Using cross-cultural conversations to contextualize understandings of play: a multinational study

The following study examines two researchers’ perspectives on play in the lives of children from diverse cultural contexts. Two questions guided this study: (1) how do researchers conceptualize children’s play and (2) what shapes their understanding of play. In order to answer these questions, a critical discourse was established between two researchers who had each completed ethnographic studies of play in the UK and Jamaica. The initial research studies comprised of observations, semi-structured interviews, field notes and collection of artefacts relating to play. Through discourse, new understandings were unearthed by examining the different contexts of play. The aim of this study is to contextualize our understanding of play and to expand our notions of play beyond researcher positionalities. This discursive method allows concepts of play to be grounded, but not restricted by national contexts through juxtaposition with multinational policies, programmes and practices.