect on events afterwards, and create
new research questions. Mind maps were drawn of categories and connections.

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4.10. Methods of data collection

Three main means of data collection can be attributed to ethnography. They include
participant observation, interviewing, and document analysis or archival research
(Sangasubana, 2011:568).

4.10.1. Observation

This was understood as the act of perceiving activities and interrelationships of people
in the field, and taking rich descriptive notes. I had the benefit of being present with the
children, without imposing another person who may have altered the data. While they
were playing, I would take notes without them noticing.

An example of the daily journaling of observations and thoughts is indicated in Table

4.1.

Table 4.1: Daily note chart

Date

Notes taken during classroom

observations, forms of play, dialogues
with children

Ring time: theme, songs, story

Storytelling: story, form of telling

Forgotten episodes

Contributions to theory, analysis,

methodology, spontaneous ideas

Subjective feelings, personal

impressions

After-school reflections

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4.10.2. Interviewing

This consisted of a focus group with the parents, occurring twice in the research year
to communicate the project and assess their perceptions. Notes were taken during
these meetings.

I conducted two focus-group interviews with the parents. The first was to introduce the
purpose of the research and gain their written permission. This was done at the start
of the school/research year (2016), in the capacity of myself as the teacher. One parent
from each child in the class was present, thus 18 parents. My assistant was present
and also took notes. The meeting took two hours. An opportunity to raise questions
and concerns was given to the parents. I requested that they also observe their own
children’s play throughout the year, whether stories told in class were enacted at home
also.

The second focus-group interview took place in August, 2016. Once again 18 parents
attended. I presented a puppet show to the parents as an example of what the children
experienced in the classroom. They had the opportunity to ask questions about the
study and the research process, as well express their own observations from home
regarding stories. Notes were taken.

4.10.3. Document analysis

Document analysis in this study included the children’s drawings, paintings, crafts and
transcripts from the stories they told in their play. This was done each term by
observing all their work from that time period and relating it to the content presented.

4.11. Focus on storytelling

The focus was on how the expression of the children linked to the stories being told or
their play. By observing their play, and knowing the storytelling which was offered to
them, it enabled me to recognise patterns and connections. This could have included
the following categories:

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a. The theme of the story being revealed in their own play or puppet shows.
b. The characters of the stories become those of their stories and play.
c. Language of the storytelling gets repeated during the play or storytelling.
d. Artefacts used symbolically in the mediation of the storytelling are used in their
play, and for the same reason.

4.12. Questions arising

As the study proceeded, questions arose from the emerging data. I recorded these in
my journaling.

1. How did the storytelling of the teacher influence the children’s play?
2. In what ways is this revealed?
2.1. Do the themes of the stories or the specific characters most influence the
play?
2.2. Do the children enact the storyline during play?
3. When doing a puppet show for the story, do the children set up their own
puppet show? If so, which aspects of the story told by the teacher model their
own?
3.1. Do they set up the puppet show in a similar way?
3.2. Do they use the same characters?
3.3. Do they use similar language?
4. How did these events reveal aspects of socio-cultural theory, such as private
speech, internalisation, imagination and self-regulation?

4.12.1. Adding questions throughout the research process

As the research process progressed, more questions arose from the data. These
included:

1. If I leave out the puppet show from the day before, will the children enact the
same story with it?
2. How did the costumes mediate the children’s imaginative play? Do they pivot
actual language from the stories?

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3. What is the time frame between a story told and children playing it on their
own?
4. Document analysis: do the stories told appear in the drawings of the children?
(This includes ring time stories, as drawing is immediately afterwards.)
5. How do second-language children react to the stories and language use in the
class, and how does this emerge in their own play?
6. What other aspects of my storytelling were reflected in the children’s play? For
example, rituals done before and after the telling, modes of behaviour,
discipline techniques?

4.13. Transcription

Mercer (2004:147) noted that for all kinds of discourse analysis, the faithful
representation of what was said is important. I tried to get the basis of the
conversations down in real time, and then in the reflecting time afterwards, would work
to illustrate the events more clearly. At this time, I would also try to find background
influences on the events which were hidden.

4.14. Data analysis

Analysis in ethnographic research involves the synthesising of information from

observation, document analysis and other data sources. Often data collection and data
analysis occurred together (Wiersma & Jurs, 2005:206). The data itself may have
suggested categories for analysis, and through sorting out information and
categorising, some data could be reduced. Comparisons could be made between the
data and earlier theories.

Throughout the research process, further means of categorisation arose, according to

the principles of socio-cultural discourse analysis. These included the following
categories which emerged:

1. The types of play the children engaged in.

2. Incidences of zones of proximal development (ZPD) among children of multiple
ages.

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3. The role of the teacher as a mediator with the children, one on one, or as a
whole group.
4. The use of cultural tools or artefacts, such as toys, equipment, costumes, and
aspects of nature, as symbolic language mediators.
5. Rules set out during the play, by the children themselves, and how they related
to these rules.
6. Self-talk during the play, and how this manifested in the children.
7. Cultural practices within the classroom and pedagogy.
8. Cultural symbols within the classroom, and how these related to the
surrounding cultures.

Categories were created and I was able to fill in incidences accordingly.

A large amount of data was obtained which needed to be categorised. As it was an

ethnographic study, I was open at all times to dialogue and teaching methods that
would apply to the study. This included consistent self-reflection as a teacher and
researcher, and how my own influences could impact the data. As a socio-cultural
study, I was especially looking at the times of mediation which would significantly
answer the research question.

My central question was how the storytelling mediated by the teacher was firstly being
internalised by the children, and secondly how that revealed itself in the children’s play.
Thirdly was the inference of how this dialectical feedback process influenced their
capacity for self-regulation and reflection.

4.15. Data coding and interpretation

Green, Willis, Hughes, Small, Welch, Gibbs, and Daly (2007:547) listed four steps for
data analysis to generate the best qualitative evidence. These were

1. Data immersion;
2. Coding;
3. Creating categories; and
4. Identifying themes.

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Immersion in data allowed for all findings to be seen as relevant.

The second step was the process of examining and organising the information,
beginning to categorise/classify the information. At this point I needed to be clear about
what I was questioning in the data, so that some could be disregarded if irrelevant. The
next step was the creation of categories, and as Green et al. (2007:548) discussed,
many researchers stop there. Yet, from those categories, themes could emerge,
moving beyond a description of categories and into an explanation or even
interpretation.

The identification of themes, rather than categories, is therefore the litmus test of a
study that produces stronger evidence. We argue that a high-quality paper identifies
themes by linking the categories with social theory, until eventually an overriding
explanation is arrived at which makes sense of the various patterns that have emerged
at the descriptive level (Green et al., 2007:549).

These explanations provided considerable insight into the functioning of language

exchange in a Waldorf kindergarten and how that could be mediated through
storytelling.

4.16. Ethical considerations

The Waldorf school selected for the study falls under the jurisdiction of ISASA, the
Independent schooling Association, and not the Western Cape Education Department
(WCED). This meant that no permission was needed from the provincial education
department to conduct the study. I obtained permission to conduct the research from
the College of Teachers of the specific Waldorf school, which was the authorising body.

I received written permission from each parent in the class for their child to participate
in the study. I assured them that no names would be used in the document, and that
no photographs or videos would be taken or shared. Any recordings were only for
documenting purpose and would be destroyed after transcription. None of the parents
had concerns about the proposed research. The children themselves were made
aware of the research, and why I would be taking notes throughout the year. All

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references to the children were kept anonymous. All information gathered was
confidential and only used for the purposes of this study in collaboration with my
supervisor.

4.17. Conclusion

The study was conducted as a qualitative, ethnographic study with focus on socio-
cultural discourse analysis. The research consisted of a conversational analysis,
investigating the role of stories, as mediated by the teacher, on the children’s own free
imaginative play. Utilising a socio-cultural method implied that children internalise
social language, through their own private speech, in order to become their internal
psychology. Although this process is silent and unseen, the hypothesis was that if
children were active in their own play, revealing the stories told in any form, then this
would reveal internalisation.

The methods included observation, focus-group interviews of the parents, and

document analysis which included the children’s drawings and crafts.

The goal at the end of the study was to have gained an insight into the types of make-
believe play which children enacted in the Waldorf kindergarten, and how the play was
influenced by mediation of storytelling by the teacher. The coding and analysis of the
information was influenced by the socio-cultural categories. I recorded the dialogue
between the children, as well as my own as the teacher of the children. Owing to the
ethnographic nature of the study, all phenomena were considered relevant until they
had been analysed, categorised and/or discarded.

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CHAPTER 5
FINDINGS

5.1. Introduction

The purpose of the study was to conduct a socio-cultural analysis of the phenomenon
presented in a Waldorf kindergarten. This chapter presents the phenomena observed
in the data, including the classroom set up, daily rhythms, and storytelling and play. A
schedule for all the stories told during the year is given, with a quarterly review. It
outlines the results from the interviews and document analysis.

5.2. Location and subjects

The research occurred at a Waldorf school in Cape Town. The school was located on
a farm. There were three kindergarten classes, two playgroups, and a primary school
with Grades 1–7. I had taught in one of the kindergarten classes for ten years at the
time of the research. The school was run as an Independent, private school. There
were two containers as offices, and the only electricity on the property was solar. The
land was rustic, with camels and goats, as well as birds, scorpions, snakes, various
insects, peacocks, and mongooses. There were forests surrounding the property,
which was rented.

The class was a mixture of genders, with ten girls and eight boys. The language of
teaching was English, with input of isiXhosa and Afrikaans through songs and verses.
The children were aged 4.5 to 7 years old. They generally stayed in one class for two
years. The younger ones were called ‘moon children’ and the older ‘sun children’.
Those who turned 6 years towards the end of the year, October to December, were
considered borderline, and potentially stayed an extra year. I had five children in this
research year turning 7 years.

The kindergarten day was from 08:00 to 12:30, Monday to Friday, with possible
aftercare afterwards. There were four terms per year.

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Figure 5.1: Outline of the classroom area

5.3. Classroom structure

The classroom consisted of a wooden hut situated within a large garden of its own.
The classroom had a bathroom with two toilets and teacher’s kitchen which was
separate, with the rest open plan. The classroom was divided into three sections:
tables, play or movement mat, and imitation play area. Low shelving and hooks held
baskets of toys and dress-up clothing. Other larger baskets of blocks, cloths, and
costumes surrounded the play area on the floor. Everything was accessible to the
children except the kitchen at the back and the teachers’ cupboards. Toys consisted
mainly of objects of nature, such as pine cones, pieces of wood, large and small
stones, shells, and crystals. There also were animals and humans, made as ‘table
puppets’ out of felt, wood or wool (knitted). These could be used, along with cloths and
objects, to create landscapes and stories. Everything had a place.

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The garden had a pond, a large pine tree that could be climbed, a sandpit and jungle
gyms. There were many garden beds and pathways. There was a balcony with a
woodwork table, and in an area of the garden was a clay pit.

5.3.1. Table area

Tables were set up in groups of three, with three tables each. This allowed 18 children
to be able to sit and draw or paint. For birthdays and festivals, we would reshape the
tables to make one long one which sat the same number of children but closer together.
These tables were for crafts, artistic activities such as drawing and painting, and eating.
During play, sometimes the tables were also taken out to become bunk beds, houses,
boats, and more.

5.3.2. Mat area

This space had multiple uses throughout the day, from playing to ring time and
storytelling. This required tidying up after play, which was considered part of the
classroom activity. The area had to be clear enough to stand or seat the 18 children.
In play time, all the toys, blocks, and equipment would come out and the whole area
would be filled.

5.3.3. Imitation area

An important feature of a Waldorf classroom is that the child can engage in imitative
play. For this, an area is designed to imitate a home, with dolls in beds or prams, a
kitchen table, cupboard with real cups and saucers, toy stove with pots and spoons,
ironing board, and dolls clothes. I also had a bunk bed they could play on. Play stands,
which were wooden and free standing, had a small shelf that could become part of a
house, bed, shop, or place for a puppet show. These could be moved into the play mat
area or even outside.

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5.4. Nature table

A significant feature of the Waldorf kindergarten classroom is the nature table. This is
representative of the season of the year. Coloured cloths set the tone, as well as
objects from nature such as the branch of a tree, or flowers and logs, creating
landscapes and centre-pieces. There was always a candle. Characters of humans,
animals, or elements from nature were placed to show the activity represented by that
season. Creating a mood is the intention of the table, as well as its being a place where
the children could add their own objects which they brought from outdoors. They would
often arrive in the morning with a bunch of flowers or stone or shell to ‘put on the nature
table’.

The colours aligned with the elements, such as air, water, fire, earth, and each season
had a characteristic that could be represented. Table 5.1 shows the colour alignment
with the seasons and associated elements.

Table 5.1: Seasons and associated colours and elements for the nature table

Season Summer Autumn Winter Spring

Blues, golden Brown, red, Blue, purple, Pastels such

Colours yellow, yellow, crystal colours, as greens,
green, red orange browns, greens yellow, pink

Elements Water, fire Earth, fire Earth, water Air, water

5.5. Seasonal festivals

The Waldorf kindergarten curriculum followed a rhythm of the year reflecting both
seasonal changes and the Christian calendar. A festival occurred on the last day of
every term, which celebrated both. Festivals involved stories, a ring, a feast and
activities which led up to its preparation.

I regularly began the preparation for the festival at least three weeks ahead. This meant
that my assistant and I spent hours the night before, setting up the room and putting
away toys. The idea was to make the class beautiful and special. On the day, there

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were usually an activity, a special ring or story, and a feast. All the crafts of the term
were part of the decorations.

The festivals had an interesting complexity in the southern hemisphere. Although they
were a celebration of season, the Christian holiday often had a seasonal association,
such as spring and Easter. In the southern hemisphere that was switched, so, for
instance, the seasonal festival of harvest or autumn coincided with Easter. The festival
in September of Saint Michael the Archangel was celebrated in the northern
hemisphere as a descent into the dark of winter, taking Michael’s golden sword. Here
this became the celebration of spring. Our priority was to incorporate the season with
the appropriate human activities. Other cultures of the children also contributed to
creating a festival around songs, decoration and foods.

The festivals had activities such as:

1. Grinding grain, going to a farm for apples, and making dried slices for autumn.
2. Making lanterns for mid-winter.
3. Sawing, sanding and painting golden swords and sewing a dragon for spring.
4. Making gifts and decorations for summer/Christmas.

Table 4.2 below shows the varying festivals together with the stories, activities, and
main themes.

5.6. Rhythmic teaching

Much of the teaching in the Waldorf kindergarten involved rhythm, but also rituals and
participation. The medium for experiencing higher-order meaning is participation. It
could be said that Waldorf creates ritual from participation. With a small child, the
opportunity to treat each activity in a reverent manner meant attention given to its
beginning, end and middle.

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Table 5.2: List of term dates, festivals and themes

SEASONAL CHRISTIAN
TERM DATES MAIN THEMES
FESTIVAL FESTIVAL

Rebirth, farm, harvest,

January– Harvest,
Easter gratitude, activities of farming
March Autumn
and work, bees.

Holding light of mid-winter,

St John the
April–June Mid-winter lanterns, fires, gnomes, rain,
Baptist
wheat.

Taming the dragon, spring,

July– St Michael and the
Spring planting, swords, flowers,
September dragon
fairies, new growth.

Gratitude, gifts, summer,

October– water, stories of Joseph and
Mid-summer Christmas
December Mary, shepherds and kings,
Jesus.

Each time a candle was lit, there was a moment of consciousness, along with a verse.
The repeated rituals every day created a ‘known space’ for the children, which I believe
was linked to their learning. An important aspect is that within a ritual there are not
collectively prescribed perspectives; these are fluidly created by different groups of
people in different contexts. Table 5.2 lists the terms, festivals and main themes.

5.7. The daily rhythm as a binary of breathing

The daily rhythm in a Waldorf kindergarten is considered to model the breathing

process.

1. In-breathing activities are those which are focused and teacher mediated, such as
craft in the morning, ring time, activities such as painting, drawing and modelling, and
story time.
2. Out-breathing activities are those which are child directed such as play which
allows them to choose what they wish to do and to use their imaginations. Artistic
activities also have an aspect of out-breathing, as they allow for imagination and
freedom, while simultaneously being an organised activity.

