Connect with Colleagues and Your Work through Playful Participatory Research

When engaged in playful participatory research (PPR), participants are “experiencing choice, wonder, and delight; participating in playful provocations; engaging children as co-researchers; and sharing research playfully with others," according to M. Baker and J. Ryan (2021).

They note, “this type of research not only values the experience and knowledge that teachers bring to the table, but is also an authentic way to approach professional development—providing opportunities for educators to reflect with and learn from colleagues; dialogue about classrooms and learners; and produce a shared body of practice and theory for their learning community.”

In her Winter 2023 Bridging Research and Practice article, Shannon Nelson Pope shares, “During our professional development week, we engaged in playful, sensory-based provocations with both loose parts and mark making materials. Together, we explored materials as children would in our classrooms. Conversations organically arose about various combinations of materials, what paired together well, and why. We considered how we might modify or offer accommodations to support children with special rights. We also discussed the role of sensory experiences and how they enhance emotional regulation.”

Reflecting on the experience, one of her teachers, Alexis Jones, remarked, “Engaging in PPR during our training helped me remember what it felt like to play as a child—to approach a set of materials with wonder and curiosity. Sometimes as an educator, I get caught up with the intended outcome, instead of focusing on the process. By engaging playfully with provocations, I was reminded of the fun and excitement that comes from interacting with a material in a way in which I hadn’t thought about before. In the classroom, I am now more cognizant of how the children might feel when they encounter materials and provocations, and I am more intentional about introducing familiar materials in new ways.”

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