1st Edition
Researching Play from a Playwork Perspective
Foreword (Peter K. Smith)
Introduction (Pete King and Shelly Newstead)
1. Why the Playworker’s Mind-set is Ideal for Research with Children: Child Researchers Investigate Education Rights in Nicaragua (Harry Shier)
2. Playwork Research as the Art of ‘Mirroring’ (Shelly Newstead)
3. Nomadic Wonderings on Playwork Research: Putting a Dialectical and Ethnographic Methodology to Work Again (Wendy Russell)
4. Researching Children’s Play as a Playworker-Ethnographer (Hannah Smith Brennan)
5. Playing at Research: Playfulness as a Form of Knowing and Being in Research with Children (Philip Waters)
6. Process, Participation and Reflection: How Playwork Practice Influenced a Mixed Method Approach to Researching Children’s Perception of Choice in their Play (Pete King)
7. Using Action Research to Explore Play Facilitation in School-based School-age Childcare Settings (Eva Kane)
Conclusion (Pete King and Shelly Newstead)
Biography
Pete King is a senior lecturer in Childhood Studies at Swansea University, and his current research has been published in both national and international journals, including Journal of Playwork Practice and the American Journal of Play. Pete currently lectures on Children’s Rights, Developmental and Therapeutic Play, Perspectives on Play and Research Methods.
Shelly Newstead is a doctoral candidate at UCL Institute of Education, London, and has worked in the playwork field for over 25 years as a practitioner, trainer, author, editor and publisher. Shelly is the founding editor of Journal of Playwork Practice and the Vice-President of ICCP (International Council for Children’s Play).
‘This exciting text offers a thoughtful and provocative series of interventions that outline the key role that playworkers have in researching play. The book’s focus on bringing together the insights from professional playwork practice with careful critical and theoretical reflection on play – and on researching childhood – provides a clear statement of the importance of research that combines academic and professional insight. It offers new and established researchers alike an important resource for qualitative and, especially, play-full research.’ - Professor Peter Kraftl, Chair in Human Geography, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK
‘Researching Play from a Playwork Perspective provides a comprehensive overview of innovative approaches to research into children’s play that considers what it means to be a reflective playworker investigating the play practice. The individual chapters demonstrate how the researchers have developed methodologies that strengthen ways to enhance investigations into what constitutes good playwork. I recommend this book to would-be researchers wishing to study questions of play that put playwork values at the centre of their enquiry project.’ - Dr Keith Cranwell, Chair, Thurrock Play Network, UK
