Research project
The Playful Researchers
Listening to children's voices through playful data generation methods
Active
May 2022
June 2028
The Playful Researchers have been formed within the University of Dundee to draw together and capitalise upon staff expertise within early childhood, play pedagogies and children’s voices.
In addition to conducting broader research into concepts of play, the main focus of this group is to develop innovative, creative and playful generation methods to listen to children and to amplify their voices. This research group therefore seeks to align participatory research methods with developmentally appropriate practice in the early years.
To date, The Playful Researchers have been invited into a variety of schools and early years settings across Scotland, to work and conduct participatory research with young children.
Some recent projects have included listening to children’s voices, with a view to:
- Uncovering children’s views of their environment and space
- Understanding children’s views of play to inform the development of a curriculum rationale
- Exploring how children’s voices can be heard through playful pedagogies
- Understanding how children with Additional Support Needs can influence change within their school lives
The children’s many ‘voices’ are at the heart of every stage of the project design, and the projects are co-constructed with the children. You can view some of the approaches we use to listen to children’s voices by accessing the tabs at the top of the page.
To summarise what we do as The Playful Researchers, here is a digital story in which you can hear from the children directly and ‘see through’ their eyes. The purpose of this project was to uncover children’s views of their play environment, and to think about how it could be made better. The children took many roles in this project, including being researchers, authors, storytellers, directors, artists, musicians, photographers, designers, content creators and more.
Get in touch
If you would like The Playful Researchers to work with your school or setting, please get in touch with Dr Lynsey Burke.
People
Project lead(s)
Dr Lynsey BurkeProject team
Professor Divya Jindal-Snape
, Susan Whyte, Angela Lindsay, Megan McKenzie, Brenda Keatch, Dr Anna Robb, Dr Katie Westwood,Dr Beth Hannah
External team members
Mhairi Wallace - University of Edinburgh
Dr Helen Burns - University of Glasgow