Exploring Professional Playfulness: ECEC Principals’ Perspectives on Teacher Competence in Early Childhood Education

Drawing on interviews with ten preschool principals who recruit, mentor, and evaluate preschool teachers, this study examines how playfulness is conceptualized as a professional competence within early childhood education and care (ECEC) practice. In Swedish ECEC, play and teaching are conceptualized as intertwined processes, and co-play is positioned as a central pedagogical approach that requires both personal dispositions and ongoing professional development. The study highlights the importance of integrating playfulness into ECEC teacher education in order to strengthen future teachers’ capacity to co-play with children and engage in play-based teaching practices on children’s terms. The findings also suggest that professional playfulness emerges as a multifaceted and context-dependent competence, shaped by institutional conditions as well as individual orientations towards play and teaching. By foregrounding leadership perspectives, the study contributes to ongoing discussions on the role of play in ECEC and emphasizes the need for deliberate efforts to support the development of professional playfulness in both practice and teacher education.