The purpose of this study is to contribute knowledge on and gain an understanding of elementary school teachers' perspectives on the function of play in children's learning processes. The study is qualitative with a hermeneutical approach and has George Herbert Mead as a theoretical frame of reference. Interviews have been carried out with seven teachers. The material was interpreted into four main categories: learning, development, teaching, and socialisation. Play used in school results in positive social effects, as pointed out by the teachers. The social and the academic skills that play brought to the children were also made obvious in the study's findings.

Preschool teachers share their environment with young children on a daily basis and interventions promoting social competence are generally carried out in the preschool setting. The aim was to find out if and how preschool teachers' definitions of social competence are related to factors in the preschool environment like: a) the number of children having problems related to social competence; b) the support provided to the children; and c) the preschool environment and current research definitions. Method: 481 preschools from 22 municipalities in Sweden participated. Data was analyzed using a mixed methods design in which a qualitative content analysis was followed by group comparisons using quantitative methods. Results: Preschool teachers defined social competence mainly as intrapersonal skills, or as interpersonal relations. The definitions of social competence were not related to the numbers of children having problems related to social skills or social competence in units, the amount of the support provided to the children or the preschool environment. Conclusion: Preschool teachers' definitions of social competence are partly multidimensional, which implies that the interventions aimed at promoting children's social skills and social competence also should be multidimensional. Preschool teachers' definitions of social competence have little relevance to environmental factors, which indicate that social competence, as a construct is more dependent upon perceptions of the individual than on contextual factors.

The aim of this study is to analyze and describe how adults with visual disability, motor disability and Asperger syndrome retrospectively identify and experience play in their childhood. Fifteen adults, aged 25 to 76 years, were interviewed about their play experiences. A qualitative approach was adopted with the aim to describe qualitatively different experiences of play. The findings indicate that play experiences merge like mirror images with participation and exclusion as two divergent sides of play. The data suggest that niches for play experiences include three components related to participation and exclusion: a personal component, a social component and an environmental component. Type of disability is one of many aspects making up the three components without being a central feature within any of the components. Type of disability affects personal characteristics and preferences, form of social interaction and the environmental requirements for participating in play but not the experience of play per se. Unique to this study is the importance assigned to the concept of niche. Perceived niches are based on memories and also influence the construction of memories. Thus, they function as a link between perceptions of experiences of play from childhood to adulthood.