In March, I went to my first in-person conference since the start of the pandemic. I didn’t realize how much I missed having the opportunity to connect with other academics in the same physical space. Going to a conference allows you to immerse yourself in a community in a way that is more challenging to do when you are at home attending a remote conference. I went to The Association of the Study of Play (TASP) Conference for the first time. Not only did I get a chance to learn from some amazing play researchers, I also had the chance to explore The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY.
During the conference, there were several moments that caused me to think about play differently or helped me to connect to play in a way I hadn’t considered before. In Kareem Edouard’s talk, Black Children at Play: Cultural Practices of the ILLEST Lab, Edouard shares his work creating space for play. He mentioned ideas such as “sanctuary spaces” and “sweat equity” to capture how the ILLEST Lab is a different type of play space as the players create the space which allows them to have agency in their play. Edouard’s ideas pushed my thinking about play and the individual. How could these ideas impact the play I use in my classes? How could I give my students more agency in their play?
Another moment of connection came during Gordon M. Burghardt’s special session entitled The Enduring Search for the Nature of Play. Burghardt’s work investigates play across the animal kingdom. He shared many new ideas to me about researchers understanding of play in animals. It was fascinating! The part that resonated with me in particular is when he discussed the immediate versus delayed benefits of play. I thought about this idea as I consider the ways I support my students within my courses. What are the immediate benefits of a particular play experience versus the benefits over time? What could this mean when supporting students doing their signature projects in the INCAP, PSU’s capstone to the general education program?
One more example was from Friday’s keynote. What I appreciated the most about Harrison P. Pinckney IV’s session, The Future of Play Research…Challenges and Opportunities, is that he framed many of his ideas around big questions that we should consider about play. Here are some of the questions (in my words) that Pinckney posed during his session.
- How do we center identity within our research of play?
- How is play evolving in the next generation?
- What are we doing to make our work accessible and digestible to the public?
The first two questions in particular push me to think about ideas that might be helpful for my students to consider in the course I teach related to how society influences our play.
Finally, the presentation Virtual Playthings: Toys on YouTube by Bhoomi K. Thakore surprised me the most. Thakore brought forward a simple but thoughtful study investigating channels on YouTube where children can watch other people play. While the information she shared sparked my curiosity, the element that I am taking away from this session is that research doesn’t need to be complicated. This sounds obvious as I write these words, but it is helpful to me in this moment. It got me thinking how I might take a simple approach to my work on play and develop a research plan. One idea that I am starting to consider relates to capturing the students’ perspective on their play experiences within one of my courses. I have my students reflect on their play often, but I hadn’t considered using my qualitative researcher lens to uncover emergent themes within these ideas.
Besides having the opportunity to share my work and to learn from other play researchers, I was excited to attend this conference because I could explore the Strong National Museum of Play. How amazing is it to have a play conference at a play museum! I have wanted to visit this play space for a long time, and I have to say it did not disappoint. There is so much I could share about this space. Here are some of my favorite moments:
- Attending the conference allowed me to access the museum before it opened to the public. It was wonderful to see this place of play quiet and at rest and then later in the day erupt with the joy of people playing!
- The first morning I arrived at the museum, I saw a museum worker enjoying the carousel by himself.
- Watching children play, the look on their faces of pure joy!
- Strolling down memory lane by viewing artifacts from my childhood.
I think I had a huge smile on my face the whole time I explored the museum. The one thing I wished is that I had a friend to play with as I think it would have been even more amazing to share with someone else.
Thank you TASP for such an amazing way to enter back into the space of in-person conferences after the pandemic. I enjoyed being in a place of play, learning about play, and sharing my ideas about play. What fun!