Play and Folklore is a journal which began publishing in 1981. This issue presents the documentation of a play project planned and carried out by a group of 11-12 year old children. It is a large and ambitious project – the creation of a play space of their own design – made possible by the understanding and support of their school, their teachers and their parents. It demonstrates what can be achieved when children are given the authority and the means to develop a project around a subject on which they are the experts: play. It is also a revealing example of what the children’s teacher recognises as a potent and positive approach to learning. As she writes in a comment at the end of the documentation:
It was clear that the project gave the children a powerful voice. They now saw themselves as strong, competent learners, able to construct knowledge and negotiate meaning... What started off as a project about the redesign of a playground ended up as a project around the concepts of student voice, active citizenship and democracy.
Play and Folklore October 2012 can be downloaded here.
Previously released issues can be found here.
Happy reading from the Play and Folklore team at Museum Victoria