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They needed the chaos to learn: Exploring Playworlds as Real Utopias
Jönköping University, School of Education and Communication, HLK, Praktiknära utbildningsforskning (PUF), Preschool Education research. University of Helsinki.
Jönköping University, School of Education and Communication, HLK, Praktiknära utbildningsforskning (PUF), Preschool Education research. Institute of Culture and Education, Södertörn University.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3353-6170
Jönköping University, School of Education and Communication, HLK, Praktiknära utbildningsforskning (PUF), Preschool Education research. Brooklyn College; City University of New York.
2020 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Inclusion, a basic principle of equal education set by The UNESCO Salamanca Statement in 1994, can be seen as an only rarely realized utopia. The principle that no child should be excluded from any early childhood classroom activity (V. Paley in Armstrong & Dawson, 2004), is often considered by teachers to be difficult or even impossible to achieve in today’s early childhood and childhood classrooms. In this paper we examine adult-child joint play spaces called “playworlds” (Lindqvist, 1995; authors et al., 2011) as potentially inclusive spaces in the field of education. Playworlds are adult-child joint play activities in which children and teachers create, enter and exit fantasy worlds.  We argue that playworlds can be thought of as 'real utopias' (Wright, 2010; Brown & Cole, 2001) that aim to develop inclusive practices and communities within an institution (preschool or school) that in most cases relies on exclusive practices. We investigate, with two case studies, one from U.S. early childhood elementary school classroom and one from Finnish childhood elementary school classroom, how two playworlds functioned as radically inclusive settings, seemingly bypassing institutional even physical barriers to inclusivity through the logic of play. We discuss the potentials and challenges of creating these "as if" imaginative worlds that are located within regulated and controlled institutions such as schools (other & author, 2019). We also examine doing educational research through playworlds as a utopian methodology (Brown & Cole, 2001): What is required of researchers in supporting these alternative spaces?

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2020.
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URN: urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-50696OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hj-50696DiVA, id: diva2:1470732
Conference
Exploring Ethnography, Language and Communication 8 (EELC8), 24-25 September 2020, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Available from: 2020-09-25 Created: 2020-09-25 Last updated: 2020-09-25Bibliographically approved

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Lecusay, RobertFerholt, Beth

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