Research through Play

Participatory Methods in Early Childhood

Lorna Arnott, Kate Wall, Lorna Arnott, Kate Wall, Editor

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781526493545, 9781526493552
• eBook ISBN: 9781529760552
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Early Childhood Education

Doing research with young children can be challenging for many reasons, but this book provides clear guidance on how to engage in appropriate methods. Focusing on researching through play, careful consideration is given to:

·         the founding principles of playful research

·         understanding young children's perspectives

·         prioritising the rights of the child and the voice of the child

·         examples of innovative research methods

Real life examples and research projects are presented, to enable common challenges to be anticipated and to showcase successful creative approaches, and to inspire new paths in research.

Part 1 Founding Principles for Playful Research Approaches

1 Framing and Defining Play in Early Childhood

Elizabeth Wood

Liz Chesworth

The task of framing and defining play underpins the remainder of this book in order to contextualise ethics, theories and methodologies for designing play-based research methods. The complexity of play forms and manifestations across the human lifecourse make play difficult to define, let alone to capture through research. Accordingly, we are not proposing that play can be defined, but we are arguing for clarity in articulating our own positions, as well as understanding those expressed in research, from contrasting theoretical and methodological perspectives. The choices we make in our research depend on our own histories, traditions, cultures, values and life experiences, and these in turn influence the theories and methods that we choose. What and who we look at is also influenced by cultures and contexts, which means that reflections on our own interpretations of play need to be sensitive to social and cultural diversities, such as class, ethnicities, languages, gender, sexual orientations and religious affiliations, with the possibility that there will be more than one explanation for children’s play choices and activities. Moreover, how playful pedagogies are conceived will depend on the early childhood education policy frameworks in different countries, and their histories, cultures and values. This introductory chapter aims to:

• Outline contemporary debates;
• Clarify contrasting perspectives on framing and defining play;
• Consider the implications for curriculum and pedagogical approaches.

We define early childhood as birth to eight years, to reflect international variations in the age range for preschool and primary education, and the different types of settings that children of this age attend outside their homes – private, government-funded, voluntary and non-government organisations. The term ‘practitioner’ is used to encompass all adults who work with children in preschool settings, to reflect the range of qualifications and requirements in different countries. The term ‘teacher’ is used to denote adults who are qualified with a professionally recognised teacher training body, and work either in a preschool or primary school setting. The focus of this book is on qualitative enquiry and methods for working with children, and recognises that adults’ roles incorporate playing, teaching, caring, researching and reflecting on their approaches and principles.

Given the ethical and participatory focus of the research approaches presented in this book, any definition of play should reflect children’s perspectives and experiences. With these caveats in mind, much research is driven by adults’ fascination with play, and the need to know more about what children do in their freely chosen activities, as well as the purposes those activities serve in children’s learning and development, and in their peer cultures. Furthermore, the addition of ‘educational play’ has brought further challenges to framing and defining playful pedagogies because many national and international policy frameworks incorporate play as a process that is expected to produce specific learning outcomes. In other words, play has shifted away from being seen as the natural activity of childhood, defined by concepts of freedom – to choose, to roam, to express individual and group interests, and direct play for one’s own purposes. Instead, play has been drawn into social, health and education policies in many countries to the extent that it is pulled in specific directions towards defined ends, sometimes with the means determined by adults. These contemporary contexts add to the complexity of researching play and using play-based or pedagogically appropriate research methods, because of the fuzzy boundaries between the researcher’s and the children’s play agendas.

In light of these complexities, where can we start when thinking about defining and framing play in order to design and carry out research?

The objectives for this chapter are:

1. To consider ways of defining and framing play.
2. To consider the significance of contexts for researching play and researching through play in education settings.
3. To understand three different modes of play as a means of framing research on playful pedagogies in different contexts.

Ways of Defining and Framing Play

Although there are many ways of defining play and articulating its core characteristics and purposes, no single definition has been agreed upon (Wood, 2013). Sutton-Smith (1997: 4) takes an expansive overview of ‘the great diversity of play phenomena’, shown in the quote below, but argues that presenting these as a list has limitations because the boundaries between play forms and characteristics are never discrete:

‘Mind or subjective play; solitary play; playful behaviours; informal social play; vicarious audience play; performance play; celebrations and festivals; contests, games and sports; risky or deep play. (Sutton-Smith, 1997: 4–5)’

In each of these forms, play can be ambiguous. For example, children can structure social play with rules that are negotiated to set up and direct the play, the social hierarchies of who can lead or organise the play, and who can be included or excluded. Some play forms are spontaneous and involve the freedom to choose, and others, such as contests, games and sports, are highly structured with specific rules and rigorous training programmes for elite players. Because it is difficult to define play as observable activity, some researchers have proposed that it is a state of mind, a way of being, an orientation to life that involves not just the act of playing, but also being playful or being in a state of play (Sutton-Smith, 1997).