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Table 5.3 overleaf shows the daily rhythm, and whether this activity represented the
state of in or out breathing.

Table 5.3: Rhythm of the day, pertaining to in-breath-out-breath in activity

Time Activity In-breath/Out-breath

8–9 a.m. Arrival, craft, quiet play In-breath

9–9:45 a.m. Tidy up and free play Out-breath

9:45–10 a.m. Fruit time In-breath

10:15–10:30 a.m. Ring time In-breath

Activity – drawing, painting,

10:30–10:45 a.m. In-breath (and out-breath)
modelling

10:45 a.m. Lunch In-breath

Free play and tidy up, set up for

11 a.m.–12 p.m. Out-breath
story

12–12:15 p.m. Storytime In-breath

5.7.1. Observation: Transitions and repetition of activity and language

Notes from my journal, 15 March.

I observed the children during ring time, when they had to leave their play in the
garden or class, and come to the circle together. They would be satisfied to spend
that time focusing because they knew they had the time on their own as well. This
appeared to be a key to self-regulation in the classroom.

Transitions were an opportunity for rituals, including language and movement.

Transitions were conducted, in order to keep the dreamy state of mind of the child, but
at the same time awaken them to the change of activity. This meant notifying through
an instrument or song, so that they recognised it but were not startled.

Examples of transitions which coincided with activities are shown in Table 5.4.

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Table 5.4: Transitions and associated activity and language

Transition Activity associated Language associated

Craft/inside time to
Tidy up of inside play Tidy up song
outside play.

Outside time to fruit Washing hands

Washing hands song.
time (eaten outside Movements in the verse for
unless raining) Fruit verse
fruit

Bell rung
Outside time to ring Song to bring into ring
time Children come to classroom time
and stand in ring.

Hand game before the Verse i.e., Tommy

Activity
activity. thumb.

Set table, tidy up Washing hands song

Lunch time Wash hands Candle song
Light candle and blessing Blessing before meal

Chairs laid out for story

Bell rung Tidy up song
Free play to story time
Children enter quietly, sit on Verses before story
a chair

5.7.2. Observation from notes: Self-regulation in terms of cloth folding

One of the valuable aspects of the rhythm is within the transitions. I watch as the children
have begun to associate a song or verse with the activity of the transition. They are
feeling comfortable in it. The more insecure children like Suki and Sipho predicted the
next transition, and are often waiting for me to ring the bell. The transition time helps the
children stay in a dreamy state of mind as they are secure in what comes next. They
love to wash their hands to the song “Can you tell me, what the children are doing…They
are washing their hands, and you can wash too.

All cloths that were used in the play had to be folded. To accompany this activity was
a song which went along with the actions.

Two children each holding the corner two sides of the blanket

Sing: Shake shake a pancake (shake the blanket)

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And fold the pancake over (fold the corners together)

The children then needed to find their rhythm with each other, and keep folding until it
could be put away.

At first Greta and Cindy, who had started kindergarten that year, turning 5 years, were
passionate about cloths. When they played, they would take all the cloths out of the basket
and make a big pile in the middle of the mat. But soon they realised the connection between
playing with all the cloths and tidying them up, since every tidy-up time they would have to
fold all these cloths, or ask for help from friends. Soon they were choosing which cloths to
use, and avoiding all the extras!

5.8. How rhythm facilitates language

Through the daily rhythm, repetitive language was used in the form of verses and
songs.

Table 5.5 gives examples of rituals which also aligned with the rhythm of the morning.

Table 5.5: Activities, rhythms and rituals

Activity Ritual purpose and tools

Lighting a candle (story, Fire fairy song

meals) Sense of stillness and attention

Hand game before activity Song and movement to focus attention

Closing-off story time Song, blowing out candle, shaking hands

Say a verse with hand movements

Fruit time verse and talking Child hands out fruit
stick Using talking stick to help allocate speaker and
enhance listening

5.9. Ring time, repetition and seasonal rhythm

The ring time was the central, focused time of the morning, where all the children came
in from their play, and all participated together. The format was a circle, in the same

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area where the play occurred. The children were summoned to the circle with a bell,
which one of them rang. They would take off their shoes and coats if needed, and join.
There was usually a bit of scuffle as children settled where they wanted to be. Only if
a child was ill or hurt could they miss it.

A song was sung as they arrived and joined to make a circle:

Let us make a circle a circle a circle. (x2)

A circle like the sun.
Let us make a circle…A circle like the moon.

The teacher spoke lyrically or sang, alongside movements. The children joined along
with the teacher, rather than a ‘repeat after me’ scenario. There were no explanations
or showing, just doing. It also helped that half of the class were there for a second year,
so they modelled to the other children. The ring time lasted about 20 minutes.

5.9.1. Types of movements and language which are done in every ring
time:

• A verse to greet the earth and each other

• Setting the season, with language verses and songs
• Large motor, general songs including the whole body.
• Small and fine motor, such as finger games or those involving specific parts of
the body along with lyrics.
• Ring games with turn taking. Usually three turns.
• Short nature story
• Bridging between songs/verses with language to keep the story between the
songs and verses.

5.9.2. Examples where polarities were also considered in the development

of the ring time:

• Active and quiet songs

• Large and small motor movements

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• In and out movements

• Loud and soft
• Polarity in the language and imagery of the songs and verses

The circle was the heart of the morning, filled with purposeful movement and language,
through story and song. It always was modelled around the season, using human and
animal activities of what happens on earth at that time as the basis. The ring time was
an aspect where storytelling could impact the children’s play. Usually an activity, such
as painting, drawing or modelling, followed the ring time so that the same images could
be expressed.

The same ring time was repeated for consecutive days, so the children learned to
predict and sing/say the words along with movement. This was a kind of embodied
form of learning language. The movements worked on coordination, balance, crossing
the midline, body geography, as well as bringing language to life. It was considered an
in-breathing activity as the children were not essentially free; they were in a guided
activity.

5.9.3. Progression of the ring time in autumn

The story set the scene of the movement ring:

Once upon a time Ayanda and Liesl were riding their little ponies, as
granny wanted some apples for an apple pie. They had to go to the stable
and fetch the ponies. They gave them a brush and even a carrot. They put
on the bridle and rode on the bare backs. Each had to stand on a stool to
get up. Table 5.6 overleaf depicts an example of an autumn ring.

The importance of creating a story-telling mood was to calm the children in order for
them to imagine the story while listening. The story was told more than once over a
few days, repeated three to five times. Told in exactly the same way, this gave them
time to build on their internal pictures and listen to the spoken language.

The room was darkened and the focus on the candle allowed them to dream. There
were times when children were disruptive, and these children could be helped by
holding something heavy, or sitting close to the teacher.

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The mode of the story as I told it was as an “old grandmother”. This meant that not
much drama but rather a faraway calmness surrounded the storytelling. This was
something I had learned in my own teacher training, predominantly for young children.
The dramatic tones emerged in the primary school. Even emotive aspects, such as the
wolf meeting Little Red Cap (Grimm & Grimm, 1975:139), would be done in a calm
voice, rather than attempting to exaggerate the acting and make it frightening.

Some questions arose from the children during the telling of the story. If this happened,
I did not overact to it, but at times would answer the question, especially if they wanted
to know the meaning of a word. After they had asked the question the first time, I found
it became a ritual for them, and they would ask the same question on subsequent
tellings.

By the end of the year, the older children, turning 7 years, began to repeat every word
with me, after hearing the story only once. Their memory was so accessible to them
that they spoke along with me, with slight reminders as I spoke. I allowed them to do
this, seeing it as a developmental form of listening, but it was the first time it had ever
happened.

It is ironic how Disney films have altered events in fairy tale tales. For instance, in the
original The Frog King or Iron Henry (Grimm & Grimm, 1975:17), the ending has
completely changed in terms of the transformational moment. In the original story
(1975 edition), the Princess becomes so frustrated by the frog that she throws him
across the room, shouting, “Will you be quiet, you odious frog?” As she throws the frog
against the wall, he changes into a prince. This changed to her kissing the frog in
modern versions, which alters the act and meaning. In my own interpretation, that
throwing to the wall represents how we have to stand up for ourselves to transform,
even it if may happen in ways unknown to us.

Because I had the children for two, sometimes three years in kindergarten, I could
watch their change in development. An example was in the questions that were asked
about the story. When I was telling Akimba and the Magic Cow (Perrow, 2008:114),
the older group were finding holes in the logic of the story, and asking about it. In the
previous year, they had just listened to the story. This year they asked why Akimba did

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not notice his animals were being taken by Bamba? And why he did not save money
when his cow produced gold? These were logical and funny questions that arose from
the story, of which they had not noticed the relevance in the previous year. This shows
a development in their consciousness which corresponds to the developmental stages
where their thinking becomes awakened as they reach 5.5 or 6 years.

After the oral telling for three to five days, depending on the length of the story, it would
often be followed by puppetry and/or acting.

5.9.4. Puppetry

Using puppets involved standing puppets, both animals and humans, set up on a table.
Cloths would decorate landscapes and logs or other pieces of wood created layering.
Objects of nature became symbolic mediators, for instance, a pine cone becoming a
tree, or stones created a path. Pieces of wood could be made into houses, and colours
of the cloth created the mood and season of the story. These are examples of
modelling symbolic mediation.

The teacher told the story while manipulating the puppets, and there was quite an art
to moving only those puppets featured in that section of the story, while simultaneously
speaking. When the puppets were not used they could be put down in a suitable place
within the story layout. Puppetry allowed the children to visualise the story being
enacted, but also in gestures suited to the language of the telling. This is contrary to
much of what they see on screens these days, which is speedy in movement. In the
case of the puppet shows in the classroom, they were still told in a dreamy but realistic
way, and moved at the same pace as the spoken language. Animal gestures would
reflect the nature of that movement, for instance, the difference between a horse or a
snail. People also had different gaits, such as a king or an old woman, a child or a
baby. The voice changed slightly for characters, but only in tone not overly dramatic.

The first time I would do the puppet show for the children, I would set it up myself. The
next time the children always wanted to help in the set up. This involved cloths for
landscapes, pieces of wood, logs, stones for hills, houses and other objects. They
attempted to repeat the set-up, thus remembering the placement of landscape, objects

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and characters. Not only was this a means of modelling play, but also memory of
sequence and symbolic object.

After the puppet show was set up, I would cover it with a light cloth. This gave a sense
of protection. I would always ask the children to be quiet as the puppets wanted to do
their very best for them! Before the story started, a child would play a soft instrument
as I lifted the cloth from the puppet show. This only occurred after we lit the candle.
There was a reverence in this activity, which showed that I cared for the puppets. The
mood enhanced the dream-like atmosphere, which enhanced the children’s
experience.

When presenting a puppet show, I used the same language as in the oral telling of the
tale, so that the children were already familiar with it. Sometimes I would shorten it
slightly. During the performance, the gaze of my eyes was directed at the puppets,
and not at the children. This was because the children imitated me, and thus would
follow my gaze. I would repeat the puppet show 3–4 times. The children were always
excited in anticipation of the puppet shows, both to help set them up and to watch.

5.9.5. Cloth puppets

Cloth puppets provided a simple way to perform a puppet show by using a scarf (the
best was pure silk), and tying a knot at the top for a head. The finger of one hand went
in the head, and the draped cloth furnished the body. I could manipulate the puppet
with my hand.

I started with two stories early in the year to model puppetry. The story Sweet Porridge
(Grimm & Grimm, 1975:476) was a simple and short fairy tale, with three characters:
mother, daughter and old woman. Each cloth colour represented the character, with
pink for the daughter, blue for the mother and purple for the old woman. The movement
of the various cloths represented the movement of that character: the mother and child,
and the old woman in the wood. The mother and child were hungry, and the child went
to the wood. There she met an old woman who gave her a magic pot. When the girl
used specific words, the pot would cook porridge, while other words would make it
stop. The girl went out and the mother knew how to cook the magic porridge, but forgot

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the words to make it stop. The porridge thus boiled over the pot, at which point the pot
on my lap began to spread cloths from within. One of my favourite lines in the story is:

So, it went on cooking and the porridge rose to the edge, and still it cooked on until the
kitchen and the whole house were full, and then the next house, and then the whole
street, just as if it wanted to satisfy the hunger of the whole world, and there was the
greatest distress, but no-one knew how to stop it (Grimm & Grimm, 1975:476).

The puppet table was my lap and the pot rested on me, and the cloths from the porridge
flowed onto me.

5.9.6. Learning sequencing and structure from a puppet show

A puppet show modelled a structure, a visual mapping for the story sequencing.

It showed direction and movement of a journey, depending on where it started and

ended.

1. Starting at one location, moving on a journey, and ending at another place. For
instance, The Three Little Men in the Wood (Grimm & Grimm, 1975:78) started
at the home of the one girl’s father, then went to a combined home with step-
mother, through the forest and river, and ended at the palace. Cinderella
(Grimm & Grimm, 1975:121) was in her home and three times went to the
palace and back to where she hid. Each time they searched for her and
something in the garden was destroyed. At the end, she went back to the
palace to be married.

2. In other stories, people go on a journey and then return home, such as in A

Little Boy Went Sailing (Perrow, 2008:170). Sweet Porridge (Grimm & Grimm,
1975:475) also started with a girl who went to the forest, found a pot, and came
back home. Little Red Cap (Grimm &Grimm, 1975:139) goes from home to her
grandmother’s house and back. She also does this a second time.

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5.9.7. Action research: changing the structure of puppetry

With the story of Akimba and the Magic Cow (Perrow, 2008:114) I initiated a novel
method: the children moved the puppets while I told the story. We had told the story
orally, four times, and then acted it four times, so the children knew it very well. Groups
of four to five children stood at the puppet table and moved all the animals and
characters while I spoke. The first group comprised five boys, and it was wonderful to
see the delight they had in performing the puppet show. The language and movement
were simple and clear, so between one another they could negotiate their characters.

5.10. Acting out the stories

Acting the story with the class was not intended as a performance, but rather a
participatory experience. The teacher set up the chairs and classroom according to the
story. Cloths were laid out to represent different areas, and the chairs were placed
where the characters were required to sit, but within a circle arrangement. Simple
costumes were placed on the chair.

The candle and verse occurred as normal. I chose the roles beforehand, alternating
large and small, and kept a record each day. If there were not enough characters I
would add extras, such as bushes or trees, or other animals. As the children came in,
I would tell them their role and allocate the chairs.

The children were not all active during the entire performance, so they sat in the chairs
or on pillows until it was their turn. There was a need for the teacher to maintain
discipline in the class, while still motivating the children and having an enjoyable
experience.

Acting allowed the children to immerse themselves in the language, movement and
gesture of the story. The children were not pressured to play any parts as the teacher
narrated. If they knew the parts and wanted to speak them, they could. The older
children especially were keen to remember words for their role. Hearing the story
numerous times in the oral telling, and sometimes again in puppetry, had made them
familiar with the story and its language by the time of the performance.

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Like the puppetry, there was movement to the story, so events would take place in
different areas. All of it was kept within the larger circle of the acting, so that all children
could see at all times. At times acting occurred within a circle, where all the children
became the house. This occurred with The Three Little Pigs (traditional), and The Wolf
and Seven Kids (Grimm & Grimm, 1975:39).

A few stories were acted for the parents during the festivals. These included The Seven
Ravens (Grimm & Grimm, 1975:137) for the winter festival, while The Christmas Play
(Bryer & Nicol, 2001) was acted at the end of the year. These were performances for
the parents, with more attention given to the settings and costumes. The children would
only be allocated their roles the day before, so that they also practised various parts,
both large and small. Some stories, such as Sweet Porridge (Grimm & Grimm,
1975:475), had too few characters or events to be acted.

5.10.1. Types of stories to act

Stories were acted in different ways, according to the type of story, scenes, characters,
and materials provided in our training.

