Call for Papers

**** apologies for cross-posting***

Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) Annual Conference, London, 31st August-2nd September 2016

Session Title: Playfully being outdoors: research, pedagogy and practice.  

Session sponsorship: Geographies of Children, Youth and Families Research Group (GCYFRG)

Session Convenors: Mark Leather (University of St Mark & St John, Plymouth), Tracy Hayes (University of Cumbria) & Heather Prince (University of Cumbria)

We hope this will be an interactive, thought-provoking session whereby participants are encouraged to reflect on their own experiences in outdoor spaces and to engage in the wider debate of how to support others to develop an awareness and appreciation of the world around them. We invite presentations, in both paper and more innovative formats, from across the disciplines, including geography, sociology, outdoor learning, higher education (pedagogy and research) and other related disciplines. We particularly welcome practitioners’ perspectives on how to maintain a playful attitude with older children, young people and adults.

We argue for the re-conceptualisation of “playtime” and the development of playfulness as a useful approach to cultivate creativity (Leather, 2014), that goes well beyond childhood, through adolescence and into adulthood.  What is playfulness? It is a mood state that facilitates and accompanies ‘playful play’. It may not be observable in behaviour – playful individuals are not necessarily playing, even though they are in a playful mood. We can think playfully as well as act playfully (Hayes, 2015). It is a way of generating new thought patterns in a protected context (Bateson and Martin, 2013). Playful play facilitates creativity – sometimes immediately and sometimes after a considerable delay.  It is acknowledged that there is a complex relationship between engendering creativity and the outcomes for learners. We suggest that there are two arguments for adopting a playful approach and hope that you may be able to suggest more. 

Firstly, the neo-liberalist discourse about higher education is concerned with career employment. In this sense, creativity is seen as a graduate employability skill by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI, 2012) who consider the skill of creative thinking as a prime outcome of higher education. This CBI report found that a fifth of employers were not satisfied with graduates’ use of creative thinking.  Secondly, there are theoretical and empirical accounts about adult playfulness that describe its relation to positive outcomes including: creativity and spontaneity but also quality of life, virtuousness, stress coping and academic achievement. Playfulness has the potential in serving as a lubricant in social situations and for teamwork in work-related settings.  There is a clear relationship between exhibiting playfulness and experiencing positive emotions.

In our work we actively encourage outdoor educators to engage in “playtime” and have proposed a pedagogy of play to do this (Leather, 2014). However, we need to overcome the Victorian values of our educational heritage and its cultural association of playtime as frivolous so that playfulness can be seen as an intellectual act, opposing the view of playfulness in adults as being childish and without any great sense. ‘The world looks, smells, feels, sounds and tastes different when using this approach’ (Hayes, 2013). We invite you to join us in this exploration and will accept abstracts on (but not limited to):

·         Playfulness and the re-conceptualisation of “playtime”: is this necessary?

·         The relationship between playfulness, creativity and creative thinking.

·         Playfulness in research: playful methodological approaches to gathering and presenting data.

·         Playfulness in teaching: how does it contribute to outcomes for learners?

·         Playfulness across the ages: does age matter?

·         Playfulness in practice: what does this look like?

·         Playfulness and wellbeing: what does this feel like?

We are looking for papers/presentations of 20 minutes (15 minutes each, followed by 5 mins for questions). Authors should submit abstracts of up to 250 words by 12^th February 2016 to Mark Leather ([log in to unmask]), Tracy Hayes ([log in to unmask]) and Heather Prince ([log in to unmask]). Please include author name(s), affiliation(s), contact email and paper title.

Yours,

Mark, Heather & Tracy  

References

Bateson, P. and Martin, P. (2013) Play, playfulness, creativity and innovation Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press

CBI (2012) Learning to Grow: what employers need from education and skills. London: CBI

Hayes, T. (2015) ‘Playful approaches to outdoor learning: Boggarts, Bears and Bunny Rabbits!’

in Horton, J. and Evans, B. (eds.) Play, Recreation, Health and Wellbeing Vol 9 of Skelton, T. (Ed.) Geographies of Children and Young People. Springer, Singapore.

Hayes, T.A. (2013) ‘Seeing the world through their eyes. Learning from a 5 ½ year old, a rabbit

and a boat ride with aunty’.  Horizons 63: pp.36-39

Leather, M. (2014) ‘Time to play: developing a pedagogy of play for outdoor learning’.

Presentation at The European Institute for Outdoor Adventure Education and Experiential Learning (EOE) Seminar “Under the open sky: Supporting healthy lifestyle and relationship to nature and society through outdoor engagement in youth work -European perspective, hosted by Association of Nature and Outdoor schools (SNÚ), in cooperation with EOE and The Educational Research Institute of University of Iceland. ttp://utinam.is/?page_id=576<http://utinam.is/?page_id=576%20>http://utinam.is/?page_id=576