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PRIMARY CHILDREN’S PLAYGROUND GEOGRAPHIES

Professor Simon Catling

GA Conference, Derby,

April 10th, 2010

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In the playground

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Introduction

The context: Children’s Geographies.

Primary school children spend some 20% of their school day in the socio-spatial environment of their school playground.

Teachers provide this opportunity for children to be ‘at play’, having ‘time out’ in school, letting off energy, having fun, chatting to friends, mooching about, occasionally in conflict, sometimes on the edge of things…

Playtime and the culture of the playground is a significant experience for children, a sizeable part of a school’s hidden curriculum.

Playgrounds and school grounds are spaces that matter to and have an impact on children’s experiences and socialisation.

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Eight varieties of playground spaces

• All-weather open space: the main playground area;• Pathways and edges: paths, flower beds, seats;• Tucked away spaces: between buildings, corners,

hidden;• Local feature spaces: micro-features, eg drain

covers;• Calm spaces: quiet areas, eg seated area, shelter;• Play grounds: area for play, eg climbing frame, rough

ground;• In-use/out-of-use spaces: time or weather

constrained, eg field;• Out-of-bounds spaces: permission needed, eg grass

areas.

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Various school playground spaces

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Examples of children’s playground activities

Play examples• Energetic games, eg

football;• Co-operative games, eg tag;• Imaginative play, eg homes;• Imitative play, eg dressing

up;• Toy play, eg with model

vehicles;• Games play, eg marbles;• ‘Being friends’, eg sitting and

talking.

Examples of geographies• Bounded territories;• Feature-based sites;• Fuzzy or overlapping

spaces;• Rules of place use/action;• Space/place constraints;• Imagined places;• Crowded/under-populated

places;• Managed places.

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Primary children’s experiences of school playgrounds: Overview

• Children’s views on their school playgrounds;• Contingent geographies of the playground;• Playgrounds of conflict;• Children’s perspectives on teachers’ values;• Playgrounds children desire;• Children’s interest in their own playground needs.

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Children’s experience – 1

Children’s views on their school playgrounds:• Uniformity ‘boring’ – variety ‘colourful’;• Playgrounds provide affordances: opportunities;• Playground potential: doing, feeling, thinking, being.

Contingent geographies of the playground:• Playground socialisation;• Inclusive/exclusive practices – liminalisation;• Teacher control/manipulation.

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Children’s experience – 2

Playgrounds of conflict:• Sites of escape, ‘letting of steam’ and minor conflicts;• Clashes, scrapes and upsets;• Bullying and marginalization.

Children’s perspectives on teachers’ values:• Teachers’ ‘avoidance’ of playgrounds;• Playgrounds as ‘not of school’;• Creating varied and stimulating playgrounds.

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Children’s experience – 3

Playgrounds children desire:• Playgrounds of opportunity: nature and variety;• Creating ‘special places’ – personalising;• School grounds as learning environments.

Children’s interest in their own playground needs:• (Lack of) engaging children in playground

development;• Co-operative play use and grounds improvement;• Trusting and involving children.

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Playgrounds are learning spaces

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Emerging issues and developments

Seven facets of children’s playground geographies• Playground spaces: from ‘deserts’ to ‘landscapes’;• Playground experience: from lonely sites to co-operative play;• Making use of playground spaces: conventional and

imaginative;• Using playground equipment: formal structures, games

equipment and personal items;• Playground socialisation: being people in places and groups –

inclusion and exclusion;• Site learning: knowing what is and happens where, and about

transgression;• Children as playground partners: children as environmental

participants.

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A mixture of spaces

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Evaluating playgrounds

Evaluative criteria might include:• The variety of play and social spaces available and how they

are used and looked after;• Children caring for their playground environment and each

other;• The range of activities that children are encouraged to engage

in, and catering for differing interests;• The demeanours and roles of adults with children;• The relationships between older and younger children in using

and playing in the playgrounds;• Children able to contribute their views and ideas for future

developments.

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Investigating children’s playground geographies

• This is an area in which research is increasing though it is still limited.

Involving children• Researchers have been adults.• One question concerns how

children might be involved in such research.

• Increasingly younger children are being involved in research in primary schools.

• This concerns increasing their agency in investigating, interpreting and understanding their own lives and experiences.

• Co-researching with children involves working with them on possible methods to use.

Some possible techniques• Using observation schedules;• Developing interview and

questionnaire schedules;• Mapping and annotating the

uses of playground spaces;• Taking and annotating

photographs – sites, activities;

• Descriptive and reflective writing about playground experiences, spaces, activities.

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Conclusion

• School playgrounds are microcosms of children’s personal geographies;

• The ways in which schools provide for and encourage children’s use of playgrounds indicates how they value children;

• Playground experiences are significant for children.

• Most studies of children in school playgrounds have focused on their social lives and looked to some extent at the impact of playgrounds as place and environments.

• There has been little that has examined the spatiality of playgrounds – the ways that the spaces influence their uses and children’s behaviours.

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Selected References

Armitage, M. (2001) The ins and outs of school playground play: children’s use of ‘play spaces’. In Bishop, J. & Curtis, M. (eds.) Play Today in the Primary Playground. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Catling, S. (2005) Children’s Personal Geographies and the English Primary School Geography Curriculum. Children’s Geographies 3 (3).

Davies, B. (1982) Life in the Classroom and playground. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Devine, D. (2003) Children, Power and Schooling. Stoke on Trent: Trentham Books.

Holt, L. (2007) Children’s sociospatial (re)production of disability within primary school playgrounds. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 25 (6).

Jones, R. (1995) The Child-School Interface. London: Cassell.

Kellett, M. (2005) How to develop children as researchers. London: Paul Chapman.

Pellegrini, A. (2005) Recess; Its role in education and development. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Powell, M. (2007) The hidden role of recess. Children, Youth and Environment 17 (4).

Titman, W. (1994) Special Places, Special People. Winchester: Learning through Landscapes.

Tranter, P. & Malone, K. (2004) Geographies of Environmental Learning: An exploration of children’s use of school grounds. Children’s Geographies 2 (1).

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Playground spaces