Play

The first article I ever published. An interpretation of Nietzsche's philosophy that takes creative play as the central concept of his positive views. Play becomes the paradigm for understanding human life and the cosmos in a post-nihilistic world.

Sledging, or ‘trash talk’ or ‘chirping’, as it’s known in other parts of the world, has long been part of competitive sport. However, more recent times have seen the issue of sledging, and its place in sport, debated with many athletes, fans and academics arguing that sledging has moved outside the notion of ‘sportsmanship’ and gone beyond light hearted, good natured banter. They argue it is now characterized as hurtful, insulting, offensive and intimidating – a tactic that has moved beyond fair play and, in many instances, no longer acceptable. This paper seeks to explore this issue in greater depth. In particular, this paper seeks to ask, ‘is sledging part of play, or is it a characteristic of play’s corruption?’ The argument proceeds by adopting a conception of play grounded in the work of Johan Huizinga. Play may be understood as a core component of even professional sport, not least in that play lies at the moral core of the ‘spirit of sport’ in fairplay and respect for one’s opponents. Using examples to illuminate the changing nature of play and sledging, it will be argued that sledging in its modern form leads to the corruption of this ‘spirit of sport’. The insights of sports and philosophy academics and scholars are drawn upon, as are the insights of surveyed sports fans and amateur athletes who highlight their views on sledging and its place in modern sport. By doing so, sledging’s role in sport and its most dominant characteristics, according to those to watch professional sport and play at the community level, become clear, helping to articulate the difference between a form of sledging that is still playful and a part of play, and sledging that is characteristic of play’s corruption.

BACKGROUND: Qualitative research into the effect of school recess on children's physical activity is currently limited. This study used a write and draw technique to explore children's perceptions of physical activity opportunities during recess.METHODS: 299 children age 7-11 years from 3 primary schools were enlisted. Children were grouped into Years 3 & 4 and Years 5 & 6 and completed a write and draw task focusing on likes and dislikes. Pen profiles were used to analyze the data.RESULTS: Results indicated 'likes' focused on play, positive social interaction, and games across both age groups but showed an increasing dominance of games with an appreciation for being outdoors with age. 'Dislikes' focused on dysfunctional interactions linked with bullying, membership, equipment, and conflict for playground space. Football was a dominant feature across both age groups and 'likes/dislikes' that caused conflict and dominated the physically active games undertaken.CONCLUSION: Recess was important for the development of conflict management and social skills and contributed to physical activity engagement. The findings contradict suggestions that time spent in recess should be reduced because of behavioral issues.

This thesis brings together the fields of political communications and games studies, in order to facilitate novel analysis methods for post-broadcast democracies and the digital citizens that inhabit them. Following the process of mediatization, in which the dominant media exerts “moulding forces” over the socio-cultural spheres in which it resides, the author suggests that digital games are a growing component in mediatization, as part of the overall development of the ludification of culture. Consequently, this work implements play and games studies theoretical framework in order to explain how political engagement is shifting from the ideological to the casual, how politicians use game-like mechanics in their campaigns to influence and engage audiences and how the gaming skills of the younger generation are applied also to navigating public battlefields rather than only virtual ones. The author dubs these new forms of engagement “casual politicking”, as it prioritizes non-committing and mundane actions facilitated through the amalgamation of digital devices and social practices arising from ICT and games culture. Such forms are dependent on actions more than words, evoking and harnessing impulsive bursts of productivity that serves certain issues, utilizing technological interfaces and social connectedness of users. The author concludes by suggesting that future propagation of playful and gameful practices in political communications implores the employment of additional research framework from cultural studies and humanities to supplement traditional tool of communications.

Hvordan skabes den kreative proces, hvad består den af, hvilken
betydning har den for os som mennesker, hvordan er sammenhængen
mellem kreativtiet og den æstetisk læreproces, og har kreativiteten
relevans som dannelsesfokus i børnenes opvækst?