Types of stories to act:

1. Stories which when acted, used the same language from the original story told
to the children. For example, The Three Little Men in the Wood (Grimm &
Grimm, 1975:78) was a complex story, and the acting occurred exactly as the
telling. Different areas on the journey were laid out with cloths.
2. Some stories had specific acting scripts provided, either from my own mentor
or other Waldorf teacher resources. The Wolf and Seven Kids (Grimm &
Grimm, 1975:39) had a specific play, with rhyme and song, written by my
mentor. The children stood together in a circle and became the house, with
two children as the door. All the events of the play occurred inside and around
the circle. The play ended in that same circle, with dancing around the wolf. In
all the plays with wolves we had a standard song at the end, where the children
around the circle sang and danced, “The wolf is dead, the wolf is dead, the
wicked wolf is dead”.

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3. Other stories were a combination of the exact wording, with added songs,
rhyming verses or changed parts.

5.11. Presenting the data: Storytelling

The following section covers the four terms in relationship to the overall seasonal
themes of the term, as well as the stories which were told, done in puppetry and acted
with the children. For each term a few stories are discussed in relationship to their
content, how they were presented, and the reactions of the children.

5.11.1. Aspects and themes in the first term

Table 5.6 outlines the factors of the first term, in relation to the season, and associated
colours on the nature table, themes of stories and crafts done in class.

Table 5.6: Aspects and themes of the seasonal stories

Season Summer towards autumn

Colours/nature table blue, golden yellow, beach colour, green
Water such as oceans and rivers, boats, fish, mermaids,
whales, play, fishing
Themes of stories
Meadows, picnics, bees
Harvest and farms
Ocean pictures on hessian
Crafts done in class Sewing felt fish
Pom pom bunnies

5.11.2. Stories presented in term one

Table 5.7 shows the story schedule for the year, including how many days were
dedicated to oral telling, puppetry or acting the story. It covers the stories per term and
reviews the term in respect of the storytelling. The chart also outlines what type of story
it was, whether traditional, fairy tale or written for the Waldorf classroom.

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1. The Little Boy and his Boat (Perrow, 2008:170-2)

This story was used as a welcoming story for the children before the first day of school.
They came with their parents for a ‘tea party’ where a story was told of a boy who visits
a series of islands, each with an activity that reflected those they would do in the
kindergarten.

I told the story in the form of a puppet show. On my nature table was a gift for each
child: a boat made from a mussel shell and a felt sail on a toothpick. In this way I was
already introducing an imaginative picture for the child’s participation in the class. In
the story, the boy found an island to climb on rocks, climb trees or jungle gyms (bush
castle), eating fruit, playing in a water pool and digging in sand. Each represented a
different area of the kindergarten.

There was a lyrical repetition between each activity:

Playing in the sand (eating bananas, climbing trees…) is lots of fun

But I want more adventures under the sun.

At the end he sailed home tired, and I sang a lullaby to the boy. The purpose was to
make them want to come back to school the following week, which was the start of the
year. The same story was then told for the first 3 days of school.

Table 5.7: Term 1 story schedule – summer to autumn festival

Dates / Times
Story Method of telling Type of story/theme
2016 told

A little boy and his Told with puppets and Boats and adventures,
1/20–22 3
boat landscape of an island settling into kindergarten

Told with cloth Simple Grimm’s fairy

1/25–27 Sweet porridge 3
puppets tale

1/28–2/2 Oral 5 Grimm’s fairy tale, water

The Frog prince
2/3–5 Puppetry 3 theme

2/8-12 Oral 5 Grimm’s fairy tale,

The Queen Bee
2/15-18 Acting 4 summer theme

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Dates / Times
Story Method of telling Type of story/theme
2016 told

The little boy who

2/19, 22, Simple rhyming story,
wanted to be Told with cloth puppet 3
23 elements of water
carried

2/24–26
Told 3 Traditional tale, farm
Three Little Pigs
Acting 4 theme
2/29–3/3

3/4, 7–9/4
The Wolf and Oral 4 Grimm’s fairy tale, farm
3/10–11, Seven kids Acting 4 theme
14–15

Easter bunny Waldorf autumn festival

3/16 Oral 1
story story

Easter bunny
3/17 Told with puppets 1 FESTIVAL
story

2. The three little pigs (traditional)

This is a traditional story, which many children already know. Not only was it a way to
introduce the farm theme into stories, but it also brings strong images of building a
secure home. I only told it once at story time, and then followed through with acting it
3 times in the ring time of the morning. The circle of children makes up the house when
they acted it. This is a means of teaching play to children, as some take particular
roles, including main roles, while others become trees, or part of the door to the house,
men carrying the supplies.

The characters in the story, when acted, were:

Mother pig and 3 sons, one who builds the house of straw, sticks, bricks.
Me who carry the building material (acted with a wheel barrow)
2 students are door to the house, all the children become the house in a circle
Wolf
Trees in the orchard

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The version told in the classroom was older and longer version than I heard as a child.
The pig had to visit a turnip patch, orchard, and then the fair, where he bought a butter
churn and rolled down the hill, scaring the wolf on the final visit. It was only then that
the wolf climbed the chimney, after being outsmarted 3 times, and the fire was waiting.
The children danced around the fire place singing, “The Wolf is dead” at the end. This
was a song which continued into other plays about the wolf.

3. The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids (Grimm & Grimm, 1975:39)

This is a rich and lively story, which was fun to tell and to act, and continued the theme
of farming. The story is about a group of kid goats who stay at home when their mother
goes food foraging. The play that I used for this story was written by my mentor, Sheila
Miller. It was written in rhyme, and had group actions to the songs. The acting of the
story again began in a circle, where the children became the house. But this time the
circle breaks and other events occur. Once again it started with all the children as the
house, and then differentiating into the mother, wolf, and 7 kids. Two children also
became the doors of the house. The wolf constantly pretends to be their mother. For
three attempts he tries to trick them, and the first two they recognise the wolf. On the
last, he gets in and the kids run and hide. Only the youngest one is found in the clock
case. The rest were in the tummy of the wolf; however, the mother later rescues them
by cutting open the sleeping wolf’s stomach. Rocks are placed by the kids into the
stomach and the wolf dies in the well of thirst. The children again dance around the
well singing, “The Wolf is dead”.

The term ended with the Easter festival. In craft classes, we had sewn bunnies, ground
wheat, and each child had a small planting tray in which we sprinkled bird seed. This
created a little garden. Then we made gnomes out of a gum nut and a bead. The story
of the Easter bunny has a garden and a gnome. During the story, my assistant placed
a chocolate egg in each garden, so that when the children came out, they found the
eggs and could take them home.

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5.11.3. Aspects and themes in the second term

Table 5.8 outlines the characteristics of the second term, including the season, colours
of the nature table, themes of the stories and crafts done in the class.

Table 5.8: Aspects and themes of the seasonal stories

Seasons Autumn moving towards winter

Colours/nature table browns, golden yellow, red, orange, purple, dark green
Themes of stories Farm animals, houses, cleaning, mother earth, baby seeds
Pom poms making hedgehogs and chickens, circle weaving
Crafts done in class
which leads to a tortoise, sewing rabbits

5.11.4. Review of storytelling in the second term

Three stories were reviewed from this term in relation to their content and reaction of
the children. Table 5.9 lists the second term story schedule, including those orally told,
with a book, puppetry and through acting.

1. Rapunzel (Grimm & Grimm, 1975: 73)

This is the traditional story about a child who loves her neighbours Rampions (turnips)
and finally gets caught and trapped in the tower where the witchy neighbour guards
her. Finally, it is her hair that helps the journey of getting out of the tower to meet the
prince. It contains the famous refrain, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair.”
(Grimm & Grimm, 1975: 75). This continued the theme of the farm and going into the
winter time (trapped in a castle). I was surprised in the acting of this play that what my
older girls most wanted to do was be the evil Queen, and this began months of their
own play with that character.

This story was told orally, and I also had a picture book to accompany. The first time I
would tell the story I would not use the book, to give an opportunity to the children to
create their own ‘inner pictures’ of the story. Afterwards I would show the pictures along
with the telling. There were three stories told with picture books this term, which also
modelled a way of telling and reading stories, while following with outside pictures. The
pictures in these books had a particular aesthetic quality as determined by the

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standards of a Waldorf school. Thus, the pictures in themselves could stimulate

imagination.

Table 5.9: Term 2 story schedule – autumn to mid-winter festival

Dates Times Type of story/

Story Method of telling
2016 told theme

The Little House Waldorf story

4/6–8 Oral 3
Gnome home

4/11–13 Telling with a picture book 3

Grimm's fairy
4/ Rampion
tale, farm theme
14,15,18,19 Acting 4

4/20–22 Telling 3
Akimba and the Rewritten from
4/25, 26, 5/2 Acting 3
Magic Cow African traditional
5/3–6 Puppetry 4

5/9–11 The Apple Cake Telling with a picture book 3 Story picture
5/12–13 Story Puppetry 2 book

5/16–19 Telling with a picture book 4

Town Musicians of Grimm’s fairy tale
5/23–26 Puppetry 4
Bremen Farm life
5/27–6/1 Acting 4

Children made Child-directed puppet Children asked to

6/2, 3 2
stories stories tell the story

6/6–9 Telling 4 Grimm’s fairy tale

6/13–16 Seven Ravens Puppet show 4 Dark journey to
6/20–23 Acting 4 stars, ravens

Acting for mid-winter For parents at

6/23 Seven Ravens
FESTIVAL night – festival

2. Akimba and the Magic Cow (Perrow, 2008: 114)

This is a traditional African tale, rewritten; a repetitive and fun story about a man,
Akimba, who left the village in search of food and work. On his way he met a man
chopping wood, who proceeded to offer him magical animals as a way out of his
troubles. Each had a special word to summon gold, silver and eggs. Every time,
Akimba made the mistake of needing to go away and trusting a neighbour, Bamba with
both the animal and sacred word. Each time Bamba sent back a different animal on

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his return. Finally, there is a magic stick, which beats him, and Akimba decides to test
his neighbour with it. It beats Bamba, who begs for it to stop, and Akimba agrees only
if he returns his magic animals. It is a tale of being smart as well as trusting in protecting
what you have.

I told the story orally for three days. Then we acted it for 3 days and also did a puppet
show for 4 days. The children loved the acting as they had to be the different animals
belonging to each person.

Locations of the story: Man chopping wood, Akimba’s house, Bamba’s house - areas
allocated by cloths and chairs

Characters: man chopping wood, Akimba, Bamba, magic/normal cow, magic/normal

sheep, magic/ normal chicken, stick.

I had to create an area and have the false animals sitting in Bamba’s house, so that
when Akimba brought his animal, and came to retrieve it, a different child represented
the non-magical animal. The children loved to make the sounds of the animal who did
not produce gold, silver or an egg, but just did the sounds of. moo, baaa and cluck
cluck.

For an object to represent gold and silver I used cloths and a rock for the eggs.

By the time we did the puppet show the children knew the story very well. I tried
something I had not done before, and that was me telling the story while a group of
children moved the puppets. Each day of puppetry I asked a different group of 4
children to perform the puppets while I narrated.

3. The Seven Ravens (Grimm & Grimm, 1975:137)

For our winter festival story, we acted The Seven Ravens, which we also presented to
the parents on the festival evening. This story was told, done in puppetry and acted,
so by the time it was presented the language of the story was well known to the
children. The play had songs which we sang already in the puppetry, around the birth

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of the girl, her voyage to the celestial sky to search her brothers, the ravens flying and
returning as brothers. It is a story filled with symbolic imagery. The boys become
ravens due to the anger of the father, as they were fetching water for the young girl’s
baptism. The girl finds out and goes on a journey, with only a stool, a pitcher and piece
of bread, as well as a ring of her mothers. She goes to the sun and moon, who act in
a way that are also not what one expects. The moon is cold and horrible and devours
children, and the sun is hot but also raging. Only the morning star (Venus) is kind to
her and guides her. And gives her a drumstick of a chicken as a way to get into the
crystal mountain where her brothers are.

When she arrives and looks for it, the gift is missing and she cuts her own finger off in
order to enter. She then places the ring of her mother in the glass of the youngest
brother, who when he finds it as a raven, announces that their sister must be there.
This breaks their spell and they become human again and return home.

For the festival presentation, we made simple costumes such as black capes for the
ravens, and crowns for the stars, sun and moon. Chairs were placed in the positions
of the characters, with their costumes waiting on them. There was a prewritten play
that I had memorised for the acting, and singing, and the whole class was involved.
The classroom was dark, but lit by candles to generate a wintery feeling to the show. I
told the story, but the children moved and said parts when they chose. The autumn to
winter theme brought the children inside more, doing activities like leaf pressing and
crafts such as pom-poms and weaving. From the pom-poms the children made a
hedgehog, and from the weaving a tortoise. These animals, once finished, were put on
the nature table or played with, until they took them home on the festival.

5.11.5. Aspects and themes in the third term

The following table 5.10 outlines the characteristics of the term, including the season,
colours of the nature table, themes of the stories and crafts done in the class.

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Table 5.10: Aspects and themes of the seasonal stories

Seasons Winter towards spring

Colours/nature table Crystal colours, purple, blue, white, as well as browns and greens
Themes of stories Rain, homes, spring cleaning, growth and seeds, gnomes and fairies,
birds, nest making
Crafts done in class Weaving becoming tortoises, felt frogs and ponds, felt dragons

5.11.6. Review of storytelling in the third term

The following Table 5.11 gives the story telling schedule for the third term, including
oral telling, puppetry and acting.

Table 5.11: Term 3 story schedule – mid-winter to spring festival

Dates Story Method of telling Days Type of story

7/25–28 Oral telling 4

The Three Little Grimm’s fairy tale,
8/1–4 Puppetry 4
Men in the Wood winter theme
8/10–13 Acting 4

8/15–18 Oral telling 4

Grimm’s fairy tale,
8/19, 22–24 Little Red Cap Puppetry 4
spring theme
8/26, 29, 30 Acting 3

Kimwaki and the Traditional African

9/1–2 Oral telling 2
Weaver Birds spring theme

9/5–8 Oral telling 4

Grimm’s fairy tale,
9/12–13 Little Briar Rose Puppetry 2
spring theme
9/14–17 Acting 4

9/18–20 Snowflake and the Oral telling 2 Waldorf festival

9/21–22 Dragon Acting 2 story

Four stories are discussed for this term, including the content and reaction of the
children from the story.

1. The little straw broom (Perrow, 2008:220).

The term began with rainy and cold weather, and the stories were about the home and
winter. I began with a remedial story, called The Little Straw Broom. It was about two

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gnomes who did not know how to clean with the straw broom, and are visited by Gold
Hat, who shows them. This is an example of modelling behaviour. The three different
characters gave examples of temperaments of doing things: Red hat who rushed the
cleaning, Blue hat who was slow and spaced out, and Gold hat who paid attention and
did it beautifully. Each hat sang a sweeping song, at the different pace of their
characters.

I presented the story in the form of puppetry, using three gum nut gnomes with different
coloured felt hats – red, blue and gold. A large tree root became the home.
There was a repeating verse in the story (Perrow, 2008:220):

There were crumbs crumbs everywhere,

There were crumbs under the table,
There were crumbs under the chairs.
There were crumbs all over the mat,
There were crumbs under the beds,
There were even crumbs under the pillows
Where the little men rested their heads.

This story became a model through puppetry, of how to tidy the classroom together.

2. The Three Little Men in the Wood (Grimm & Grimm, 1975:78)

The fairy tale of The Three Little Men in the Wood (Grimm & Grimm, 1975:78) had
always been a favourite of mine. It was orally told, done in puppetry and acted. It was
about two girls, each who had a parent die, and they convince the other two parents
to marry. At first it was equal, which was told in the story as the following picture:
When the woman proposed to the man’s daughter that she wished to marry her father,
she stated,

Listen, tell your father that I would like to marry him, and then you shall
wash yourself in milk every morning, and drink wine, but my own daughter
shall wash herself in water and drink water. (Grimm & Grimm, 1975:76)

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Then when the marriage happens,

The next morning, when the two girls got up, there stood before the man’s
daughter milk for her to wash in and wine for her to drink, but before the
woman’s daughter stood water to wash herself and water for drinking. On
the second morning, stood water for washing and water for drinking before
the. Man’s daughter as well as before the woman’s daughter. And on the
third morning, stood water for washing and water for drinking before the
man’s daughter, and milk for washing and wine for drinking, before the
woman’s daughter, and so it continued. (Grimm & Grimm, 1975:79)

This is a symbolic way of expressing the favouring of the one daughter over the other,
through a physical means, which was told, then shown in the puppet show, and at last
acted through the story.

