Educational Encounters as Emancipatory

This article explores how teaching and play are conceptualised in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). It draws upon previous research to highlight a linguistic challenge related to “the talk of” and the prevalent logic of distinction. Specifically, it addresses how play and teaching, as fundamental concepts in ECEC, tend to create a division between children and educators, known as a logical distinction. To address this concern, the article uses relational theory and the concepts of being and becoming to provide an alternative way of discussing play and teaching in ECEC that transcends this logic of distinction. This alternative language emphasises freedom in the educational interactions between children and educators, thus moving away from the conventional dichotomy observed in the conceptualisation of play and teaching in ECEC.