במאמר מוצג המושג "כללי המשחק" בהקשריו הפוליטיים, מתוך כוונה להתמודד בעזרתו עם השאלה האם וכיצד שינוי בשדה הפוליטי הוא מן האפשר. בְּעולם משולל עוגנים טרנסצנדנטיים. החשיבה על המשחק
(game/play)
מסייעת לי להציג מודל שבו שלושה טיפוסי משַחקים השונים זה מזה ביחסם אל כללי המשחק; יותר מכך – היא מאפשרת לי להראות עד כמה פרומים ועמומים הגבולות שקיימים לכאורה בין הטיפוסים האנליטיים השונים של המשַחקים.
שאלת היתכנותו של שינוי חברתי מעסיקה את ג'ודית בטלר בספרה "טענת אנטיגונה". עבור בטלר, אנטיגונה היא מופת למי שמצליחה לא רק לקרוא תיגר על חוקי המשחק של הסדר הסמלי, אלא גם לפרוץ מגרש חדש ותקדימי – שכן על אף שהיא מתה, "המעשה שלה נחקק בשפה". במאמר אני מבקשת להרחיב את דיונה זה ולהאירו באמצעות מושג המשחק, כפי שפוּתח בכתיבתם של הפסיכואנליטיקאי דונלד ויניקוט ושל הפילוסוף לודוויג ויטגנשטיין.
אף שהתחום החברתי-פוליטי הוא לא בהכרח המגרש הביתי של שני הוגים אלה, לטענתי יכולה להיות לכתיבתם על משחק תרומה חשובה לסוגיה שמעסיקה את בטלר ורבים אחרים. בין תחומי המחקר של ויטגנשטיין וויניקוט ישנו לכאורה מרחק רב, אך העיון בדיוניהם על אודות מושג המשחק מגלה כי לשניהם משותפת העמדת רעיון ההסכמה בבסיס החיים החברתיים. במאמר משורטט הקשר בין רעיונות אלה לבין רעיון הפרפורמטיביות של בטלר, אשר על פיו כל ניסיון לפעול על פי כללי המשחק הוא ניסיון פרשני שמקבל את מובנו מההקשר שבו הוא מתבצע. כפי שאני מראה במאמר, לתפיסה זאת יש השלכות מרחיקות לכת לגבי שאלת היתכנותו של שינוי פוליטי ולגבי היחס בין גישות שונות לכללי המשחק.
התרומה המיוחדת של המפגש הלא טריוויאלי בין בטלר לבין ויניקוט וויטגנשטיין טמונה בין השאר באפשרות להאיר כך את הנקודה העיוורת אצל השניים האחרונים לגבי משחק ומשמעות, המביאה אותם להתעלם מההיבטים האלימים הפוטנציאליים של המשחק; תרומה נוספת היא ההזדמנות להעמיק כך בסוגיית החריגה מכללי המשחק, ולנסח באופן פורה את האפשרות לחריגה שעדיין מצליחה להישאר באזור הגבול העמום של כללי המשחק, ושמאפשרת – כדברי בטלר – "לכתוב אותם מחדש או אפילו לכתוב אותם לראשונה".

A incompreensão que, de uma forma ou de outra, acompanhou a exibição pública dos filmes analisados neste livro – A Pantera, Europa 1951, Lilith e o Seu Destino, A Marquesa de O, Fala com Ela – irmana-os na colecção de filmes inaceitáveis. A estranheza que os junta, ora pelo que os mesmos tratam, ora pelo modo como as personagens se comportam, ora pelo ponto de vista adoptado pelo realizador, não deixa de ser uma inquietante estranheza. De forma particular, a alteridade que os protagonistas transportam como um corpo estranho no seu seio submete-os a uma dura provação. Que é também uma prova para o espectador participante ao dar-se por tarefa tornar amáveis essas personagens estranhas — única forma de poder compreendê-las — através do método empático.

This is an example of a workshop that I delivered at Beijing Normal University in June 2011 that I hope will give people an idea of the breadth of ideas, repertoire (curriculum), creative pedagogy, and research that I bring to the enterprise of early childhood music education.

I am not a 'One Trick Pony' (to quote singer-songwriter Paul Simon) and consider my perspectives to be informed by practice and research in music learning that goes back to the works of Jersild & Bienstock in the 1920s, includes Moorhead & Pond, Andress, Boswell, Cass-Beggs, Birkenshaw, Gordon and many others. 

There are lecture notes and movie clips of my working with young children that are interspersed in this 3 hour presentation-workshop as well as another 3 hour session that refers heavily to research over the past 40 years.

I am available for workshops and lectures on this topic and can insure you that I provide informative, fun, music filled sessions for  pre-service and in-service teachers and researchers.

This thesis is composed of my original work, and contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference has been made in the text. I have clearly stated the contribution by others to jointly-authored works that I have included in my thesis.

Bu araştırmanın amacı; erken çocukluk dönemindeki 6 yaş çocuklarının ve okul öncesi öğretmenlerinin oyun
hakkındaki görüş ve beklentilerinin ortaya koyulmasıdır. Bu amaçla araştırmanın öğretmen boyutunda;
öğretmenlerin oyun hakkındaki görüşleri, oyunu tanımlayıcı bilgileri, öğrenme sürecinde oyunu bir yöntem
olarak kullanma tercihleri, bu konudaki uygulamaları ile çocuklara sağladıkları oyun fırsatları ve çocukların
oyun gereksinimi karşısındaki engeller araştırılmıştır. Araştırmanın çocuk boyutunda ise çocukların oyun
hakkındaki görüşleri, oyun davranışları, oyun fırsatları ile ilgili memnuniyet ve beklentileri incelenmiştir. Veri
toplama aracı olarak yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme soruları kullanılmıştır. Araştırma sonucunda; çocukların ve
öğretmenlerin oyun tanımlarına ilişkin benzer özellikler üzerinde durdukları görülmüştür. Öğretmenlerin
çoğunun eğitim programı içinde oyunun önemini fark etmedikleri ve aktif bir öğretim yöntemi olarak oyundan
faydalanmadıkları, bazı öğretmenlerin ise bu konudaki eksikliklerinin farkında oldukları ve desteklenmeye
ihtiyaç duydukları belirlenmiştir.