It had very strong images of kindness and good behaviour, alongside the polarity of a
complex series of negative actions by the stepmother. She sent the man’s daughter
to the forest in a paper dress to collect strawberries in the winter. It was there she met
the three little men, and was asked to share her food. Although the stepmother had
only given her crusts of bread, she still shared, and this showed the little men her
kindness. This was polarised by the other daughter, belonging to the woman, who went
to the hut with the men and refused to share her breakfast, which was bread and cake.

The men also asked the first daughter to go in the back of the hut and sweep, although
it was the middle of winter. She did this abidingly, and discovered the strawberries her
step mother had sent her for. Not only that, upon her return to the parents and step-
sister, the men had wished her good things, and now gold came out of her mouth with
each word. This made the step sister jealous, who also begged to go to the forest. She
was allowed, but only with a warm coat as opposed to the paper frock, and a full
breakfast. Yet this sister was rude to the little men, and refused sharing breakfast as
well as sweeping outside, and left with a curse that made toads jump out of her mouth
each time she spoke. The story was full of different scenes, polarised characters and
more complex acting that was appropriate for the middle of the year.

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3. Little Red Cap (Grimm & Grimm, 1975:139)

This is the traditional Little Red Riding Hood, yet longer than I had heard it as a child.
It was a lovely winter to spring story as the forest was full of flowers and birds. Because
the lead roles are few, I added flowers, birds and butterflies, and we sang some of our
spring songs in the acting. This is a story of consequence, of going off the path, and
the children loved acting it as well.

4. Kimwaki and the Weaver Birds (Savory, 1991)

This is an African story of a man who inherited land but who was not interested in
taking care of it, or helping his neighbours. Eventually when it is overrun with weeds,
and nobody wants to support the work as he did not return the favors, he watches
some weaver birds build their own nests. This inspires him, as the birds are working
together, and he goes to help his neighbours. After this, his kindness is returned and
they help him to get his farm productive. While fitting the theme of spring and birds,
the story holds both the factors of nature to inspire reverence and knowledge of the
weaver birds, but also the morals of helping each other.

At the time of storytelling we also sewed birds of felt with beads for wings. I hung the
sewn birds from a branch in the classroom. The nature table was also a spring branch
with a weaver’s nest and needle felted weaver birds.

5.11.7. Aspects and themes in the fourth term

Table 5.12 outlines the characteristics of the term, including the season, colours of the
nature table, themes of the stories and crafts done in the class.

Table 5.12: Aspects and themes of the seasonal stories

Seasons Spring towards summer

Colours/nature table Pastel colours, pinks, yellows, light green. For Christmas it became
dark green, blue, gold.
Themes of stories Transformation, bees, butterflies, birds, Christmas, giving, sacrifice.
Crafts done in class Christmas presents for the parents and decorations.

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5.11.8. Review of storytelling in the fourth term

Table 5.13 outlines the story schedule for the fourth term, including those with books,
oral telling, puppet montage and acting.

Table 5.13: Term 4 story schedule – spring to summer festival

Dates Story Method Days Type of

story/theme

Reading books for Books 2 Storybooks from

10/12–14 children the library

10/17–21 Cinderella Oral telling 5 Fairy tale

10/24–28, 31 Acting 6 birds, summer

11/1–3 The Crippled Wood Oral telling 3 Waldorf story,

11/4, 7–9 Maiden Acting 4 giving, Christmas

11/10–12/2 Progression of Telling with a nature 17 Christmas

Christmas stories table montage Waldorf- based
stories

12/5–7 Christmas play Acting 3 Waldorf play in

rhyme

12/8 Festival Act the Christmas 2 Done in evening

play for parents

In the last term, the children in the class knew one another and the rhythm very well. I
thus was able to tell and act more complex stories. The term also brings stories which
lead a long preparation of the Christmas summer festival.

1. Cinderella (Grimm & Grimm, 1975:121)

Because of the advanced ages of some of the children in the class, I decided to tell
Cinderella (Grimm & Grimm, 1975:121). Initially, I had to tell it over two days as it was
very long. It was too long for me to memorise. But I did my best to learn it so that I
could keep eye contact in the telling and only look down for support. Acting the story
was complex but interesting. There were some impactful lead roles with speaking
parts. For the extra parts, I had children pretending to be the different trees as well as
the birds who came to assist Cinderella. Some of the images were quite macabre, but

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the children loved the story. For instance, in the original story, the two sisters try to fit
into the shoe by cutting off their toes and heels, which bleed all over when they are
riding out, and this is how they are discovered not to be the real owners of the shoe.
Then at the wedding the birds take out both sisters’ eyes. Rowan (name) really took
on the speaking part of the tree each time she ran. I was amazed at how many more
scenes there were in the original version than I remembered from my childhood. It was
a powerful experience for me to tell and act it with the children, as there were strong
images in the story, needing a level of maturity to process. Firstly, there was
Cinderella’s sadness at the loss of her mother, the extended cruelty of the sisters, and
support of the birds. It fell in the spring time when the birds were our theme and I was
able to give extra roles when the birds helped with the lentils. Even to this day, the
purity of Cinderella asking for a branch of the hazel tree to mourn her mother, rather
than her sisters wanting fine dresses, has stayed with me.

2. Crippled Wood Maiden (Wyatt, 1994:10)

The Waldorf story of The Crippled Wood Maiden was a pre-Christmas tale of giving
and kindness. It was about a wood maiden who injured herself and heard there was
healing in the land of the singing sky. When she got there, she found out she could
only come on the full moon and needed seven of them to go up. So, she put out notice
for anyone else that needed healing, and on the last seven nights, a creature visited.
When there were seven guests they went to the place where they could take the ladder
up, and realised they were one too many. So, the crippled wood maiden gave up her
place, and because of that attained her wings back. It was a fun story to listen to and
to act because of each injured character. It also led to the Christmas stories, as they
were about moral qualities of helping others and sacrifice.

3. The Christmas stories

The process of the Christmas stories to the ending of the year followed a very specific
programme in the Waldorf kindergarten. Each of the stories built up towards the birth
of Jesus. Each character in the story was represented by the motif on the nature table,
which was built as the characters were introduced. This ended with the manger, with
Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and the farm animals, the three shepherds, and the three kings.

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The whole programme took three weeks to tell the stories. At the same time a play of
the story was practised in ring time and performed as a final play for the festival, even
for the parents. Once again this had costumes and accessories.

This section of the chapter outlined the storytelling schedule that was conducted in the
research year, and how that mediated language to the children. It reviewed some of
the stories for their content, language and impact. The research question focused on
whether the storytelling of the teacher impacted the children in their play. The following
section discusses observations of the children’s play.

5.12. Observing play in relation to the storytelling

There were two main times in the kindergarten morning dedicated to free play, equaling
about 1.5 hours per 4.5-hour morning. That was one-third of the morning time.

The whole classroom could be used during the play periods, including the inside and
the garden. Except for the early mornings, the children were confined to the inside,
playing quietly. The equipment, toys, objects of nature, costumes, and cloths were
available at the level of the children, so that they could take them as needed. The
imitation area provided a home-like environment to stimulate the play.

Outside there was a sandpit, with spades and buckets, and access to water when the
teacher was asked. With the help of parents, I had built a ‘cooking area’ outside that
had counters and places to simulate a kitchen; this was close to the sandpit. The
garden was full of trees and bushes that could become decoration or ingredients in
soups and cakes!

The outdoor equipment included a jungle gym, monkey bars, a tyre swing, a tree to
climb, and many pathways in which to run and play games. There were trees and
bushes for the children to build houses, play games, and move around. Cloths and
play stands could come from inside to add to the house building. Chairs could be
moved inside and out.

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A pond had fish and plants, and the children could pretend to fish or just observe the
pond life. Gardens required watering and weeding, and housed many insects. There
was a wild dagga plant which we called ‘the ladybird tree’, as it contained so many of
them.

In general, the teachers did not play with the children. Rather, they engaged in an
activity that was either preparation or that could be a model to the children. This
included cleaning, washing cloths or dolls clothes, gardening, sweeping, and window
washing.

The children enjoyed any activity which the teacher also did, and the older ones could
also guide the younger. At the same time, if a child needed help to support their play,
such as pegging a cloth or mediating a dispute, the teacher was available. I also had
an assistant who helped cut the fruit each day, in which activity the children joined, and
who generally kept an eye on the garden while I was working inside.

Much of the children’s play included ‘making gardens’ with all objects of nature, cloths
and toys. This involved laying cloths and making landscapes out of logs on different
levels. Objects of nature became trees, bushes, animals, boats, and other things.
Smaller cloths became details such as rivers. Blocks were built to become houses,
beds, and tables. Both people and animal dolls were used, and the children created
stories from their own imagination.

5.12.1. Play in the kindergarten

1. Play was often not gender defined. The imitation area was utilised by both boys and
girls, including caring for the dolls. I did notice the boys were more inclined to build with
blocks, use cars, and make marble runs, while the girls would make more puppet
gardens. But both did the other activities as well. Dressing up involved all the children,
with animal hats and outfits, crowns, capes and other costumes.

2. A large amount of play focused on homes and families, irrespective of whether

human or animal. Much discussion revolved around the cast, whether they were adults,
old or young, or babies. Houses were created with chairs as boundaries, or else tables,

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stands and blankets. Costumes supported the imagination with animal hats and
costumes, as well as dress up clothing such as capes, crowns, aprons, skirts and
mermaid tails.

3. The time taken for the game to be set up often surpassed the time of actually playing
the game. The anticipation of the game, and opportunity to prepare, included rule
setting and role allegation, as well as the structural setting up.

4. At times at the end of the day the children wanted to leave a story garden they had
worked on. They could then continue the play the next morning. But this had changed
by morning; it never held the same appeal.

5. Objects added to the creativity of the play. For instance, I bought extra-large cloths
to make houses, which influenced their play in that the whole class then engaged in
house building for many mornings afterwards. At the end of the year, I bought a
wooden coffee machine. This inspired play around restaurants and coffee shops,
expanding to the creation of menus, setting tables, and roles such as waitresses and
customers. The children took the play dough and created muffins which they
decorated. The new toys and equipment mediated expanded play.

5.12.2. How the tools of storytelling mediated the structure of play

This section discusses some examples of how the tools within storytelling influenced
and mediated play. In my classroom, I observed children playing games involving the
two structured means of storytelling, other than oral, and that was puppetry and acting.

The following questions guided my observations of whether their play reflected the
storytelling?

1) Would they tell the same story (plot, mood, characters) which I told?
2) Would they use the same language of the story or change it?
3) Would they use the puppets in the same gestures and movements as the story
I told?

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5.12.2.1. Types of play: puppetry and ‘garden’ making

The toys were all available to the children in baskets. They consisted of the materials
of nature, such as large logs or stumps, other pieces of wood, blocks, stones and
shells. All of these became landscapes. Then the baskets of puppets, both human and
animal, would fill the landscapes and become stories. The children could spend hours
just setting up, negotiating the story, before actually telling the story. Some children
presented the stories quietly to themselves, others sharing their narrative, while other
children stayed silent. At times I would remind the elder children to include the younger
ones in the story telling. Sometimes, the children asked if their story gardens could be
kept overnight in order to play with it the next morning. At other times they wanted to
present the story at ring time, story time, or during play.

On some occasions they set the whole class up as a story, so that the puppet show
could be shown. This involved them imitating the rituals of the teacher around
storytelling. Table 5.14 provides examples of storytelling processes derived from the
classroom story time, expressed through the children's free play.

Table 5.14: Storytelling processes and play

How children imitated or internalised in their

Aspect of storytelling
play

Setting up the chairs and candle

Setting up chairs and calling the children.
table.

Lighting a candle and reciting a

Children used a mock candle and sang the verses.
verse before the story.

Taking a cloth off of the puppet The presenters chose a member of the audience to
show while playing a musical play the instrument while they carefully removed the
instrument. cloth.

A few children took on the role of ‘disciplining the

Audience discipline. class’ by asking them not to speak during the show
and drawing the signs.

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Examples of how children incorporated stories into their play

The children incorporated the themes, language and images of the stories they had
heard into their own puppet shows. Table 5.18 shows how stories, initially told and
performed with puppets by myself as the teacher, influenced the puppet shows which
the children performed for the class. The children made their own versions of stories,
using elements of the ones that had been told.

1. The story garden reflecting The Three Little Men in the Wood (Grimm & Grimm,
1975:78) was laid out on the floor and presented by Storm (6 years) and Marina (6
years) using two standing girl puppets. The story differed slightly from the original but
it did reveal that the language, characters, mood and themes of the original story had
influenced the girls’ presentation.

2. The puppet show reflecting the Easter story was set up on a play stand and
presented by Marina (6 years) and Takota (5 years). The same bunny puppet that I
had used in the Easter festival show was used for their main character. As in the
original storyline, the bunny was tired and weak; however, it was a farmer that brought
the bunny back to life, rather than the gnome and Mother Earth. The girls had put out
chairs for the whole class to watch, similar to the festival arrangement.

These observations showed that themes, moods, characters, and dialogues from a
story are used by the child’s imagination to recreate the story anew. The relationship
between the story told and what the children played is shown on Table 5.15.

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Table 5.15: Example of storytelling influences on the children’s puppet plays

STORY – Initiation INPUT OUTPUT

1. The Three Little Men in The story was told, In their free play, children
the Wood performed with puppets and conducted a show in front of
(Grimm & Grimm, 1975:78) acted over a total of three the whole class.
weeks.
Type of story: Fairy tale 1. The children had lost their
Storyline: Two girls have parents and were alone in
each lost a parent and the the woods.
Main characters: surviving parents marry
Two girls each other.
2. They looked for
Mother and father strawberries in the forest.
Three little men in the wood The father’s daughter is
King mistreated and sent to the
They incorporated a few
forest to collect
lines from the original story:
strawberries.
Themes: death, remarriage, “And they went walking
mistreatment, goodness vs together.”
rudeness, wishes and The relationship between
justice. the stepmother and her own
daughter vs father’s “In the forest looking for
daughter. strawberries.”

The wishes of the little men

in the wood which result in
gold from the mouth of one
daughter, and toads from
the other.

2. Easter story A bunny that lives in a very A rabbit that was so thirsty
(a puppet play written by dry garden. A gnome finds and hungry that the farmer
Estelle Briar). him dying and takes him to could not waken him.
Mother Earth who puts him
in a heavenly garden, full of
Main characters: The farmer brought him
abundance.
water and food so he could
Rabbit
be healthy again. The farmer
Gnome
He befriends a chicken and brought the bunny back to
Mother Earth offers to guard her eggs. A life.
Chicken hawk tries to get to the
Crow eggs, and almost pecks the
The children used the same
Angel bunny to death.
puppet of the rabbit as in my
puppet show.
An angel comes and brings
him back to life.
Theme: resurrection,
farming, sacrifice oneself for After the story the children
go to their own gardens they
another, care
had made and an Easter
egg is waiting for them.
Performed once at an
Easter/harvest festival using
a live garden (bird seed in

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STORY – Initiation INPUT OUTPUT

tray), hand puppets and

standing puppets. Children
had also made their own
bunnies and gardens for the
festival.

Two girls did a puppet show

a month after the festival.

5.12.2.2. Internalisation over time

At the start of the year I did a cloth puppet show of The little boy who wanted to be
carried. This involved a cloth on one hand as the little boy, engaging with various
elements such as water, a boat, a snail and a horse. These were shown through hand
movements. At that time when I presented it to the class, Sipho mostly spoke isiXhosa.
But as he gained the English language throughout the year, he was able to play with
more communication with the other children. One day in October I saw him sitting with
a cloth puppet and imitating the movements of the puppet and his other hand, while
speaking words to himself, which seemed to reflect the story told before. This showed
a long period between when the story was mediated, and how long the ability to
replicate it in play.

