SYMP 038 - Playworlds, emotions and play explorations (part 1/2)

This double symposium deals with the shared problem of how play creates the conditions for children’s learning and development. It draws upon Vygotsky’s (1966) original conception of play as the theoretical foundation underpinning the eight papers. The first symposium focuses on emotions and children’s playworlds and the second symposium discusses play explorations from societal, institutional and personal perspectives. The first three papers (Fleer, Lewis, Hakarrainen, Bredikyte, & March) use Lindqvst’s (1995) original play method to discuss the theoretical and empirical developments observed through their research, and the fourth paper by Gonzelez Rey draws out the theoretical dimensions of emotions in relation to subjective sense and subjective configuration. The second symposium focuses on the different perspectives of global-societal perspective, a Nordic institutional perspective and a practice and child perspective. The first paper (Birkelund and Værum Sørensen) takes a global perspective and explores the different societal conditions that influence children’s outdoor play. Next, Grindheim explores the relation between the demands children meet in the Nordic kindergarten and how they find ways to research what is important to them. In Eriksen’s, the focus is on how institutions create conditions for play activity influence how children explore while playing and how this is reflected in their experience. In this paper, ‘play exploration’ is seen as a crucial practice for kindergarten pedagogy. In the last paper (Hedegaard), examples of children’s play in different life periods is presented to point out the importance of children’s play as a possibility for exploration.

For the 2nd part of the symposium, see: https://sites.grenadine.co/sites/crires/en/iscar17/schedule/101/SYMPOSIUM+038+-+Playworlds%2C+emotions+and+play+explorations+%28part+2_2%29