Uncertainty in the school playground: shifting rationalities and teachers’ sense-making in the management of risks for children with disabilities

Abstract

Recent theoretical debates highlight the competing risk logics and varying rationalities mobilised in response to dangers and approaches to risk management. Yet the concept of uncertainty, and how it informs perceived risks, is relatively less well understood. Debates of this kind are illuminated in contexts where risks are managed as part of everyday practice. The school setting provides an example of a context in which risks are continuously negotiated amidst dominant protectionist concerns about children’s well-being and safety. Such protectionist concerns are particularly pronounced for children with disabilities, as assumptions about limited capabilities complicate and structure the everyday play experiences for children. Drawing on findings from the Sydney Playground Project, in this article we aim to unpack the felt discomfort experienced by school staff in their responses to uncertain moments in children’s play. We report qualitative data collected from two schools between October 2014 and September 2015 using video observations of children’s play and teachers’ responses to an online Tolerance of Risk in Play Scale. Our findings point to the competing logics and forms of sense-making operationalised by teachers to manage the unknown. Our analysis explored the ways in which risk strategies were (re)framed by school staff and such reframing explained their action (or inaction) in the playground and how these were underpinned by concerns about professional accountabilities. Their responses located risks within the child with disabilities, rather than the play activity itself. Another approach to uncertainty can be achieved by mobilising a discourse of trust in which ‘letting-go’ offers children opportunities to reflexively engage in risk-taking.

Keywords:

• risk
• risk-taking
• play
• childhood
• agency
• disability
• trust

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the schools and all staff involved in this project, and the parents/caregivers of all the children participating in the study. The study on which this article is based was supported by a number of student research interns from the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, and the authors would like to thank the students for their valuable contributions to the project. The study on which this article is based was supported by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project Grant (Grant number DP140101792). The study was registered with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) ACTRN Number: 12614000549628.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project Grant [grant number DP140101792].