These observations indicated to me that aspects of the story had been internalised.
The language, puppets and landscape features provided mediating tools which
facilitated both memory and creativity of the storytelling. And this internalisation is not
measure in terms of how long it takes, as that differs between children, ages, and other
environmental and personal factors. But my hypothesis remained that if children played
the stories in their puppetry or acting games, or used structures of the story telling in
their own play, that this showed an element of internalisation.

5.12.2.3. Action research: new aspects of puppetry

When I presented Akimba and the Magic Cow (Perrow, 2008:114), I experimented by
allowing groups of children to move the puppets while I told the story to the class.
Usually, children are only watching in a puppet show, and I was the puppeteer. The

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children had heard the story four times and then acted it, so by the time they assisted
with the puppet show they knew it fairly well. They had to move all the animals (two
cows, two sheep and two chickens) and the main characters (Akimba, Bamba, and the
woodcutter). I observed the children enjoying this activity a great deal and noted that
this inspired them to play the story on their own more frequently. Four different groups
of children held the show for the story time. One group was all boys, and they seemed
to gain so much confidence in moving the puppets so well.

Another experiment I conducted was to leave the puppet show of The Three Little Men
in the Wood (Grimm & Grimm, 1975:78) set up in the classroom until the following
morning. I wanted to see whether the children played with it, and how they altered or
retained the original story.

Sipho and Suki (5 years) were the first to arrive in the morning. Sipho did not speak
much English, but they managed to perform a story of their own together. They did
not use the language of the original story, but they made the characters do similar
things. It was pleasing to see them working together to develop a story from what they
had seen the day before. Marina (6 years) came later and set up the puppet show in
as similar a way, as was possible, to my presentation. She told the story according to
the original, although she had made up her own characters. The other children were
able to follow, but she was guiding the narrative. This shows that potentially some
children internalise the language of the story different to others. Many environmental
factors could influence this, as well as age. Marina was older than the others.

5.12.2.4. Types of play: dressing up and acting stories

The children had a selection of costumes to dress up with in play time. There were
archetypal ones such as capes, crowns and skirts. They made dress up hair by laying
a cloth on their head and the crown holding it. There were often royal themes in their
games and the costumes would be used all sorts of ways. Animal costumes were also
available and that was more inspired by the nature stories.

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The structure of acting also influenced the play. By creating play areas with cloths and
symbolic objects in order for the scenes to be acted. The children would spend time
setting up the game, making places for their events to occur.

An interesting influence was when I was telling Rapunzel (Grimm & Grimm, 1975:67).
The children really focused onto the evil witch archetype, and for months after, playing
‘evil queens’ was a consistent imaginative play game. For me, this represented a
developmental cycle that they were undergoing, turning ages 5.5 to 6 years, and some
turning 6 to 7 years. From a Waldorf-based understanding, that could represent the
awakening of the mind in the pre-school child, and thus a natural antipathy or rebellion,
such as the evil queen would hold. Somehow the play offered an archetype which
reflected their developmental process, and gave them substance to bring into their own
imaginative game. There was no judgement of good or bad, only the pleasure of having
a more rebellious character. Interesting that there was no competition between who
was the ‘most evil’ but more a togetherness amongst them. This is what Steiner
discussed as antipathy, which arises in the form of feelings (Steiner, 1996a:54).

This section reported the observations of how the different stories entered into the
classroom in the form of children’s play. This will be further discussed in Chapter 5 and
6 in terms of how it relates to socio-cultural analysis.

5.13. Data from parent interviews

There were two meetings with parents where focus interviews took place.

5.13.1. Meeting 1

At the start of the year, I introduced the research to the class parents, and discussed
the ethics of working with children and the purpose of the study. I asked them questions
about their children’s play at home, and suggested that they observe the relationship
throughout the year between the stories told at school and their children’s play.

I presented my thesis questions, and how I would be observing the children during
play. They filled in consent forms. We discussed any concerns that the parents had

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around their children being part of the study, and what confidentiality agreements were
involved.

5.13.2. Meeting 2

The second meeting was conducted during the August parent meeting. I asked some
open-ended questions about the children’s play and development through stories. I
showed them a puppet show of The Three Little Men in the Wood to give them an idea
of what we did in the classroom.

Open-ended questions to the parents in the second focus-group interview were as

follows:

What do you think the role of stories are?

Has your child told you about the stories we are doing in the classroom?
Do you see these stories influencing their language or play in any way?

5.13.3. Comments from the parents

The parents discussed how much progress they had seen throughout the year in their
children and play.

1: My daughter (5 years) plays much more at home in stories, and is taking

cloths to dress up with.
2: When my son (5 years) has his friend over, they can play for hours
without interruption.
3: My daughter (6 years) comes home and quotes from the stories. I didn’t
even know it was from the story until you did the puppet show. She was
saying the line from the story, “What should I do? Love is a joy but also a
torment.” This is amusing; her parents are divorced, so perhaps she is
getting some insight from the story. I didn’t know why she was saying it,
until now.
4: My son (6 years) is noticing the weaver birds at our house more now
that you are noticing nature in school every day.
5: My child (5 years) loves making houses in the living room and then gets
her little brother to act out the stories, I think, from what she has done at
school.
6: I notice how much easier it is to get to school now that she has been at
school for half a year. Often, she wants to show me something she is
making, or wants to bring something to dress up with.

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7: My child (5 years) talks to me about the stories only later in the evening,
when we are going to bed.
8: My child (5.5 years) seems to remember a lot of the words from the
stories, and tells me about them in the car home.
9: I see the language development in my child (6 years), in how he speaks
to me and to others. I think the stories are having an impact on him.

5.14. Document analysis

In order to examine documents of the kindergarten children, I looked at their drawings

as these could reveal whether they had internalised stories. They were not learning
reading or writing yet, so drawing represented a form of emergent literacy.

5.14.1. Creating a storybook from a story told in class

Appendix 1: Sally had made her own pictures out of the Three Little Pigs story
Sally had mapped out the entire story in pictures and was very excited to tell me about
it. She drew the mother pig and babies, and then on other pieces of paper made a
storybook of the different houses. She also drew the chimney. This came out of her
own volition to draw in the morning.

5.14.2. Expressing images from the ring time stories and songs

Appendix 2: Princess and rainbow

5/8/16: A child has drawn a picture of a princess and a castle in the clouds. It was
winter and I was telling the story in the ring time, of King Winter in his winter castle.
This is her interpretation, with a rainbow coming down and snow.

Appendix 3: Rainbow and flower

5/9/16: It is springtime and a child has drawn her interpretation of the rain and a
rainbow, and flower after we were singing about seeds waking up and becoming
flowers in spring time.

Appendix 4: Bird and the tree

21/6/16: It’s midwinter and we are telling a story of a bird living a nest and visiting the
squirrel in the tree. Richard (6 years) has drawn his depiction of this story in the drawing

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activity which came after the ring time story. I never told the children what to draw, but
rather let it emerge from their imagination.

Appendix 5: Horse and house

This was done by Richard (5 years) 4/5/16 after a ring time with horses, where the
horses were prepared to go and fetch apples from the orchard. His drawing portrays a
house with many windows, and a square horse with a golden mane and tail. There is
also a water bowl and bale of hay for the horse, and the door is open. The house
seems to have a chimney with black smoke looking like a tail of its own.

In my own training, I learned that a house with many windows implies that the child still
has their ‘spiritual eyes’ open. Later they progress to a two-window house, similar to
two eyes, and they are ready for Class 1.

Appendix 6: The bird visiting the squirrel

21/6/16 Marina (6 years) It was midwinter and we were telling a story of a bird living a
nest and visiting the squirrel in the tree. There is an owl and two porcupines as well,
who were characters in the story. This looks very similar to the story told, but showed
her own interpretation of the animals, placement to the house, and image of the tree.
The house also has many windows.

5.14.3. Drawing as a means to express patterns

Appendix 7: Flower pattern mandala

27/5/16 Sindi explored a flower pattern as a mandala. This corresponds to a
development stage.

Appendix 8: Star and patterns

Richard on 26/7 did an interesting attempt at patterns, modelling from a star and
outwards.

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5.15. Conclusion

The findings in this chapter included an outline of the school rhythm, content according
to seasons and festivals. There was an outline of the stories told, done in puppetry,
and acted with the children throughout the year in story time in the class. Some of
these stories were discussed, along with observations of how they were received.
These play events were observed, where the children played both making story
gardens/ puppetry and acting with costumes and props.

This chapter also documented the findings from the interviews with the parents which
occurred on two occasions with open ended questions. The document analysis
consisted of the children’s drawings. This gave further insight into how the children
were bringing stories home in the form of play and language. The drawings also
indicated that the language and themes of the stories and songs were being
internalised and expressed through drawings.

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 CHAPTER 6: DISCUSSION

CHAPTER 6
DISCUSSION

6.1. Introduction

This chapter discusses some of the major tenets of socio-cultural analysis, outlining
three major categories which influenced my research. Firstly, all learning can be seen
as internalised social relationships, and these processes occur and are observable in
the kindergarten classroom. The second category was that language was mediated by
tools and symbols in the classroom. I discuss the various uses of tools, symbols and
language as mediation of development in the classroom. The third section applied
Vygotsky’s genetic theory, which postulated that the social becomes the individual, to
the observations of the classroom activities and the children’s behaviour.

In this study, observations of a Waldorf kindergarten classroom are interpreted through

the lens of socio-cultural discourse analysis. By using this analytical framework, the
actual dialogue exchanged was given context by the social conditions in which they
took place. According to Mercer (2004:140), socio-cultural discourse analysis is
designed to comprehend how spoken language is used as a tool for thinking
collectively. Language can be regarded as a cultural and psychological tool for getting
things done (Mercer, 2004: 141) but also for developing imagination and thinking. In
this study, the collective was the class as a whole, and its language and activities
constituted its culture.

John-Steiner and Mahn (1996:192) outlined three major analytical themes which they
considered the basic tenets of socio-cultural analysis:

1. Individual development, including the development of higher mental

functioning, has its sources in social processes.
2. Human action, undertaken independently or socially, is mediated by tools and
signs.
3. The above themes must be examined through genetic or developmental
analysis, which Rogoff (1990) termed guided participation.

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Data from the classroom observations and dialogue in this study were analysed using
this approach.

6.2. Individual development originates in social processes

Vygotsky suggested that a child’s entry into imaginary situations was developmental
and part of the process towards the abstraction of thinking (Nilsson, Ferholt & Lecusay,
2018:236). For Vygotsky, play was the age-appropriate activity for the pre-school child.
The dramatic element of play, whereby a dual experience of both the imaginative and
the real occurred simultaneously, was considered as supporting the formation of higher
mental capacities and self-regulation.

The Waldorf kindergarten curriculum and environment were designed around social
interaction. The class could be considered as an old-fashioned household where
practical and creative activities, care of the environment, and other activities took place
as part of a daily rhythm.

The toys and equipment were laid out at the level of the children for them to select and
use, and the whole kindergarten space – inside and outside – was available for play.
An area dedicated to imitative play included a small stove and table; doll’s clothing and
beds; and cupboards with real cups and pots. At times children engaged in
independent activities, but these could also be conducted socially. For example,
craftwork in the morning was undertaken in collaboration with other children who had
chosen the same activity. Children participated as a group in certain activities such as
story time and ring time. Free play time encouraged movement in space and was self-
directed by the children in terms of who they played with and what they did.
Surprisingly, the hum of activity created a noticeably peaceful atmosphere. This also
depended on how well I adhered to the rhythm of the day and held a structure within
the atmosphere of freedom. Stories and songs helped to define activities and the
transitions between them.

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6.3. Exploring Vygotsky’s definition of play

Vygotsky’s approach required that the themes of learning be examined through genetic
or developmental analysis, which Rogoff (1990) termed ‘guided participation’.
According to this theory, every function in cultural development appeared twice –
initially as the social and then as the psychological, before leading to higher mental
functions through internalised social relationships (Steiner & Mahn, 1996:192). This
required an understanding of how internalisation occurred and how children
developed.

For Hasan (2002:115), the most important role of the language exchange was to
enable the subjects to internalise the world as they experienced it. Thus, internalisation
was more about participation. Matusov (1998:331) also contested Vygotsky’s
perception of internalisation, referencing Bakhtin for his notion of participation. He
asserted that all participants, both those mediating and receiving, existed in a dialogical
relationship, simultaneously acting socially and individually. He reframed the genetic
question as: “How does social-individual become individual-social?” (Matusov,
1998:332).

6.4. Types of mediation in the classroom

Miller and Almon (2009:12) presented the levels of teacher mediation within activities
as a continuum. At one pole was the loosely structured classroom with minimal teacher
intervention; a didactic and highly structured classroom, where teachers modelled and
even directed play, constituted the other. In this observed classroom, there was a
loose structure with a strong rhythm. Direct input from the teacher alternated with free
play, and the teacher did not intervene in the play unless direction or mediation was
required. The principle underlying Waldorf kindergarten teaching is that the teacher
engages in practical activities, while the children may choose to join in, imitate the
activity, or play independently. A teacher would never simply sit and watch the children
either, but rather always be busy doing something. This could even be fixing toys,
sewing new ones, or tidying.

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I observed that the rhythm, which alternated between focused and free activities,
provided enough time for the children to settle in both types of activities. It made them
feel safe to know what came next. When I observed them sitting in the movement
circle, I noticed how engaged they could be in the activity. They knew that they would
also have time to be free in their own imaginary world. The more insecure children
tended to predict transitions between activities and asked to be the child who rang the
bell for fruit time or ring time. The content was never intellectually based and always
imaginative; engaging activities which involved listening were key to their focus and
participation.

6.5. Three types of social interaction

1. Teacher mediating activities directly through language, such as leading a

movement ring or telling the story.
2. Teacher mediating activities, conversely or dialectically, through independent
or small-group activities, including crafts and play.
3. Children mediating one another’s activities through language exchange and
with or without the input of the teacher. This took place during free play, artistic
or craft activities, and group activities led by the teacher. These are outlined in
table 6.1.

Table 6.1: Modes of mediation observed in the classroom

Classroom
Mode Type of language exchanges
activity

The teacher guides activity, children follow

Teacher mediating with gestures in ring, learning the songs
Ring time, story together.
directly through
time, transitions.
language. Children listen to a story, imagining through
language.

Teacher mediating The teacher converses with and supports the

Crafts, play.
conversely. child completing craft work.

Children negotiating their imaginary play, use

Children mediating
of equipment, characters, and rules of the
one another’s Play.
game. The teacher only intervenes when
activities.
needed.

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Veraksa, Veresov and Sukhikh (2022:542) stated that although the amount of empirical
research on the relationship between role play and child development was growing
each year, the question of how the child developed through play was often missing
from the discussion. When playing, children could do more than in real life, and for
Veraksa et al. (2022) the zone of proximal development was based on the imitation
mechanism; they imitated the actions which made sense to them and which they
wanted to reproduce (Van Oers & Duijkers, 2013, in Veraksa et al., 2022:543). Thus,
free play was an entry point into the adult world, creating roles which interested them.

6.6. Mediating storytelling and how this influenced the children’s play

For thousands, maybe millions of years, people have been telling stories, around
campfires and while travelling from town to town (Schank & Abelson, 2016:2). With
regard to interaction in language, all our knowledge was contained in stories and the
mechanisms to construct and retrieve them (Schank & Abelson, 2016:2).

A story always has an obstacle, challenge or conflict, and it will often contain a series
of challenges or tests. For children of kindergarten age, stories should have a happy
ending in order to provide them with a sense of safety in their world. Stories set up an
emotional state of dramatic tension and conflict, creating an expectation which will be
satisfied at the end (Egan, 1986:25).

Although the stories I told revealed moral lessons, my observations were that the
children listening to them did not necessarily judge the characters as better or worse.
For example, after listening to the story of Rapunzel (Grimm & Grimm, 1975:73), where
the enchantress trapped a girl in a tower, the older girls in the class wanted to play ‘evil
queens’. I realised that they had not internalised this character as frightening, and that
she reflected an aspect of their stage of development.