Based on the ethnographic study of the card game Bela, this paper rethinks the intersections and interstices between game and non-game contexts, challenging the presumption that play is unproductive and non-materialistic. By embedding the rules of the game into its socio-cultural context, the paper identifies a symbolic space of shared stories, emotions and personal interests that coexist with, modify and lubricate the rules of the game. By considering play as a way of engaging the world, rather than a categorically identified, bounded and thus inconsequential activity, I explore how the open-endedness of the card game relates to broader life experiences, and particularly how it shapes and influences perceptions of work and productivity.

In the mid-twentieth century, psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark conducted their famous "doll test" in which they asked African American children whether they preferred black or white dolls. Most children identified white dolls as "nice" and black dolls as "bad"-proof, the Clarks argued, that segregation damaged black children psychologically. These findings figured pivotally in Brown v. Board of Education. Bernstein defamiliarizes the "doll test" by locating it not in the history of Civil Rights but instead in the history of representational play involving racialized dolls. Bernstein argues that a black child's rejection of a black doll might indeed reveal internalized racism; but it could also constitute a rejection of violently racist practices of play that had, for a century, been coordinated through black dolls. Thus Bernstein offers a new understanding of the Clarks' child-subjects not as passive internalizers of racism instead as agents who resisted inherited traditions of performance.

This paper investigates the variety of factors that hinder the implementation of play (as defined by Western scholars) in Asian preschools. Drawing on theoretical frameworks of policy borrowing, enactment, and glocalisation, we analyse three jurisdictions that illustrate distinctive problematics: India, Mainland China, and Hong Kong. The methodology involves a bibliographic review. Each jurisdiction is presented as a narrative portrait, including key socio-cultural characteristics, features of early childhood education (ECE) system, role of play in government Findings show that the distinctive factors hindering play relate to societal mindsets in India, lack of curriculum clarity in China, and structural factors and parental pressures in Hong Kong. Common hurdles include high societal emphasis on academic learning, lack of information on how play should contribute to achieve curriculum outcomes, and insufficient teacher preparation. We show that play is neither adequately defined nor justified in some Asian policy frameworks and argue that play might not be viable in certain preschools (especially in half-day programmes). An alternative glocal notion is proposed, child-led activities, which would be less conceptually problematic and more culturally appropriate. The study highlights the need for glocalisation of Asian ECE systems.

This paper presents the pedagogical design, the technical development and initial findings of the educational program “From the Ancient to the Modern Tablets”. Targeting at primary and secondary school students, this project aimed at creating immersive multimedia eLearning experiences about the book history as well as its future. The main aims for the students were to: motivate and promote the early literacy and extracurricular reading; establish cognitive links between writing, books and acquiring knowledge with technology; and possess the basic digital skills when using a tablet.

Poker’s explosion in popularity over recent years has generated a potential demand for academic study into the game.  This paper will describe and explain case studies of two poker players.  Larry plays recreationally, looking to socialise and minimises exposure to risk by employing discourse of “enchantment” – instilling certain cards with “magical” powers and seeing the “poker world” populated with “gods” of “fate”.  Losses are viewed as ‘entrance fees’, winnings the result of good fortune he claims to possess.  The other player – Todd – is a “serious” player, with the explicit aim of maximising financial gain and implicitly asserting skill and gaining a sense of pride.  Exposure to financial risk elements in poker are controlled by managing “bankrolls” which absorbs the shock of prolonged losing streaks, statistical databases are employed to analyse the play of past hands and combined with study of poker theory, these methods “disenchant” Todd’s poker world and enables him to explain the game without using “enchanted” discourse.  This dissertation has links to and develops anthropological areas of “play”, specifically seeking reasons one plays poker; the anthropology of “risk”, notably methods to control financial risk in poker plus outlining broad “player types”.  The study of risk includes association to discourses of “enchantment” and “divination” which are used to explain events taking place in the poker world.  The argument will outline many people’s complicity or unconscious action in maintaining the view of an “enchanted” poker arena, concluding with an appeal for further studies whilst poker continues its rise in interest.

In this chapter, the authors provide two arguments: (1) the construction of narratives (or proto-narratives) and social pretend play with peers are, for young children, experiences that can be important for emergent literacy and (2) whenever meaning is shared, in narratives or in social pretend play, community cultural practices must be considered. We implore early childhood educators to reemphasize shared meaning in the lives of children. Examples are presented to illustrate, community cultural practices around language use, around the meaning of play and work, and around who participates in play are all important to consider as we put shared meaning back into early childhood education.