Practice-Based Research in Children's Play

This unique collection of 12 research projects carried out by experienced practitioners in the play sector in the UK and USA puts forward a range of perspectives on children's play and adults' relationships with it. Drawing on a diverse range of research methodologies, the studies consider adults' memories of play; the co-production of spaces where children can play (in adventure playgrounds, out of school clubs, children’s zoos, children's museums and public space); therapeutic approaches to playwork; playwork and wellbeing; supporting the play of severely disabled children and young people; play and contemporary art practice; and children's use of technology in a playground. Offering a fresh look beyond the dominant singular voice of developmental psychology, this book is essential reading for anyone studying or working with children at play. PRACTICE-BASED RESEARCH IN CHILDREN’S PLAY Contents List of figures Notes on contributors Acknowledgements Foreword 1. Perspectives on play research: the practice-theory-research entanglement Introducing the chapters Part One. Then and now: historical perspectives 2. Nostalgia and play Introduction Approaching the research Adult perceptions of children’s play behaviour and use of space Comparing adult and child responses Nostalgia measures Analysis of nostalgia and affect measures Analysis of adult interview transcripts with reference to nostalgia Correlation between nostalgia measures and nostalgia in adult interview transcripts Closing thoughts: implications of the research for the playwork profession 3. Debris and delight: children’s play during the second world war Introduction Second world war childhoods How the research happened Opportunities for playing Affordances Loose parts, toys and games Resilience and risk Concluding reflections: What can playwork learn from accounts of wartime play? 4. Adventure playgrounds and me: bringing the past into the auto-ethnographic present Introduction A physical and metaphorical journey ‘Stories are the truths that won’t stand still’ (Pelias, 2004, p 171) The most welcome luxury ‘Bringing the past into the autobiographical present’ (Denzin, 2006, p 423) Drawn by a stronger narrative Key themes and embodied feelings Conclusion Part Two. Here and there, this and that: spatial and creative perspectives 5. Dancing with strangers: observing play in an English urban square Introduction The research process Movement and presence Objects and imagination Coexistence and co-formation Conclusion 6. Researching children’s play and contemporary art Introduction Children’s museum and early childhood research paradigms Art practice as research A method assemblage experiment in arts-based research in a children’s museum Conclusion 7. Play and value: determining the values of a nature play setting Introduction Supporting openness and change The genesis of a nature play environment Zoo vs game reserve: managing the play setting Assessing the value of the play setting: designing an approach Emerging values of play at the zoo Intrinsic value: ‘a place to play’ Instrumental value: connecting children with nature Institutional value: the institution’s stake in a nature play setting Conclusion 8. Your space or mine? Play in out of school clubs Introduction Designing an approach Your space or mine? Sharing space(s) Designing space: routines, habits and competing values Everyday interactions: supporting or constraining children’s play? Power Conclusions and closing thoughts: story-telling and reflections on practice 9. Co-creating spaces on an adventure playground: using particip 10. Children, mobile phones and outdoor play Introduction Slip-sliding the approach Affordances and affect The spaces of mobile technology Methodology and methods Mobile phone use in context: the adventure playground Mobile phone use at the playground Situated realities Conclusion Part Three. Playfulness and wellbeing 11. Understandings of play for children with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) Introduction The research context and approach The Playwork Principles Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities (PMLD) Communication beyond words Relationships and Invitations Playfulness Concluding reflections 12. Therapeutic playwork: exploring playworkers’ perceptions of therapeutic playwork training and its usefulness in supporting children in afterschool clubs Introduction Understandings of childhood The rise in childcare Understandings of playwork A therapeutic perspective The sensitive adult The effect of play on adults The direction of playwork Methodology and methods Reflections Conclusion 13. Play, playwork and wellbeing Introduction Childhood wellbeing research: concepts and contexts Childhood wellbeing research: approaches and agendas Play as a way to wellbeing: taking an assets approach to wellness Playworkers and children at play: partners in research Playwork and participatory research: co-producing knowledge Designing and delivering the Art of Wellbeing project A picture of wellbeing: assets at the children’s disposal Future wellbeing research: a place for child-centred participation research Closing thoughts 14. What do we want research in children’s play to do? Introduction What is to be known? Influencing policy Policy processes as material discursive practice Changing the world through re-enchantment Appendix. The Playwork Principles An Introduction Playwork Principles Index "This unique collection of 12 research projects carried out by experienced practitioners in the play sector in the UK and USA puts forward a range of perspectives on children's play and adults' relationships with it. Drawing on a diverse range of research methodologies, the studies consider adults' memories of play; the co-production of spaces where children can play (in adventure playgrounds, out of school clubs, children's zoos, children's museums and public space); therapeutic approaches to playwork; playwork and wellbeing; supporting the play of severely disabled children and young people; play and contemporary art practice; and children's use of technology in a playground." --back cover There has been a growing awareness in recent years of the importance of play in children's learning and development - but that awareness has not been accompanied by sufficient scholarly attention, outside of conceptual studies and how-to textbooks. This collection fills that gap by bringing together scholars from a range of fields and methodological approaches to look at play from a practice-based perspective. Moving beyond the dominant voice of developmental psychology, the book offers a number of new ways of approaching children's play and the roles of adults in supporting it; as a result, it will be valuable to anyone working with or studying children at play. Originally published: 2017 Offering a fresh look to complement the dominant singular voice of developmental psychology, this unique collection of twelve research projects carried out in the UK and USA is essential reading for anyone studying or working with children at play. Offering a fresh look to complement the dominant singular voice of developmental psychology, this unique collection of 12 research projects carried out in the UK and USA is essential reading for anyone studying or working with children at play