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What is our project about?

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Our research project is in partnership with the Froebel Trust who are a charity that funds research into education and learning in the early years of childhood. In our Resistance Stories project, we are looking at how educators enable children’s play through resisting more formal approaches to learning.

Why are we researching the right to play?

In early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings, children's play is often marginalised.

Such restrictions on play limit opportunities for crucial early experiences of being physically active, social and independent. One of the reasons behind this is the perception that more formal instruction is prioritised in early learning through education policies, assessment demands, and inspection procedures.

Yet many ECEC professionals resist formalised approaches because they hold strong beliefs about children’s right to play and are actively seeking ways for play to flourish in schools and settings.

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This project will seek to define and understand these ‘acts of resistance’ which have to date been under-researched in how they are enacted.

From understanding how materials, time and space is made for children to play, this project aims to contribute to our knowledge of early childhood practices that are resistant to formalisation.

The project research team will collect and record stories from across the early years sector. The aim is to share these stories about how educators protect young children’s right to play to support and inspire others.

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How are we researching?

We are making sense of resistance stories as everyday events that are situated, multiple, embodied and in relation with the more-than-human world.

Our research questions are: → Why is resistance needed in early childhood education? → What can hopeful flourishing pedagogies do? → How are resistances enacted and storied? → What impact can sharing and connecting resistance stories have for generating hopefulness?

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Research Team

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Dr Jo Albin-Clark

Principal Investigator

Jo Albin-Clark is a senior lecturer in early education at Edge Hill University.

Her research interests include documentation practices, collaborative writing and research-creation through posthuman theories. Throughout her work, teachers' embodied experiences of resistances to dominant discourses has been a central thread.

Dr Jo Albin-Clark (0000-0002-6247-8363) - ORCID

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Dr Nathan Archer

Principal Investigator

Following initial training as a Montessori teacher, Nathan has undertaken a number of roles in practice, policy and research in early childhood education. He completed a PhD at University of Sheffield in 2020 exploring the activism of early childhood educators.

His research interests include issues of social justice in early childhood education, workforce reform policies and the professional identities of early educators.

Nathan Archer (0000-0003-4365-4349) - ORCID

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Silvia Cont

Research Assistant

Silvia Cont is a PhD candidate at the School of Education, Liverpool John Moores University. She is also a research assistant in the Department for Early Years Education, Edge Hill University.

She is interested in outdoor learning, forest school approach within initial teacher education, and human-nature connection.

Silvia Cont - Edge Hill University

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Reading

How does play matter to children?

https://youtu.be/FdVOUaOMxfc