Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Play from Birth and Beyond

While firmly acknowledging the importance of play in early childhood, this book interrogates the assumption that play is a birthright, rather than solely the occupation for children. 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.

Sandra Lynch (PhD) is Director of the Institute for Ethics and Society and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney campus. Her research interests lie in applied and professional ethics, values education, and friendship. She is author of Philosophy and Friendship (Edinburgh UP, 2005); Strategies for a Thinking Classroom (Primary English Teachers Association, Australia, 2008); “Friendship and Happiness from a Philosophical Perspective” in Friendship and Happiness (Springer, 2015) and “Philosophy, play and ethics in education” in Philosophical Perspectives on Play (Routledge, 2015).

Deborah Pike (PhD) is the Discipline Head and a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney Campus. Her research interests include cultural studies, postcolonial and modernist literary studies, and wellbeing and play studies. She is author of The Subversive Art of Zelda Fitzgerald (University of Missouri Press, 2016); and “The Russian Way of Happiness: Choice, Love and Community” in On Happiness: New Ideas for the Twenty-First Century (UWA Press, 2016), a book that she also co-edited.

Cynthia a Beckett (PhD) is a Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Education at the University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney Campus and an experienced early childhood educator and advisor. Her research interests explore connections between the sociology of childhood, young children and families and the topic of play. Her publications include “Imaginative education explored through the concept of Playing in the In-between” in Imagination in Educational Theory and Practice, a Many-sided Vision (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012). She is a member of the Board of the prestigious SDN Children Services and chairs the Board’s Research Ethics subcommittee.