The disregard for play: a reality in teaching/learning processes of public education in Colombia

Play is presented as a manifestation participating in the genesis of human development. It significantly contributes to motor, cognitive, social, political, and cultural processes, enabling deep learning and comprehensive educational experiences. Although there is extensive epistemological and experiential knowledge supporting its importance in pedagogy, play continues to be ignored within formal education settings, especially in public schools, where it is still conceived as a waste of time. This situation reveals a structural inconsistency: while contemporary research and theories promote and reinforce play as a central element in meaningful learning, emotional education, and the bidirectional construction of learning processes, school realities remain anchored in technical, mechanical, standardized, and control-centered practices.

Through this reflective and documentary review article, a critical and sensitive examination is undertaken regarding the place of play within educational contexts, drawing on theoretical frameworks from psychology, critical pedagogy, embodiment studies, culture, and affective neuroscience. From this perspective, play is understood as an energetic force rather than a mere didactic resource used intermittently. On the contrary, its role in the classroom should be recognized as a primary pedagogical element—emancipatory, liberating, and suitable for transforming education by humanizing it and allowing both children and teachers to genuinely enjoy it.

The theoretical and documentary analysis demonstrates that the marginalization of play is linked to adult-centered conceptions, in which school administrators and teachers resist curricular flexibility and the transformation of assessment policies that privilege content memorization over embodied experience—learning by doing and being with others.

Likewise, the exclusion of play is argued to constitute a form of structural violence that primarily affects public school students by delegitimizing their social, cultural, neighborhood-based, embodied, contextual, and emotional expressions. It is also considered violence insofar as it deliberately ignores Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and Colombian Law 724 of 2001 within the framework of the Political Constitution of Colombia.

Restoring play to its rightful pedagogical place is a crucial act for initiating a different configuration of curriculum, teacher education, and public education policies. In this sense, play is presented as an embodied practice that enriches the democratization of the educational experience.