Changing recess geographies: children’s perceptions of a schoolyard renovation project promoting physical activity

ABSTRACT

Insights into children’s perceptions of their changing recess geographies are absent. The current paper provides qualitative evidence from 5 renewed schoolyards by investigating children’s perceptions of their new schoolyards. Ten focus groups (2 at each school) including go-along interviews were conducted, in total 57 4 to 8 graders (28 girls). The functional aspects of the altered child–environment relationship were assessed using Gibson’s concept of affordance, and changes in the meanings ascribed to the schoolyards by the children were studied by engaging a concept of place. Our findings reveal that schoolyards offering multiple potential affordances for physical activity seem more likely to engage a broader group of children in recess physical activity. The analysis, however, could point to a difference between places designed for children’s play and places where children actually play. To optimise actualisation of the potential affordances for recess physical activity, involving children throughout intervention planning and decision-making is crucial.

KEYWORDS:

• Children
• intervention study
• schoolyard renovation
• recess physical activity
• affordances
• focus group interview

Acknowledgements

We thank all the participating children and their parents for taking part in our study. We also thank the school staff for their assistance in organising the data collection.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Charlotte Skau Pawlowski http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1407-613X

Jan Arvidsen http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5352-3567

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Danish foundation Realdania, The Danish foundation for Culture and Sport Facilities and The Danish Cancer Society.