Much-needed anthology with some powerful chapters, albeit with a narrow focus and a lack of details

Wendy Russell
Senior Research Fellow, University of Gloucestershire, UK

Not enough has been written about issues of equity and children’s play, and even less about this explicitly as an issue of social justice. So, this collection, edited by a group of well-respected and passionate academic play advocates, is a very welcome contribution. The editors have a long history of addressing issues of equity in play, some over several decades, through their academic Early Childhood Education programmes, through their own research and activism, and through their networks. Their personal stories are powerful, some exceptionally so, and their legacy, seen in the contributions from 28 other authors affected by the work of the editors (either as their students or through their research) is strong and hopeful. All authors are based in the USA and discuss USA-based programmes and issues. Only a few explicitly acknowledge their own positionality. I will acknowledge mine at this point: I am a White, middle class, UK-based woman who has been working in the field of children’s play for some 50 years, with the last half of those years as an academic, now mostly doing research on play as a matter of spatial justice and evaluation of playwork projects.

The preface frames the collection neatly, describing the purpose of the book as being about who gets to play, the quality of play opportunities children can access, and the impact of supervising (or just nearby) adults. The book – a long project in its making – came from the frustration of not being able to explore issues of equity in sufficient depth and detail in the perennial panel discussions led by the editors at NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) conferences. The collection focuses on social justice issues mostly relating to race/ethnicity and socio-economic status, and also dis/ability, illness, detention and citizenship status, but not issues of gender. The editors comment that this requires a whole other book, leading me to question why the same could not be said of any of the categories that are explored. The book’s 33 chapters are divided into two sections, the first describing inequities and the second looking at actions to address inequities.

There is more to play than this and although there is mention of differences in play across cultures, the chapter could have benefited from a broader view of children’s play drawing also on academic disciplines like geography, childhood studies, anthropology.

Section 1 considers issues of social justice and play. It opens with two chapters exploring the nature of play and social justice. Acknowledging that the study of play in the USA is based on a “culturally or politically dominant, Eurocentric/Westernized view of play, research and practice” (p. 6–7), the first chapter highlights the difficulty of defining play, offering instead key characteristics. The discussion on the benefits of play focuses exclusively on developmental benefits, with a heavy educational bias. There is more to play than this and although there is mention of differences in play across cultures, the chapter could have benefited from a broader view of children’s play drawing also on academic disciplines like geography, childhood studies, anthropology.

Missing also from chapter 1 is any discussion of play’s potential for harm. This is picked up in the second chapter, however, which considers the intersections of play and social justice across four contexts: political, cultural, pedagogic and demographic. Here it is acknowledged that children do bring social inequities into their play in ways that exclude and reinforce existing power relations. Given that this is a necessarily surface glide over complex issues, the chapter forms a useful foundation for what follows.

The 13 chapters that make up the second part of section 1 outline disparities and inequities in children’s opportunities to play across race, socio-economic status, immigration status and disability, and in the contexts of education, hospitalisation and incarceration. The chapters are very short and as such do not allow for much detail; at times the discussion is so general that it obscures some of the more complex, nuanced and intersectional aspects of the realities of inequities in play. The stand out chapters for me were those with a narrower focus that powerfully describe the stark injustices faced by many children.

The opening chapter from Harrison P. Pinckney and Corliss Outley is a hard-hitting description of the risks of ‘playing while Black’: “Black youth must adhere to unwritten rules around play … the white gaze … [has shaped] … who has a right to play, where they are allowed to play, what forms of play are acceptable” (p. 38). The chapter gives examples of Black youth being detained either by law enforcement agencies or by White members of the public merely for being Black (and therefore ‘suspicious’). Black youth must always be aware and have a plan for responding to White expectations and racial profiling.

A strong theme running throughout the chapters in this section is how the intersection between poverty and race deeply affects poor Black children’s education journeys. In chapter 10, James C. Young charts the history of federal involvement in early years childcare that has led to systemic inequities today. Childcare settings in poor areas are less well-resourced and so can act only as somewhere for children to be held, whereas better resourced middle class, White provision can provide better care and play opportunities. This sets the tone for Black children then entering the education system, making the connection between poor starts, later disaffection and the school to prison pipeline. The case is made for paying attention to Black researchers and for redressing inequities rather than blaming poor Black families.

