Playing bus in a bus – children transforming spaces within a mobile preschool into resources in place-making fantasy play

Author
Berkhuizen, C.
Year
2020

Purpose

The study investigates how children create space and experiences through collective imaginative play during an excursion in a bus with kindergarten. The researcher investigates how the children create and recreate places, as well as their meaning-making of everyday experiences. The goal is to increase the understanding of how kindergarten children engage in different spaces and practices through collective imaginative play.

Result

The analysis of play shows how children innovatively transformed both outdoor and indoor areas into resources in imaginative play. The researcher believes the results indicate that the children in the collective imaginative play negotiate the meaning of everyday things such as seat belts, vehicles etc into imaginative playgrounds within the mobile kindergarten.

Design

The researcher collected the data material through participatory observation in a mobile kindergarten (bus) over a period of four weeks. She observed children aged three to four years old in situations where the children were engaged in imaginative play both inside and outside the bus. The data material consists of video observations, field notes and photographs.

References

Berkhuizen, C. (2020). “Playing bus in a bus – children transforming spaces within a mobile preschool into resources in place-making fantasy play”. International Journal of Play, 9(2): 182-201.

Financed by

The Swedish Research Council, Sweden