The importance of repeating stories, as a stand-alone activity or in the movement ring,

cannot be underestimated. Between telling and acting of the story of Rapunzel (Grimm
& Grimm, 1975: 67) the children participated in it eight times. Would the characters
have entered the children’s imagination so strongly if the story had been told only

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once? Did having the opportunity to act the characters allow the children to focus more
deeply on the characteristics which they could then model in play?

6.6.1. Themes in the stories

Each day, during the ring time, I presented my own nature-inspired story. I did not state
the actual moral intention of the story or discuss it intellectually with the children.
Instead, I relied on their own internalisation of the images. I endeavoured to include
real elements of the flora or fauna, rather than the fantastical, to facilitate the formation
of a true picture of the animal in the child’s imagination. For example, there would
never be a purple, flying elephant in a story: that would teach the children nothing
about the animal world. The realistic features and characteristics were not presented
factually but rather through a story. The purpose was for the child to build an inner
picture of the being of nature, and imagine it in movement.

Various themes arose during the animal stories of ring time:

1. Finding a new home.

2. Parents of allowing their children to venture off into the world.
3. Escaping danger by helping each other.
4. Sharing homes or food.
5. Treating each other kindly.

6.6.2. Example of a Nature story

The example of The Sunbird Story illustrates how realistic elements were used during
storytelling:

The story involved a sunbird family of mother, father and two chicks (male and female).
Both chicks were brown like their mother, while the father was colourful. The chicks
were dissatisfied with their colouring and were always asking their mother why they
were dull and brown like her, and not colourful like their father. She would answer that
one day they would find out. One morning, the father called them to a picnic where
some fresh protea flowers were growing and they flew there together. All of a sudden,

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they saw a mongoose which was waiting to eat them. The mother quickly took the
chicks to the inside of the tree, where they could be camouflaged in the branches.
Meanwhile, the father bird distracted the mongoose with his noisy chirps and colourful
feathers, until the mongoose had followed him far away from the trees, and he could
fly back and collect his family. That night, as the mother was putting the chicks to bed
in their nest, they indicated their understanding and acceptance of who they were.
“That is why I am brown like you, mother,” said the daughter, “…so that when my
babies are born, I can hide them inside the trees.” The brother chirped, “That is why I
will be colourful one day when I am big, so that I can help to distract any danger.”

The story demonstrated a process of self-acceptance, achieving this by using accurate

information about the birds’ characteristics and behaviour. The moral lesson of the
story is not stated as a concept but rather revealed through the events of the story.

Before telling a story of a specific animal or creature, I would study its habits to ensure
that I presented realistic descriptions concomitant with the emotion and morality. This
story supported the higher mental faculties by opening up opportunities to learn about
birds. The children were sewing birds at the same time. They chose beads for their
wings and colours, and the story was part of their imagination during the activity.

6.6.3. Remedial story

Another example of a story which contained a moral within it was a remedial story. This
was told to the entire class at ring time when a child had been having discipline
problems. I did not refer to it as a discipline story, or mention to whom it was directed.
Rather, the whole class received it together.

The story of the Whinging (Whining) Whale (Perrow, 2008:100) was designed for a
child who was complaining and whining about other children.

The story was about a young whale who often whined and was continually reminded
by her mother to use her ‘singing voice’, not the whining one. The dramatic moment in
the story involved a separation from the pod. The whales were exploring new territory
and the young whale did not notice the others leaving the area and did not follow. She

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tried her usual whining sound, with no response. Then she remembered the words of
her mother and began to sing. This was the turning point in the story: the rest of the
pod heard her and returned to find her.

The story offered a positive example of communication without employing a command

or even a request. After I had told this story in the class, I would remind children who
whined of the opportunity to change their communication.

6.7. Interplay between fantasy and reality

For Vygotsky (2004:13), an understanding of the psychological mechanism underlying

imagination and creativity required clarity of the relationship between fantasy and
reality in human behaviour. Behaviour, which integrated these simultaneously, was
seen to develop higher mental functioning. Imagination could be associated with reality
in four ways:

1. Products from the imagination are based on elements taken from reality or
prior experience.
2. Products of the imagination involve complex associations: a physical response
is triggered together with emotions of fear, happiness, sadness, or excitement.
At the same time, feeling for something also influences the imagination.
3. Every feeling or emotion locates specific images, impressions and thoughts
which resonate with the mood of the moment. This was considered the dual
nature of feeling: every emotion has a physical condition and feelings influence
perceptions (Vygotsky, 2004:20).
4. Although the product of imagination may never have occurred in the material
realm, it is made manifest in the world once the person expresses it or gives it
a form, and it can then affect other things.

Stories such as fairy tales often combine realistic and fantastic elements. For example,
a child was sent searching for strawberries in the snow only wearing a paper frock in
the story of The Three Little Men in the Wood (Grimm & Grimm, 1975:78). When
Cinderella asked her father for a sprig from the hazel tree, it grew into a tree where
she could communicate with her mother and conjure up the dresses for the ball (Grimm

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& Grimm, 1975:121). Although these images were based in reality, the events are
magical. Another example is provided by the story of The Seven Ravens (Grimm &
Grimm, 1975:137) where brothers are transformed into ravens after being cursed by
their father. Searching for her brothers, their sister travelled to the moon, sun and stars.
The morning star gave her the drumstick bone from a chicken to open the door to the
glass mountain where her brothers were living as ravens. When she arrived at the
mountain, she had lost the drumstick bone, and cut off her small finger instead. Akimba
and the Magic Cow (Perrow, 2008:114) is based on a traditional African tale: Akimba
needs income and receives a magic cow, a sheep and a chicken which provide him
with gold, silver and eggs.

Through these stories, children integrate aspects of their own imagination that have
conflicting elements in a dialogical process towards higher mental functions
(Fernyhough, 1996:50). The richer the experience of both language and life which
children are exposed to, the more material their imagination has to access. Thus,
fantasy utilises contents in new combinations: it does not stand in opposition to
memory, but rather, depends on it (Vygotsky, 2004:16). Table 6.2 outlines some of the
images from the stories I told in the classroom.

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Table 6.2: The real and fantasy aspects of stories told in the classroom

Story Images

The Three Little Going to look for strawberries in winter in the forest.
Men in the Wood

Meeting the three little men who make wishes for each girl; the
good girl has gold from her mouth with each word; the selfish child
has toads.

The selfish daughter takes the bed of her sister, the Queen, and
turns the Queen into a duck.

Akimba and the The animals have magic powers: when a certain word is uttered,
Magic Cow they produce gold (cow), silver (sheep), and eggs (chicken).

The Seven The brothers take too long to fetch water for their sister’s baptism,
Ravens so the father turns them into ravens.

The girl goes looking for her brothers and travels to the moon, sun
and stars.

The morning star gives her a chicken drumstick to open the door
to the glass mountain.

When she loses the drumstick, she cuts off her little finger to open
the door.

6.8. Binaries of language and concept

One of the ways in which stories facilitate the dialectic experience is through binaries
of language and concept. Foster (2000:38) described how every story had a moment
of transformation which shifted a binary from one polarity to another. Vygotsky (1971)
called this transformation moment the melodic curve of the story (Ferholt & Nilsson,
2016:296).

Stories always begin with a critical moment involving a collision, conflict, or contraction.
The dramatic moment is seen as an analytical tool of development: participants of the
story or drama are not passive observers, but are personally and emotionally involved
until the crisis is resolved (Walker et al., 2020:120). Every story begins with a need,
which is then fulfilled through a journey.

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6.9. How tools were used: the example of craftwork

When children entered the classroom in the morning, they could choose whether to
draw, play quietly in the classroom, or do craftwork. At the beginning of the year, I
started with easy craft projects to help children get used to the needle, thread and
beading objects such as buttons. I would cut a piece of hessian, thread a large needle
and put out beads and buttons. The blue hessian was suitable for sea pictures, so I
cut out fish and mermaids which the children could sew. In the Waldorf system, children
spend two years in kindergarten, so the children in their second year were more skilled
at craftwork. It was interesting to note the difference in their abilities over the two years.
The craft activities using wool were suitable for a range of abilities and developed skills
of coordination and skills.

One of the children’s grandmothers commented that she had completed the same
weaving activity in her schooldays. Waldorf kindergartens have retained these cultural
activities although many people view them as old-fashioned with no educational
purpose, and most have disappeared from school or pre-school curriculums. The skills
involved in these three-dimensional projects are different from those needed to
complete two-dimensional worksheets or papers.

The children also sewed animals from felt patterns. I used patterns from a book, or
created my own. Some patterns were easier than others, and involved different
sections such as the legs, wings, and underbelly. Felt is a very easy material to work
with as it does not need to be hemmed. Creatures like dragons, birds, and fish can be
embellished with beads. Observations of the children beading and stitching revealed
a difference in the abilities within the class: the younger, less-focused children tended
to make haphazard and irregular stitches while the older children were much more
attentive to the spacing between the stitches and willing to try advanced stitches such
as blanket stitch. The beadwork patterns of the older children were more intently
designed and they attempted to create symmetry on both wings of the birds or sides
of the fish. Because I taught the same child over two years, I could observe this
development of skills over time. Table 5.6 lists the progression of the craft projects in
the class, which skills were built upon and how stories were used to introduce them.

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Table 6.3 outlines the different crafts, what materials they used, skills provided, and
associated language or stories that went with the activity.

Table 6.3: The progression of craft projects

Story used to
Project Materials Skills
introduce the craft

Child chooses coloured wool and

threads it through the holes of
the cardboard cut-outs. Each The little squirrel goes
Two cardboard
thread is laid beside the other in around the tree, and
Pom-poms rings, wool,
layers until the hole is full. The lies down beside his
scissors.
wool is cut and the cardboard brother.
removed to make a hanging
pom-pom.

Weaving coloured wool around

the stick in a diamond shape.
Sticks are held like a steering ‘Round, up, change’ is
Two sticks,
God’s eyes wheel. Use specific hand repeated by the
wool, scissors.
movements so that the dominant teacher.
hand is always turning. The
result is a beautiful diamond.

5-year-olds complete one side

and make a tortoise back.
6-year-olds complete both sides
Round loom of
and make a bag. The dolphin swims
Circle cardboard with
On the loom they weave over, over the wave, under
weaving strung wool,
under, and round and round. the wave…
wool to weave
They tie new colours on at the
end or make a bag with a twisted
handle.

Wooden This is only for the 6-year-olds.

weaving loom, They
Straight Continuation of the
string, wool, weave to one end and then turn above story.
weaving
dull thick the loom around. Wool on a thick
needle. needle.

Children would stay immersed in the sewing and craft for up to an hour in the morning.
Since doing craft in the morning was one of the activities children could choose, I never
forced it on them. There were a few children who came to the craft table every day;
others went to play first, joining in the craft work later. On a few occasions I asked
some children to do craft activities when I saw their play was not quiet or pleasant for
the other children.

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Tom (5.5 years) usually resisted doing craft in the morning. When it came to the
September festival, he did not bother to finish his dragon. After the festival, when all
the children were taking home the dragons they had sewn, his mother told me that
Tom was upset as he did have one to take home. The next term, he was far more
interested in doing craft and realised the fun in making his own toys. His own realisation
provided powerful motivation to change his behaviour.

Crafts were laid out in a beautiful way with lit candles, baskets of cut-out patterns, wool,
and threads. Children were able to choose which colour wool, felt or thread they would
use. If I had time, I would also sew something, so that I could join them in the activity.
My assistant would help to make new costumes, for example, a crown for the Pumpkin
King game, or birds for the nature table. I did most of the scissor work, threading of
needles, and finishing off. Each child had an envelope, made from an A3 drawing, to
store their craftwork.

As the teacher, I found that craft activities helped with management of the class. The
creativity, focus and skills development enhanced the children’s confidence. The
products of their craft became toys and supported their play. As examples, Johan (6
years) made a sheath for his toy sword and Christie (5 years) made her own bag to
collect fresh lavender. The daily craft sessions had given them confidence to use these
skills during their own play.

6.10. Higher mental functions

Higher mental capacities, according to Vygotsky, were involved in the process of

learning to objectify one’s perspective. Fernyhough (1996:47) defined higher mental
functions as a dialogical process derived from interpersonal activities. The child
internalised progressively semiotic perspectives of reality, involving the coming into
conflict of varying perspectives. Referencing Vygotsky (1978:39), he stated that there
were two types of mental development:

1. Higher mental functions including voluntary attention, mediated memory and

concept formation: these are under voluntary control and accessible to the

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consciousness of the child. They originate in social activity, and hence, shared
cultures.
2. Elementary functions, including involuntary, unconscious, and totally directed
activities which are determined by stimulation coming from the environment.
Imitation fits into this category (Fernyhough, 1996:47).

Fernyhough (1996:48) based his dialectic theory on the work of Bakhtin (1981, 1984,
1986), asserting that these higher functions were derived from social interaction.
Bakhtin realised that all dialogue involved a sharing of perspective, attitude or ‘voice’;
thus, the child simultaneously accommodates multiple perspectives of reality. This
inner dialogue occurred when ideologies or perspectives came into conflict with
different, non- hierarchical perspectives and the final orientations remained unresolved
(Fernyhough, 1996:48).

6.11. Perezhivanie: the joining of environment and self in experience

Participation involves a state of mind, as well as being a form of activity. Thus, a

discussion of the desired states of mind during the kindergarten play becomes
relevant.

Here, Vygotsky first used the word in a 1934 lecture, analysing the role of the child’s
social environment in forming their personality (Blunden, 2016:274). It was originally a
Russian dramatic term, perezhivanie, defined as a means of determining the nature of
the child’s experience, and how children personally interpreted events. Perezhivanie
was considered a ‘unit of consciousness’, and involved the role which the environment
had on the child’s experience (Fleer et al., 2017:249). Vygotsky used the image of a
prism, which implied that each child could share the same environments and
experiences, but would refract them in their own unique way (Michell, 2016: 6). Ferholt
and Nilsson (2016:298) point out that Dewey’s (1939) concept of ‘an experience’ was
closely related to perezhivanie. This was considered valuable in an understanding of
how experiences and the environment impacted on the development of children (Fleer
et al., 2017: 249).

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Vygotsky discussed how children’s emotions characterised the interpretation and

performance of their experiences, thus creating new meaning. The language of
storytelling provided the capacity for the child to create inner images in their mind and
simultaneously stimulated emotional responses. These emotional responses, in turn,
influenced the imagery. A child immersed in experience is also in a state of
participation.

Dramatic perezhivanie referred to the contradictory nature of human development;

there was no development without conflicts and drama (Veraksa et al., 2022:545).
Every complex socio-dramatic role play involved numerous micro-crises and
contradictions. The child needed to constantly retrain their impulsive reactions in order
to remain connected to the imaginary situation, thus developing self-regulation. This
juxtaposition momentarily suspended the child’s experience in a state of
simultaneously being, and not being, themselves. No development occurred without a
qualitative re-organisation, and the social drama allowed this through the prism of
differing subjective experiences.

My observations set out in Table 6.4 provide an example of how children could be in
dual states of consciousness during play. With the aid of a picture book, the children
had the mental acuity to discuss the sequencing of the story, using their experience
and memory of hearing and acting it out a year earlier. They were not only sequencing
and planning the events, but going back into the play and acting it out. This was an
example of a dialectic situation, where the children were in two states at once – the
real and the imaginary.

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Table 6.4: Example of duality of play

Observations Dialogue

Little Snow White (Grimm & Grimm, Storm and Sally: Let’s look at the book and see
1975:249) had been told the year if everything is right. First the comb, then the
previously, and the children were reliving apple.
the experience in their play. They utilised a Takota (5 years, playing nearby): The apple is
picture book that I had used to tell the the worst.
story.
Storm: Yes, because she died.
Storm (6.5 years) and Sally (6 years)
Takota: But, she didn’t.
discussed the logical format of the story
with help of Takota (5 years). Although Storm: Yeah, she fainted.
Takota was only five years old, she had Each step was discussed when they then
also been present at the storytelling in the positioned the imaginary apple (felt ball).
prior year. The children’s parents Sally: The green side…ok the red is poisonous.
confirmed that none of them had seen the
film of Snow White and this would not have
influenced their memory of the story.
They played in the classroom, while
consulting the book. At each stage of the
story, they consulted the pictures, and
went back into place to act it out. As they
could not read, they used the pictures in
the book to map the story. They set out
chairs and cloths to delineate the house
and forest.