In chapter 9, Stacey French-Lee problematises the concept of Developmentally Appropriate Practice and quality, showing how understandings of what is ‘appropriate’ are rooted in middle class White values, leading to the inequitable disciplining of some Black children’s play expressions. On a similar theme, Olga S, Jarrett and John A. Sutterby (chapter 13) show the potential for White teachers in predominantly Black schools to misunderstand cultural references and mores of BIPOC children (although they don’t use that term). Toni Sturdivant (chapter 11) describes how 4-year-old Black children internalise Eurocentric ideas of beauty in their play with dolls. Chapter 7 (Olga S. Jarrett, Leslie McAlpin, Debora Platon and Zainab Jafari) shows the stark racial and economic disparities in school playground quality, with clear correlations with AYP (adequate yearly progress) scores, and fewer parks per head of population in Black and lower income areas.

The second section of the book introduces programmes designed to level the playing field, with the first part focusing on playful pedagogies, the second on community-based initiatives and the third on play research methods and advocacy. The chapters on playful pedagogies reveal the shockingly stark differences between the education experiences of children in affluent (largely White) and poor areas, and particularly the lasting impact of lack of opportunities to play and to engage in meaningful (playful) learning. Policies such as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top place a focus on teaching to the test through rote learning and withdrawing time for recess. Title 1 schools, those receiving additional federal funding to improve achievement, are also likely to be the ones with poorly resourced playgrounds. Opportunities to play at school thereby becomes a privilege for rich, White children with the effect of maintaining White supremacy, as Denisha Jones argues in chapter 16. Many of the chapters describe projects where time to play and playful pedagogies were introduced into such schools, leading to higher levels of engagement in learning.

There was little or no engagement with the significant body of literature from childhood studies or children’s geographies addressing issues of social justice, nor with more generic writings from, for example Critical Race Theory, intersectionality or decoloniality.

The second part of this section, focusing on community-based actions, starts with a chapter on the role of play in the Black Lives Matter movement. This is a standout chapter for me, written with humility and a deep insight into children’s strengths. A White mother of Black and White children, author Jennifer Bradley describes how she started off developing Philly Children’s March for Love and Justice, a family-friendly BLM protest, in 2015, and how this grew into Philly Children’s Movement with over 600 families and 1000 educators. The power of this chapter for me is the author’s sensitivity and insights, for example observing that despite the seriousness, pain, anger and heartbreak, play is “unavoidable”. Given that, play is now central to how they organise. At planning meetings, the tools of protest would be “intentionally strewn”. This led to both unrelated play and sensemaking, and the “children created innovative ways to make activism more playful” (p. 210).

Other chapters in this part consider approaches to supporting the play of children from poor neighbourhoods through a Toy Library; connecting children with their incarcerated mothers through a Discovery Centre led connection programme that moved online during the COVID-19 pandemic; encouraging connections across difference through play; and playwork. A theme running through these chapters, either explicitly or implicitly, is the importance of building trust through relationships, and play can help with this.

The third part of section 2 has two chapters giving examples of research studies into play. The first of these covers studies using traditional methods of coding observed behaviours, creative interviews with children, action research, and survey. Including so many examples meant that not much detail or reflection could be included. The second chapter looked in more depth at standardised photo assessment method allowing comparisons across different school on children’s perspectives.

As Vera Stenhouse comments in the final reflective chapter, “the scope of social injustice far exceeds any one book or project” (p. 282). For me, there was quite a narrow educational focus in the book, particularly the chapters authored or co-authored by the editors (17 out of 33), with some repetition across these chapters. There was little or no engagement with the significant body of literature from childhood studies or children’s geographies addressing issues of social justice, nor with more generic writings from, for example Critical Race Theory, intersectionality or decoloniality. Nor was there much engagement with children’s opportunities to play out in the neighbourhoods; all except two of the core chapters are about institutional contexts or programmes.

In sum, this is a much-needed book with some powerful chapters and perspectives. There is a clear legacy from the group of editors and the changes they can bring through their work with student teachers. Their long term commitment and passion shines through, both in their own chapters and also in those by people who have been influenced by their work. Nevertheless, I was left wondering who the target readership might be, as the narrow focus and lack of detail in many of the chapters can gloss over complexities and nuance.

Copyright © Wendy Russell 2025