Otvorena pitanja i pedagoški paradoksi o igri i igračkama tokom hospitalizacije deteta

Abstract

In the era when the modern concept of childhood and the inviolability of the child’s right to education are in the spotlight, and with good reason, numerous questions and pedagogical paradoxes regarding play and toys during a child’s hospitalization are topicalized. The main aim of the paper is to problematize and analytically consider the role and purpose of play and toys in hospital conditions, in line with the relevant theoretical and empirical findings, and the measures of educational and health policy. We started from the assumption that the results of the research on the importance of play and toys during the child's hospitalization are not harmonized with educational and healthcare policy measures, neither at internationalnor at national level. The method of theoretical analysis and technique of content analysis were used. Two research instruments – content analysis matrices – were created. The basic units of analysis in the selected works (goal, sample, design and research results) and legislative and strategic documents (measures and understandings about play and toys) were analyzed using inductive coding, with respect to the defined research tasks. 24 scientific papers and 12 documents regarding educational and healthcare policies were included in the analysis. The results of the research indicate that play and toys during a child's hospitalization are primarily viewed as a health resource for overcoming and mitigating the negative psychosocial effects of the illness, while their role as a significant educational resource is secondary. In the corpus of analyzed documents of educational and healthcare policies, play is primarily understood as the child's right, need and important health resource. The need to create strategic documents and improve the existing legislation as a measure of public, i.e. societal support to play and its educational values during a child's hospitalization is recognized.