6.12. Examples of imitation and new creation

One of the experiences of enhanced combination was in the ring time, when the
children simultaneously made the gestures I presented together with the language in
the songs, verses or games. The daily repetition meant that they became familiar with
both the gestures and the words, and we moved together in unison. The children could
become absorbed in the experience of language and movement simultaneously. There
were moments when the group felt as coordinated as a circle dance. When I described
images that the children could collectively engaged in, I could feel the enhanced
participation and joy experienced by the group. An example of this was the apple tree
ring, where the children rode their imaginary ponies to pick imaginary apples. The
gestures and songs described riding the ponies, arriving at the apple tree, shaking off
the apples, feeding the ponies, collecting the apples, galloping home and, finally,
making apple pie. The songs and games played at each stage merged together as one
larger story. I realised how much more this engaged the children.

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6.13. Self-regulation and rules

Vygotsky’s work introduced the concept of self-regulation, consisting of two important

features: children were so immersed in the play they delayed gratification of other
activities, and they created rules which emerged from their games and reflected the
boundaries of the adult world. “Thus, engaging in self-regulated behaviours in play
becomes possible because an inherent relationship exists between the roles children
play and the rules they need to follow when playing these roles” (Bodrova et al.,
2013:111).

6.13.1. Class rules made by the teacher

In my Waldorf Kindergarten classroom there were rules set by the teacher which
applied to all the children in the class:

• No hitting or hurting was allowed. If an issue arose in the play the children could
approach the teacher for assistance or negotiate among themselves.

• The outside water tap could not be turned on without permission.

• Children were not allowed to walk up the slide onto the jungle gym (not up). They
were not allowed to climb higher than the flags on the pine tree. These rules were
basic to prevent children being injured.

• Children were not allowed to imitate movie characters during play. These pre-
made characters were seen as limiting creativity.

6.13.2. Rules made by the children

Children often spent more time discussing rules and negotiating the outlines of the
game they devised, then actually playing the game. Table 6.5 provides some examples
of this.

These conversations are ongoing, and I could only catch snippets. But the constant
negotiation of rules is one of the major features of children’s play in the Waldorf
kindergarten.

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At the start of the school year the children had more need of my assistance with
negotiation, but they soon they learned how to resolve their own issues. However, I
was always available if needed.

Table 6.5: An example of negotiating rules

Negotiating magical powers Negotiating who plays the game

The boys were playing games with powers. Here is an example of the children themselves
Tom (5 years) comes to me to mediate with working out who is involved in the game.
Sam (6 years). Peter (6 years, nearly crying): Is there is
Tom: [Sam] says you get extra powers if you nobody to play horse with me?
catch him. He had told the girls that he would play evil
Teacher: And you don’t like that? queens with them, but then changed his mind.
Tom: Yes, it’s too hard, Storm (6 years): Please [Peter], you promised.
Teacher to Sam: Is there any other way to Peter: I changed my mind.
make the rules so [Tom] also likes it? Girls (begging): Please!
Sam: But I am both good and bad. I am a Boys: Noooo.
crow and a crow doesn’t need to listen to
They asked me to intervene, and I responded
anybody.
that if he doesn’t want to he doesn’t have to.
Tom interjects: But I want the power to fly”.
Sindi (6 years) states: I know, I told them he
Sam compromises: OK, you can also catch changed his mind.
me [but] only on the monkey bars. Tom
agrees.
Sam was older so he was more dominant in
the game than Tom. Still they enjoyed
keeping to their own rules, even when they
had to be negotiated.

Negotiating characters
Peter (6 years): Sindi, can we be what we want to, or do you tell us? Can we be the same
and someone else.
Sindi: I am a baby polar bear but I can also be a baby dog or a wolf or any baby.
Peter: What can I be?
Sindi: Anything.
Suki (4 years): Sindi won’t let me be a wolf.
Sindi: We are not playing that game anymore.

When children had disputes that needed to be mediated by the teacher, I listened to
all sides of the story. Sometimes, only an apology was needed, and I was amazed at
the powerful impact of these words. The offended child would wait for the apology and
the resolution it brought. At other times, when rules were broken, I asked children to
make apology cards if I thought that more than a verbal apology was required.
Sometimes the disputes were over rules of the games, for example, boys agreeing on

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magical powers, and I had to allow them to agree on certain freedoms. Most of the
negotiating was achieved by the children, but I created a dialectic for them to be heard.

6.14. Zone of proximal development and age differences

Having children aged 4–7 years in one classroom provided an interesting opportunity
to observe the zone of proximal development. In theory, this zone requires mediating
skills between those who are more proficient and those who are learning. Mediation
occurred between the children and the teacher or assistant, and between the children
themselves.

The younger children naturally inclined towards reverence and imitation, focusing their
attention on modelling the teacher. The older children also served as examples or
models to the younger, and thus played an important role in the classroom culture. In
Waldorf education philosophy, children go through a developmental crisis at around
5.5 years. During this time, the thinking processes become awakened, and they tend
to become rebellious. Steiner linked the emergence of the new teeth to a stage of their
own behaviour of pushing boundaries. Mediation required knowledge of the stages of
the children and facilitation of the full group at the same time.

When Mary (5.5 years) went through her developmental crisis, she tried to influence
the gestures performed during story time. When we were reciting a verse involving a
boat, she used a different movement of the hand to represent the sail, hoping the other
children would follow her. She would make her gesture and then look around. My
training had taught me not to pay too much attention, but rather to show the other
children the right gesture to imitate which was not the same as hers!

Marina (6.5 years) was a very sweet and loving child who loved to listen to me. One
day, as I watched the start of circle time, I noticed she had crossed her arms and rolled
her eyes, like a dissatisfied teenager. Everything I did in the next few weeks was
‘boring’ for Marina. This is behaviour that a Waldorf teacher becomes accustomed to:
the children act much older than they are and display the rebellious attitudes which
mark this stage. This often lasts around three weeks. There are other qualities which
accompany this stage, including a self-awareness that made them more nervous of

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being alone or separated from their mother, or gave them nightmares. On one morning,
during craft activities, Jesse (6 years) stated with great excitement that something had
happened to him that morning: “I had a thought inside my head.” For a Waldorf
kindergarten teacher, this is a sign that the child’s thinking capacity is becoming a more
conscious process.

A child’s attempt to influence the behaviour of classmates was one result of the
differing maturity levels of the children. Positive influencing, for example, motivating a
new level of play, craft or drawings, was common. Because I had the opportunity to
observe the children over a two-year period, I knew when the changes were due to
personality or when they reflected developmental growth through age and experience.
Children in their first kindergarten year were not used to the cultural rhythms of the
classroom; thus, the familiarity of those in their second year had a considerable
influence on the younger children.

When Takota (6 years) and Lyla (5 years) presented a puppet show, Lyla took
inspiration from the older child, Maddie. I wondered whether this was due to a
difference in personality or developmental stage. However, the following year, Lyla
took on this role of leader of the younger children, so I could observe the role of age
development parallel to personality.

The younger children had so much respect for the older ones that they strived to
achieve the cultural norms which the older children could comfortably maintain. This
imitation was as important as their modelling of the teacher. Spending two years in
kindergarten meant that children took on the roles of the younger follower, and later,
became the responsible role model.

6.15. Conclusion

This chapter compiled the findings from the classroom situation and established links
with the categories on socio-cultural discourse analysis. It looked at how the theoretical
lens of mediating objects or language had an effect on the higher thinking capacities.
Through language being internalised, which also linked to meaning and the role of
imaginative pictures, children could potentially express the stories in their play. The

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phenomenon observed in the classroom was compared to the theories surrounding

Vygotsky and socio-cultural analysis.

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 CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION

CHAPTER 7
Conclusion

7.1. Introduction

This study was a year-long investigation into the nature of children’s play in a Waldorf
kindergarten, and the potential influence of a particular storytelling curriculum. This
included oral telling, puppetry and acting the plays, always with the teacher as the
narrator. The stories were presented in a ritualised and repetitive way, where oral
telling entailed 3–5 days, possibly followed by puppetry, acting, or both, also conducted
over 3–5 days. A storytelling schedule was given and followed a seasonal theme, using
mainly fairy tales as well as folk and traditional stories, with some stories created by
other Waldorf teachers. The teacher chose the material and how to present it, but
followed a philosophical pedagogy based on the teachings of Rudolf Steiner and his
understanding of child development and the spiritualised human being.

The study was on how the language and presentation of these stories revealed
themselves in the children’s play, and what insights these offered into internalisation,
expression, and meaning making. The study specifically focused on the pre-school
child, utilising the lens of Vygotsky and socio-cultural theory. This included contexts
such as private speech, zone of proximal development, and self-regulation, or what
has now expanded to the study of executive processes. It was a deep study on the
faculties involved in imaginative thinking, individualisation, and creativity. The goal
was to contemplate how a young child attains skills and knowledge, but through the
imaginative faculties available to them, or what Vygotsky described as perezhivanie,
or the joy of the moment of experience.

Vygotsky’s goal was to find a methodology for analysing the dialectical process
whereby faculties connected to the bodily experience such as instinct, reflexes,
imitation and sensing, are pivoted by external tools. This mediation, according to
Vygotsky, allowed objectifying and the ability for higher thinking. But more than that,
various factors, even opposing, could potentially be unified in this perceived higher
experience. While the zone of proximal development was initially directed towards
school-age learning, Veresov (2004:45) revealed how it could apply to the young child

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as well. Vygotsky’s own words supported this understanding of the young child in play
as creating the space between what children can and cannot do, alongside others and
alone.

As the teacher and researcher in this thesis, I had the opportunity to observe the
children in all their daily activities and throughout the whole school day. Since I was
aware of all the stories being told in the class, I could observe whether the children
used these stories in their play, even much later after the telling. Owing to the length
of the research period of the study, being a full school year, there were ample moments
to observe whether the material was internalised and expressed in their play. Their
output included the dialogue of their imaginative play as well as drawings and other
crafts.

7.2. Reviewing the research questions

In order to assess whether the research questions were answered, they are reviewed:

1. How did the mediation of storytelling by the teacher influence the children’s
self-directed imaginative play in a Waldorf kindergarten?
2. Using a Vygotskian or socio-cultural analysis, how does this give insight into
the internalisation of language, imagination, and self-regulation?
3. How did the environment contribute to the findings?

7.3. Hypothesis

My initial hypothesis was that if children enacted the stories told in class, in their own
self-directed play, this would reveal an internalisation process.

7.4. Socio-cultural analysis

Utilising a socio-cultural theory, based on the work of Vygotsky, I focused on varying

aspects of the children’s behaviour to reveal whether internalisation had occurred. The
main focus was on how the social language of the classroom, and specifically
storytelling, impacted on language and expression in the children’s own play.

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These aspects of socio-cultural theory included:

1. Children’s own private speech within their play and activities.

2. Specific definition of play, including imaginative games with roles, mediators,
and rules.
3. Creating zones of proximal development between children and teacher, as well
as among children of varying ages and skills.
4. Finding opportunities for developing skills which enhance self-regulation ring
time, artistic activities, transitions, storytelling, and play.
5. Further development through dramatic collisions which include varying
aspects which come together in a new way.
6. Perezhivanie.
7. Binaries in language allowing for the experience of the dialectical process.
8. Symbolic representation in the play.

7.5. Private speech

Since private speech is generally a silent process, or at least directed to oneself and
not others, this would be difficult to observe and record. Any attempt would have risked
taking the child out of their imaginative experience. Vygotsky proposed that within
private speech there was a shortened, abbreviated language, as directed to self and
not to a listener. According to Jones (2009:167), some of these assumptions are
unfounded, and based on older linguistic theories of his day.

As Veresov (2004:45) pointed out, Vygotsky’s actual writings, his focus within the zone
of proximal development, were on the mental aspects of internalising language for
solving school-age tasks. In his studies he even would interrogate the students in order
for them to access internal capacities otherwise not used in their tasks.

7.6. Zone of proximal development

Veresov (2004:45) questioned what then was the role of the zone of proximal
development in kindergarten?

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He turned to Vygotsky’s own words, realising that the word ‘proximal’ always meant
close, and the zone of proximal development was when the child was in the zone of
actualising potential through interactions with others (Veresov, 2004:44). This
emerged in play because children are always acting older than they are, and more
capable, owing to their inclination to imitate. The interesting aspect that Veresov (2004)
foregrounded, which he termed “the hidden Vygotsky”, was the dramatic collision
which occurred when many factors collided during play, creating a state of
Perezhivanie or united experience.

Vygotsky identified creative processes in children at their very earliest ages, giving the
example of transforming a stick into a hobby horse.

Everyone knows what an enormous role imitation plays in children’s play. A child’s play
very often is just an echo of what he saw and heard adults do; nevertheless, these
elements of his previous experience are never merely reproduced in play in exactly the
way they occurred in reality. A child’s play is not simply a reproduction of what he has
experienced, but a creative reworking of the impressions he has acquired (Vygotsky,
2004:11).

This act of imitation and creation was the essential zone to contemplate the
development of the child under seven. For Vygotsky (see Karpov, 2003) it was very
important that play be understood not just as a symptom of growth, but as a formative
activity for it. Vygotsky (2004:11) understood the role of imitation in children’s play was
a reworking of the impressions from surrounding people and environments in order to
construct new realities, while at the same time conforming to present desires and
needs.

In Rudolf Steiner’s lectures, imitation was the most important impulse for the
development of the child, owing to the enabling of deeper forms of communication
between adult and child. At the same time, imitation nourished the development of the
child’s own body. Sensing was considered a gateway for the child to the community
and the world, but also to his own body (Mathisen & Thorjussen, 2016:19). Sensing
was united with movement, which involved both sensitivity and participation within the
social community. The connection between thought and word for an adult was

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considered equal to body and word for the young child (Mathisen & Thorjussen,
2016:19).

The potential of imitation is that children can actively experience another person’s
actions and behaviours. All feelings, as well as thoughts, are imitated, as seen through
the face, eyes and body language of others (Mathisen & Thorjussen, 2016:19).
Imitation nourishes play, where children can come into contact with artefacts and
symbolic thinking to stimulate even more situations.

7.6.1. Ways that imitation was fostered

1. Toys should be at child level so that they can take them from the shelves or
baskets, and put them back. This is the imitation of living in a home, using and
caring for things.
2. Imitation area with dolls in beds with blankets, chair and table with stove,
cupboard with proper cups and saucers, pots and utensils. Dolls’ clothing and
house play inspired imitation of all kinds in terms of the sharing of language,
roles, and movement. Brooms and ironing board add to the imitation of work.
Children often dressed up for their roles. They used the play stands in various
capacities – outside houses with windows, puppet theatres, beds, shops, and
more.
3. The ring time participation was not a situation where the adult shows and the
children then copy. The adults and children moved together, with gestures and
language through songs, verses and games. Imitation is noticeable as the
children followed the teacher.
4. Habits in transition stages, such as tidying up, putting on shoes, washing
hands, all involved a song or verse, and the activity. The younger children were
always watching the older ones in their movements.
5. All activities done by the teacher were understood potentially to be imitated by
the child. In this way, the teacher held this consciousness. Even moving chairs,
or sweeping, would be done in a slow and beautiful way, as if the children
themselves were watching and copying. Activities such as cutting fruit,
gardening, sweeping, or washing windows were often joined in by the children,
who would then be acting within the zone of proximal development.

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7.7. Defining mediation

Fernyhough (1996:48) stated that unconscious mediation came directly from the
environment, while conscious participation occurred through utilising tools in a dialogic
relationship. Play was not just a reproduction of what was seen, it was also enriched
by experience, and facilitated new creation. This state of being in the old and new at
the same time created a potential consciousness within the child.

