This study is a try to show how the use of the word play makes problem for the communication between workers in the kindergarten and between adults and children. This study is based on experience from the pedagogic personnel in kindergartens, authors who have written about play and my own thoughts about these questions. I have used interviews of mothers who have given birth short time before these interviews and the same with me visiting meetings for personnel working in other kindergarten then me. I have used different questions for different interviews. The observations that are used are based on my fellow workers and my own. Most of the ob-servations are from a project who took place in the kindergarten I was leading. The theories I have used are from different professions to show how the use is very different in content. Authors and adults’ views are discussed to bring the dilemmas for workers in kin-dergartens out in the light. For the analysis of play as a discourse I have used the methods from Michel Foucault. The texts, which are used, are from a lesson he held at College de France in 1970. The analysis indicates that no one is able to say when humans start to use the word play, and most of the people who use it, or need to use it, use it in a private way. My own findings is summarized in chapter 11, and is a try to say something about the play and children’s use of it and why they do it. I want to give the word play a content that most of the people can use and understand what the other person means. It will be a long way to go, and I think that the society needs help from universities and the government to wish the same.

Master i barnehagepedagogikk