Dissertation committee:
Καλλιρρόη Παπαδοπούλου, Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια του Τμήματος Εκπαίδευσης και Αγωγής στην Προσχολική Ηλικία του Εθνικού και Καποδιστριακού Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών (ΚΥΡΙΑ ΕΠΙΒΛΕΠΟΥΣΑ)
Γεωργία-Κλειώ Γκουγκουλή, Επίκουρη Καθηγήτρια του Τμήματος Ιστορίας-Αρχαιολογίας του Πανεπιστημίου Πατρών (ΜΕΛΟΣ ΤΡΙΜΕΛΟΥΣ)
Μαρία Σφυρόερα, Αναπληρώτρια Καθηγήτρια του Τμήματος Εκπαίδευσης και Αγωγής στην Προσχολική Ηλικία του Εθνικού και Καποδιστριακού Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών (ΜΕΛΟΣ ΤΡΙΜΕΛΟΥΣ)
Σοφία Αυγητίδου, Καθηγήτρια του Παιδαγωγικού Τμήματος Νηπιαγωγών του Πανεπιστημίου Δυτικής Μακεδονίας
Δήμητρα Μακρυνιώτη, Καθηγήτρια του Τμήματος Εκπαίδευσης και Αγωγής στην Προσχολική Ηλικία του Εθνικού και Καποδιστριακού Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών
Καφένια Μπότσογλου, Καθηγήτρια του Παιδαγωγικού Τμήματος Ειδικής Αγωγής του Πανεπιστημίου Θεσσαλίας
Κωνσταντίνος Πετρογιάννης, Καθηγητής της Σχολής Ανθρωπιστικών Επιστημών του Ελληνικού Ανοικτού Πανεπιστημίου
Summary:
Play during primary school recess constitutes the most important among other children’s activities. The present dissertation investigates the free play during primary school recess, through listening to the speech of the children themselves. The developmental importance of play during school recess is related to the physical, cognitive, emotional and social development of the child. According to this approach, the importance of the interaction and interconnection of the socio-cultural environment and the active role of children themselves in their developmental process is recognized in the special context of the school recess. As far as play is concerned, this is viewed as a complex and contradictory concept and at the same time as an important activity with a specific meaning for the children themselves. The following research questions were explored in this particular survey: 1. What does the activity of play during primary school recess consist of? 2. What factors are connected and contribute to the formation of the game framework during primary school recess? 3. How do the different elements of the play context in the primary school recess relate to each other and co-construct it? 4. What is the meaning of playing in the primary school recess for the children themselves, from their point of view? 5. To what extent are appropriate conditions provided to support the complexity of the game during primary school recess?
An ethnographic case study was conducted in which Bronfenbrenner's 'Process-Person-Context-Time' (PPCT) research model was used to highlight all the interactions and complexities between the factors involved in the games performed during school recess. In addition, procedures and techniques of qualitative analysis of research data were adopted, based on the methodology of grounded theory, aiming at the in-depth understanding of the phenomenon under investigation. The research was conducted during the school year 2015-2016 in a public primary school in Athens, in a suburb of middle class of socio-economic class, with a capacity of about three hundred students and twenty-five teachers. The following research techniques were used: Seven-month participatory field observation during the two major recess slots in the school playground involving informal interviews and discussions in the field of research, twelve focus groups of six to nine boys and girls, a total of 82 students, aged 6 to 12 years old, eight one-on-one interviews with 4 boys and 4 girls and twenty one-on-one interviews with full-time teachers (16 women and 5 men).
From the analysis of the data four main (descriptive) categories - axes emerged which seemed to globally capture what recess play is as well as what it means for primary school children: 1) The determinants of the act of play at recess: variety of games, participating players, spectators , teachers on duty, material infrastructure-space, school rules 2) The main phases of the games process: beginning, development, end 3) The importance of play for children: interaction and friendship, freedom in choosing and making decisions, personal satisfaction and children’s active role in the meaning making process, intense feelings and struggle and 4) The necessary conditions for ensuring children's satisfaction from play: man-made, material, institutional, moral framework.
These categories -constitute the ecology of the primary school recess, which can be summarized as follows: the recess in primary schoolyard is a compound framework for building the complexity of the game, through the implementation of which children give meaning to their world, actively negotiating the socio-cultural environment of the school, especially when the conditions are supportive to play by adults. The ecology of play is related to the construction of complex relationships with the material and the human environment and finally with both the satisfaction of children and physical, cognitive, emotional and social development.
As it turned out in the present research, in the school yard the complex, multidimensional, dynamic and often contradictory character of the play emerges, which is difficult to interpret in terms of order and regularity, as an exclusively spontaneous and romantic activity. Its capture in terms of different dimensions and parameters, perfectly connected to the social and cultural contexts, ultimately contributes a better perception and understanding through a realistic process.
Keywords:
Play, recess, primary school, ethnography, socio-cultural approach, grounded theory, ecosystem approach