According to Hasan’s (2002:115) definitions of roles within mediation, I have

answered her questions according to this study:

1) Who mediated? It was the teacher who mediated the storytelling and
classroom rhythm. During the free play, the children had their own mediators
in the games.
2) Something is mediated, which Hasan (2002:115 defined as a content, force or
energy: This could apply to a story, as well as verses and songs. The daily
rhythm was also something mediated, as was the love of the children and a
sense of safety and discipline.
3) Someone subjected to mediation, to which the mediation makes some
difference, were individual children.
4) The circumstances for mediation were a kindergarten day, with a Waldorf
philosophy in the pedagogy.
5) The means of mediating included speaking, puppetry, costumes, stories,
songs, games, verses.
6) The location was in Cape Town, on a farm, in a wooden classroom and large
garden full of trees and bushes, a pond, a clay pit, flower beds, sandpit and
pathways.

7.8. Internalisation of stories in children’s play

For Vygotsky, internalisation occurred by way of private or egotistical speech. Because

of this silent process, I created a rubric for whether this could be validated through
observing their self-directed play.

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1. Did they use any of the characters from the stories in their play?
2. Did they use similar plots or story lines in their play?
3. Did they extract exact language or phrases from the stories in their play?
4. Did they use the structure in which stories were presented in their play?

The following incidences supported answering these questions:

7.8.1. Imitating the archetypal characters

Children embodied the moods of the stories told, with archetypal images which
became characters. For instance, in the telling of Rampion / Rapunzel (Grimm &
Grimm,1975:67), the older children, turning 7 years that year, identified with the
archetype of the ‘evil queen’ for weeks after playing this. They dressed in long scarves
and as much black as they could find. In allocating the roles, I would take care to match
experiences of playing ‘good’ and ‘bad’ characters, but I noticed the older girls loved
the evil concept of the character. I recognised this as part of their development, as at
this age the cold, thinking aspect arises in their experiences and thus they identified
with something of that character. That does not make them evil, but rather able to play
with the forces of the world in a safe way, and possibly be guided through the moral
journey of the story. The archetype in the story gave them the opportunity to enact it in
characters and feelings, aligned to their own awakening of thinking forces.

7.8.2. Imitating the structure of storytelling

The way that the children presented their puppet shows to the rest of the class during
play time showed that they had taken the structure of the telling into their movement
and performance. At times they also wanted to show their puppet shows during ring or
story time. This level of imitation brought them to the role of teacher. The older children
naturally were inclined more towards imitating a sense of responsibility and set the
discipline for the plays. It was interesting to see the language they used.

In preparation for the puppet show the children drew signs with pictures in order to set
the rules. This included a picture for no talking and no cell phones. The first visual rule
came from their own experience of talking during presentations. The second was an

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imitation from their parent’s experiences, as none of them owned a cell phone. Extra
factors were added through their theatre, such as someone serving popcorn, taking
the tickets they had made. Children were adding a sense of renewal or imagination to
events they knew, and bringing them into present time. When the children were seated,
had their popcorn, they were mesmerised for a time by the demonstration of puppetry.
But as the puppeteers began to lose their thread, so the children watching also
responded with restlessness. Here they imitated what they perceived as the way the
teacher’s role would respond to the restlessness, by playing the instrument to bring
quiet to the group and resume focus. The group presenting then got a bit sterner when
that method of music playing did not work. But eventually the sternness did not help,
and the group disseminated and went on to other foci in their play. This could be
considered a play event.

7.8.3. The plot or moods in the puppet shows

Shows they performed on their own followed the path of the story, but with their own
interpretation or transformation. One was similar to a story I had told for the Easter
festival, which I presented as a puppet play. They used the same character of the tired,
thirsty, hungry bunny, but interchanged Mother Earth for a farmer. The mood of my
own puppet show which was presented was carried through into theirs, even though it
was over a month later.

Another story with a sombre beginning was Three Little Men in the Wood (Grimm &
Grimm, 1975:78). This story I had told for five days, followed by a puppet show and
then acting, so they had a strong grasp of the language of the story. They created a
floor puppet garden and set it up very carefully. I was able to listen to them doing the
show during their play, and it was a similar story of lost parents, and walking in the
forest, and used the phrase from the story, “And they went out walking together”
(Grimm & Grimm, 1975:78). They also used the phrase, “going to the forest to collect
strawberries” (Grimm & Grimm, 1975:79). Thus, the actual language, theme, mood
and certain details stayed the same, while much was their own creation. They
presented it together as if a teacher, but only for themselves.

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7.8.4. Imitation through ring games

Ring games were also acted out in the children’s own play. A few times I witnessed
“Ring around the Rosie”, which was a lovely game to include the younger children who
wanted to join in. After playing the “Pumpkin King”, the children also wanted to do it
themselves. This involved a long piece of string which was held by each child around
the circle, with a ring placed on it. So that each child was holding the string, and passed
around the ring as it came to them. A blindfolded child sat in the middle. The class
said together:

The Pumpkin King in his castle sits, all night long a sleeping
The finger gnomes in the castle walls, all night long a peeping
Rickety tay rickety tay, pass the ring and hide it away
(Said as many times as the teacher feels to pass the ring around the circle)

Then when the teacher decides to stop the process of passing the ring, the last verse
is:

Rickety tee Rickety tee, wake up Pumpkin King and see

Where oh where can the treasure be?

At this point the child in the middle takes off the blindfold and had to guess under who’s
hand the ring was.

If they guessed wrong the class would answer: “No not there, try elsewhere”.
If they guessed correctly, the class would answer, “You’re right you’re right, what
a delight.”

This game was difficult to manage as a teacher, as the children each wanted to end
with the ring in their hands. A teacher in training who had attended our class made a
crown for the Pumpkin King so this must have inspired the children to play it on their
own. Both the words to the game and the self-regulation it required was difficult for
them to manage on their own, so it was interesting to me that they decided to play it. I
supported them at first to get the words, and then cleaned around them in case they

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needed help. This would support the theory of ZPD, as due to my mediation, and that
of the crown as a tool, the children were able to demonstrate reaching above their level
of both language and developmental regulation.

The game did not last long, as managing the blindfolded person was not easy for them,
as well as the inner desire for them each to have the ring, but that they tried and
followed the language and structure very well for that period. This would be another
example of a play event.

7.8.5. A story of imitation and discovery

A situation occurred with a child who was turning 6 years at the end of the year, and
had a very big growth spurt in the first few months of the year. His limbs had grown
and he often hit others by accident. He loved to climb the tree, and was able to go to
the highest point. I was very capable and I never worried about him. One day he was
in the tree and I needed to fetch a chair from class next to mine. I left my assistant
outside with the children. In the time that I was away, which was minutes, he had
decided to come down from the tree and slide down the rope of the swing. Little did I
know, but the night before he had played a video game of travelling up and down ropes.
As I entered the garden, I saw him sliding down the rope and knew what was going to
happen; my assistant didn’t. Immediately he was fine, but then his hands began to
bleed. As I sat with him calmly, treating his hands, he stated, “Damn, so the video
game was wrong.”

7.9. Stories

Stories have the emancipatory potential to create a transformation within one’s

experience. Vygotsky, in his private notes (Zavershneva, 2012:24), wrote specifically
about the role of art, that it had a “special significance of form”, or more specifically,
“aesthetic significance”. He described the transformation that one potentially gains
through an aesthetic experience, such as feelings from a work of art, as the “miracle
of transforming water into wine” or another way of saying, “overcoming nature in a
word’” (Zavershneva, 2012:24). Dewey (1934) also reflected on the aesthetic
experience, claiming aesthetic experiences as fundamental to the process of learning

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(Kokkos, 2010:157). But noting that not all experiences will be transformative. Not all
stories will be either. The significance of the study on storytelling was to describe and
understand the factors that allowed for imaginative, and potentially transformative,
experiences for the listener.

The methods of storytelling included oral forms which support the creation of internal
imagery with the words spoken and experience of the language of the story. This does
not imply an overdramatic way of telling a story. It should be told in a matter-of-fact
way, which then allows the images to come alive (Soesman, 1990:26). What is
important is that the storyteller has an intimate relationship with the images.

Dahlin (2013:16) suggested a return to the grand theories of the state of childhood; a
period that can never again be reclaimed in the same way. For Dahlin (2013:17),
leading ideas in modern educational psychology, along with post-structuralist streams
of thinking, have fragmented the notion of a developmental journey in childhood. Age
appropriate has become a series of skills and attributes aligned with a stage of
development, and entirely missing the individual subject experience. The word has
overtaken the experience in the fine tuning of the right/left hemisphere experience.

In days of old, many poems and verses were memorised in school. Until one has
experienced memorising a full fairy tale, it is hard to explain the feeling. I continue to
roll around the words and images of the first ones I learned by heart, and many times
in my life these have come back to guide me.

7.10. The dramatic collision and linking of emotion

The Waldorf environment provided a programme in which to observe the effects of

storytelling on play because of the focused specific time for each. For a Waldorf
teacher, storytelling is part of their professional craft. Vygotsky used the word
perezhivanie to describe the totality of experience or measure as a unit of
consciousness. Stories, with their emotive power, provided nourishment for the child
to experience that good triumphs in the trials of life. They are not only made to be
entertaining, but to be digested like a meal, where words meet image.

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Fairy tales and traditional stories balance the pain and sorrow of life with joy. Soesman
(1990:26) reflected on how stories are often changed from their original to be softened
for the modern child. Yet as the child then encounters life, they touch on the other
extremes. Stories provide safe boundaries in which to experience polarities, but also
transformation.

A fairy tale reaches an apotheosis. All of these fearful, thrilling passages in a fairy
tale are quite existential, drastic as the described events may often be. The evil
stepmother has to be smashed by the enormous millstone? Isn’t that delightful? How
else will evil be destroyed? (Soesman, 1990:26).

Children do not take these images literally but enjoy the fairy tale from the level of their
constitution, where they experience the balance of negative and positive. In the perfect
composition of a tale there is always relief at the end. Just as a child experiences
hunger and thirst, for Soesman (1990:26), there is the thirst and hunger for a story.

For Vygotsky (cited in Veresov, 2004:46) the nature of a dialectic was not only pivoting,
but in the meeting of ‘contradictions,’ where a new formulation could occur. Vygotsky
wrote (1927:7, cited in Zavershneva, 2012:24) in his private notes, in preparation for a
paper:

The “infectiousness” of art is based not on the simple transmission of

feelings from one to another – in this sense the speech of an orator, Cry
of pain, a loud hurray, is no less infectious. Poetry about sorrow places us
above sorrow, defeats it, overcomes, resolves. How it achieves this, by
what psychological means—that is the X, the very name of art, the
unknown quantity from which all investigation should begin. (Vygotsky,
1927-1928: 7)

In this way, Vygotsky pointed that artistic experience allows a person to experience
feelings and at the same time to rise above them.

7.11. Nourishing the foundations for internalising stories

The rhythm of a child’s life was considered a contributor to the child’s sense of
regulation of their habits and activity (De Souza, 2012:51). This rhythm was also a

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means of timing the vacillation between preparation, excitement, and transition. Being
a teacher of young people is a process of regulating their desires. Thus, when the
stories were told in a rhythmic way, meaning the same every day as well as repeated
over many days, the children had the time to absorb the images and language. In the
study of internalisation and play, I believe this to be essential to the uptake of language.
Too often we think that children require variety, yet at home they are always requesting
the same stories over and over.

Despite the millennia it took humanity to become literate, we are in a fervent rush to
impart literacy to the young child. Yet internalisation becomes a form of digestion, or
as Piaget stated, assimilation involves the sensory body as well as the mind.

Self-regulation has become an intricate part of understanding behaviour in education

today. Ritual therapy helps the understanding of how important routines are to the
young child. Routines and language can meet in these rituals, which become further
internalised each time they are done.

7.12. Meaning making

Mahn (2012:101) asked the question, “What is the nature of the concept of meaning
used in studies on children’s meaning-making in classrooms?” The search for this
answer was the substantial portion of the life work of Vygotsky, in the unification of
speaking and thinking processes:

His investigation centres on the analysis of the entity created by this unification – an
internal speaking/thinking system with meaning at its centre. Despite the fact that this
speaking/thinking system is at the centre of Vygotsky’s work, it remains little explored
(Mahn, 2012:100).

Understanding what occurs when a child finds meaning in an activity or words, included
a physical as well as an emotional experience for the young child.

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7.13. The dialectic and process

Vygotsky had recommended a dialectic approach to analyse the complex systems

within their interconnections (Mahn, 2012:103). The key tenets of dialectical logic were:

1. Nothing is constant but change.

2. All phenomena are processes in motion.

Thus, for Vygotsky, to study something historically meant to study it in motion. Yet that
motion always takes them back to themselves, or what Steiner described as the ‘I’.

These stories over time are ancient reminders of central moral landmarks for living life.
Language does not stand on its own, but is a vessel or container for imagery, feeling,
and wisdom. The binaries helped in a story to highlight tensions, and the dialectic was
used to stimulate plot, conversation, progression, and creative change. Stories are the
perfect example of constant change within process rather than outcome. The outcome
on its own of a story is of little value without the journey.

Vygotsky proposed that the mental image comprised only half of the experience, and
the other half was “attention and action-based in nature.” (West, 2021:239). When it
came to the dramatic collision, half the experience was based in the somatic, action
based, or physical experience, and the mental image was linked to imagination. Van
der Veer (2007:45) linked this experience to a pre-established plan, where the finished
product potentially first exists in the form of a mental image or intention. This pre-
established plan could also be related to an expectation. As Soesman (1990:26)
explained, just as the child has to feel hunger and thirst, so the child craves a story.

7.14. Conclusion

This study examined a Waldorf kindergarten class over the time period of one year in
order to assess the relationship between the storytelling of the teacher and the free
imaginative play of the children. It used the analysis tool of a socio-cultural socio-
cultural theory to look at the dialectical relationships that occurred between the
mediating tools of language, toys, objects and symbols, and how these contributed to

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the imagination and expression. Because the Waldorf kindergarten uses three
structures of storytelling: oral telling, puppetry and acting, these could be observed in
terms of their mediation to children’s play, alongside the language of the storytelling.
Both the structures of storytelling and the language contributed to themes, characters,
phrases and methods within the children’s own play.

The study was also a theoretical exploration around the internalisation of language,
and how that can be assessed. In the beginning a hypothesis was stated that if the
children utilised the language, themes, characters, moods of the stories in their play,
then this would show that a form of internalisation had occurred. With the theoretical
approach of the Waldorf schooling emphasising imitation in the early childhood, and
the addition of neurological understanding such as attachment, self-regulation, brain
hemispheres and mirror neurons, a concept of early childhood learning could be made.
That is, if the language and thus imagery of the story contributes to an emotional
experience for the child, they are learning more than just the story. A process of making
meaning, which also leads to greater self-regulation, can be assumed.

Although a barometer of self-regulation was not constructed for this study, it was a
means of assessing what kinds of methods could emerge from this kind of storytelling
program, offering models of play alongside the language. Perezhivanie, similar to
Dewey’s aesthetic experience, was the word which Vygotsky derived from Russian
drama, and embodied the experience of language and drama in a unit of time; a
moment of being. Stories engage children in a way they can meet themselves,
including their moral or emotional aspects, and allow them to explore, through binaries,
their identity or centre.

This study seemed to bring a socio-cultural analysis to a Waldorf kindergarten class.

This meant investigating the places where relationships occurred, both with tools such
as objects and toys, and each other. Vygotsky’s significant contribution to play was the
understanding that it was not just an activity, but the developmental one for the pre-
school age. My project birthed when I taught in a rural Eastern Cape classroom, and
read Vygotsky’s theories on imagination. I could see that the process towards self-
regulation he outlined were potentially embedded in the curriculum I was teaching, and

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this sparked my curiosity to understand the Waldorf method through the socio-cultural
lens.

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 APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Sally had made her own pictures out of the Three Little Pigs story

Appendix 2: Princess and the rainbow

Appendix 3: Rainbow and flower

Appendix 4: Bird and the tree

 Appendix 5: Horse and house

Appendix 6: The bird visiting the squirrel

Appendix7: Flower mandala

Appendix 8: Star and patterns