Given the struggle to define play, it is important to understand children’s perspectives in the contexts of their play lives. Generally, children agree that play is freely chosen, takes place in their own spaces (indoors and outdoors, homes, communities and education settings) and takes place without adults. In relation to playful pedagogies, children may choose to involve adults in their play, but adults’ presence and roles should be as co-players, on the children’s terms and respectful of their purposes. Thus, children’s intentions and meanings are central to designing play-based research methods. Howe (2016) focused on the meanings and values that children attributed to play/self-initiated activity, as they made the transition from the Early Years Foundation Stage (the curriculum framework for children from birth to 5) to Year 1 of the National Curriculum (age 5 to 6) in England. Using photographs, drawings and conversations, Howe identified that children value play/self-initiated activity as a means of exercising choice and autonomy, pursuing their own interests, building social relationships with peers, and for relaxation, enjoyment and reward. However, their experiences of play shifted in the transition to Year 1, as pedagogical approaches became more teacher-directed. This study highlights the impact of changing contexts, teachers’ roles and curriculum demands on children, all of which are relevant in countries that have developed curriculum frameworks that link preschool with compulsory education.

The task of defining and framing play is complex because play is a contested concept that is used for different purposes in different contexts. Furthermore, play forms, tools and resources have changed over time, alongside children’s material cultures, conceptions of childhood and how play is valued within different communities and societies. Digital or technological play has become widespread in recent years, and could be incorporated into any play forms and characteristics. The concepts of postdigital play (Marsh et al., 2019) and converged play (Wood et al., 2019) indicate no distinction between digital and traditional play because children move seamlessly across platforms and devices. However, as Wood et al. (2019) have argued, playful pedagogies that incorporate converged play are lagging behind children’s engagement and competence with digital technologies. Therefore, stepping into the field of research on play demands that we are transparent about the theoretical and methodological lenses we are choosing, and for what purposes. In summary, the task of defining and framing play encompasses:

• Academic definitions based on research from contrasting disciplinary perspectives.
• Children’s perspectives and experiences.
• How play is framed within curriculum guidance and policy frameworks.
• Adults’ perspectives in different contexts.
• Cultural and contextual perspectives.

The diversity of play phenomena noted by Sutton-Smith (1997) has implications for researching play and the range of play-based methods that might be used. Play has been researched over time from contrasting disciplinary perspectives. From the early nineteenth century, philosophical views positioned play as the natural activity and occupation of childhood that has many benefits – cognitive, social, affective, psycho-motor as well as therapeutic, spiritual and existential. A universal view of play was applied to young children and animals in relation to different functions such as learning, development, rehearsal, imitation, acquisition of behaviours for survival and success, preparation for maturity/adulthood, and many more (Sutton-Smith, 1997). In the 20th century, the scientific study of children produced new theories of learning and development from psychology and developmental psychology. The addition of neuroscience and new research technologies generated further understanding of the development, structure and functions of the brain, its circuitry and architecture (Anderson and Reid, 2016). As the focus shifted from exploring what play is, to what play is good for, scientific research established its beneficial effects for learning, development and well-being, and its therapeutic value. These effects have been demonstrated in the developmental domains – cognitive, social, affective and psycho-motor – and in subject areas such as literacy, mathematics, science and technology.

Play is also associated with learning-relevant processes such as self-regulation, metacognition, memory, attention and problem-solving (Robson, 2010; Whitebread et al., 2012). As a result, scientific...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Acknowledgements
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• About the Editors and Contributors
• Prologue
• Part 1 Founding Principles for Playful Research Approaches
• 1 Framing and Defining Play in Early Childhood
• 2 Young Children’s Play, Voices and Rights in Research
• 3 Ethical Considerations: Play for Fun and Play for Data Collection
• Part 2 Theoretical and Conceptual Frameworks for Playful Research
• 4 Practitioner Enquiry: A Reflexive Research Method for Playful Pedagogy
• 5 Pedagogical Documentation as a Thinking Companion
• 6 Analysing and Interpreting Data from Research with Young Children: Faithfulness, Integrity and Trustworthiness in Eliciting Meaning
• Part 3 Adapting Play-Based Pedagogies as a Research Method
• 7 Approaches to Informed Consent with Young Children
• 8 Using Drawing as a Playful Research Encounter with Young Children
• 9 Observing and Interpreting Embodied Interactions: Interpreting Voice from Birth to 3 Years
• 10 The Use of Pedagogical Documentation and Artistic Languages in Research with Young Children
• 11 Frame, Explain and Theorise: Using an App as a Tool to Interpret Imaginary Play with Children and Teachers
• 12 Using Playful Methods to Understand Children’s Digital Literacies
• Part 4 Research Resources from Early Childhood Education
• Introduction to Part 4: Practical Examples
• Project 1: Facilitating Voice with Our Youngest Children
• Project 2: Being an Investigator in Our Learning Environment
• Research Proposal 1: Investigating the Perceptions of Young Children in School-Based Pretend Play
• Research Proposal 2: Playing and Being, Here and Now – Adults Using Improvisation to Join Children Aged 0–5 in Free Play
• Index