The Contextualized Collective Nature Of Children's Play Choices In Schoolyards

Oral Presentation 

Abstract 

Play as a right, represented as freely chosen and self-directed, rests on certain ideas about children and childhood. Drawing on data from a multi-study inquiry, exploring children’s play in Irish schoolyards, this paper considers assumptions on the centrality of children’s agency in play. This paper presents a re-examination of data collected as part of a PhD study examining children’s play in Irish schoolyards. Interview data from ten teachers and twenty-three children was subjected to reflexive thematic analysis with a view to exploring the play choices of children in schools identified as disadvantaged. This analysis generated insights into how the individualizing of choice within play produces dominant and at-risk identities. This highlights how risks of play deprivation are attributed to individual factors rather than structural issues such as racism. Furthermore, this study revealed the impact that the particulars each context had on choices made and the collective dimensions of children’s play in schoolyards. Insights from this reexamination of research that is in progress, contributes to discussions on how reconsidering agency as collective, may support the transformative potential within play, to create inclusive school communities.