What Is the Purpose of Playwork?

ABSTRACT

Playwork is a recognised profession in the United Kingdom (UK) and is currently a growing area of interest internationally. However, debates about the nature and purpose of playwork have raged in the playwork field since the profession was invented in the early adventure playgrounds. This study is the first to capture data about what the now international playwork workforce understands to be the purpose of playwork. The International Playwork Census (IPC) was an online survey which asked participants from 19 different countries about their knowledge and experience of playwork. This paper reports on one question from the IPC: what is the purpose of playwork? A thematic analysis was undertaken from 193 responses on what was considered “the purpose of playwork” and three themes emerged: Facilitate and Provide for children’s play; Support and Advocate. This paper describes how these three themes reflect both the historical change in understandings of the purpose of playwork and how different understandings of playwork are developed through the experience of practitioners working in range of different contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Playwork
• play
• professionalism
• purpose
• practice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shelly Newstead

Shelly Newstead has worked in the playwork field for over 25 years as a practitioner, trainer, author, editor and researcher. She is the Series Editor for Advances in Playwork Research and the Managing Editor of International Journal of Playwork Practice. Shelly is also currently the President of the International Council for Children’s Play (ICCP).

Pete King

Pete King is the programme director for the MA Developmental and Therapeutic play at Swansea University. Pete’s research in children’s play and playwork has been published both nationally and internationally and is the co-editor of Researching Play from a Playwork Perspective and co-writer of The Play Cycle: Theory, Research and Application.