PLAYING FOR HIGH STAKES; FINDINGS FROM THE IRISH NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAY RESEARCH PROJECT AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION

This paper presents the data from the Irish Neighbourhood Play Research Project. The study included almost 1700 families and 240 communities throughout Ireland. The findings hold clear implications for educational policy and practice. Using surveys, interviews and naturalistic observation, data was secured on how children in modern Ireland in the age categories 0-15 are playing within neighbourhood spaces including streets, greens, playgrounds, laneways and parks among others. An all-island approach was taken incorporating neighbourhoods in cities, towns and rural areas across a variety of socio-economic groupings.

The generational changes in play were a recurring theme within the findings with the vast majority of parents expressing that they had more freedom and more time outdoors than their children do. The parents were also more than twice as likely to have walked to school, playing on the way, as their children are. Other interesting findings arose from the data relating to generational differences in engagement with risk, with nature, with scheduled/timetabled extracurricular activities, with homework, with electronics, with creative activities and with traditional play types and games.
Differences in play choices and experiences were also evident across socio-economic groupings, community types, gender lines, age ranges and housing types.

It is clear that the social, historical, cultural, economic and geographical positioning of children, impacts greatly on their engagement with play. This paper presents the data and asks what it means within a frame of human development and societal impact. Also, most importantly; what can education do to redress the implications of this generational shift? Innovations in pedagogy and policy are required to meet the educational challenges implicit within this data. This ground breaking research on the changing face of childhood points clearly to the need for collaborative, co-participative, democratic, empowering and playful pedagogies and educational policies which support them.