Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Play from Birth and Beyond

✍ Scribed by Sandra Lynch,Deborah Pike,Cynthia à Beckett (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer Singapore
• Year: 2017
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 313
• Series: International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development 18
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

While firmly acknowledging the importance of play in early childhood, this book interrogates the assumption that play is a birthright. It pushes beyond traditional understandings of play to ask questions such as: what is the relationship between play and the arts – theatre, music and philosophy – and between play and wellbeing? How is play relevant to educational practice in the rapidly changing circumstances of today’s world? What do Australian Aboriginal conceptions of play have to offer understandings of play?
The book examines how ideas of play evolve as children increasingly interact with popular culture and technology, and how developing notions of play have changed our work spaces, teaching practices, curricula, and learning environments, as well as our understanding of relationships between children and adults. This multidisciplinary volume on the subject of play combines the work of some of the world’s leading researchers in the field of early childhood education with contributions from distinguished and emerging scholars in areas as diverse as education, theatre studies, architecture, literature, philosophy, cultural studies, theology and the creative arts. Reconsidering the common focus on play in early education, to investigate its broader impact, this collection offers a refreshing and valuable addition to studies on play, reconceptualizing it for the 21st century.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter ....Pages i-xxxiii
Playing with Theory (Cynthia à Beckett, Sandra Lynch, Deborah Pike)....Pages 1-22
Front Matter ....Pages 23-23
Making Life Worth Living: Theories of Play Enlivened Through the Work of Donald Winnicott (Cynthia à Beckett)....Pages 25-37
The First 2 Years of Life: A Developmental Psychology Orientation to Child Development and Play (Kathleen Tait)....Pages 39-59
Looking Deeper: Play and the Spiritual Dimension (Cathie Harrison, Christine Robinson)....Pages 61-78
‘Muck-about’: Aboriginal Conceptions of Play and Early Childhood Learning (Denise Proud, Sandra Lynch, Cynthia à Beckett, Deborah Pike)....Pages 79-91
Loving Learning: The Value of Play Within Contemporary Primary School Pedagogy (Dee O’Connor)....Pages 93-107
Front Matter ....Pages 109-109
Cultural Development of the Child in Role-Play: Drama Pedagogy and Its Potential Contribution to Early Childhood Education (Marilyn Fleer, Anna Kamaralli)....Pages 111-128
The Playground of the Mind: Teaching Literature at University (Deborah Pike)....Pages 129-150
Gamestorming the Academy: On Creative Play and Unconventional Learning for the Twenty-First Century (Bem Le Hunte)....Pages 151-161
Designing for Serious Play (Fiona Young, Genevieve Murray)....Pages 163-179
The Power of Play-Based Learning: A Pedagogy of Hope for Potentially At-Risk Children (Marguerite Maher, Stephanie Smith)....Pages 181-203
Front Matter ....Pages 205-205
Gendering the Subject in Playful Encounters (Bronwyn Davies)....Pages 207-216
Toys and the Creation of Cultural Play Scripts (Anne Kultti, Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson)....Pages 217-230
Pretend Play and Technology: Young Children Making Sense of Their Everyday Social Worlds (Susan Danby, Christina Davidson, Maryanne Theobald, Sandra Houen, Karen Thorpe)....Pages 231-245
Play, Virtue, and Well-Being: Is Consumerist Play a Bad Habit? (Angus Brook)....Pages 247-264
Lego, Creative Accumulation and the Future of Play (Camilla Nelson, Ari Mattes)....Pages 265-279
Back Matter ....Pages 281-294

✦ Subjects

Early Childhood Education