Pondering Pathways - Play! (Part 2)

Welcome back to a playful episode about play! While I intended for this episode to be about play theorists, the benefits of play, and how play and learning are interconnected, I ended up taking a walk and capturing some recent reflections from my own practice and experience about how I value and notice play, lately. Here, I share my hot takes on keeping play alive in our language and observations, what I've been learning about Anishinaabe perspectives about animals (and how that, to me, feels playful) and  what children need post-COVID. I also included a voice note on my phone where I reflect on my own experience with play and sound lately, and Jean Clinton's idea of positive upwards spirals/Carol Anne Wein's suggestion of supporting the wirldwind effects of synergy and positive energy in classrooms. I'd love to hear your thoughts on play as well - how do you keep the play alive in your life? 

Transcript

If you're you receive Welcome to the playful podcast, where we discuss lifelong learning and leisure by lingering at the intersection of recreation, education and occupation. I'm your host, Kim Barton. Welcome to the journey. I'm excited to play and learn along with you. Okay, welcome everybody to Episode Eight of the playful podcast. As you can hear, I'm outside. And I am trying to do another pondering pathways episode blended with some random clips I've recorded of thoughts that I've just randomly had, because the topic that I wanted to come back to is clay. And I had done a first kind of episode on this. But I have so many more thoughts that I wanted to share in a part two. And keeping in mind that both Part One and Part Two are kind of introductions to like quite a longer, more comprehensive, broader journey of what I'm kind of thinking about play. And I wanted to start off by thinking about this word playful, because it's been on my mind a lot. And I've really been trying to like embody that as a disposition. And I was actually prompted by my two colleagues that Leticia and Shelby to walk while doing this episode. But also, we had this moment where we were looking at a book called, I feel like a fox. And at this moment in time, I don't remember the author's name. In this book, the author's note from memory, which won't be right. I wish I remembered the wording of it. But I remember this moment, basically what I was saying to Leticia, the ways in which Anishinaabe people's like, view animals and turn to animals when engaging with children to kind of foster various dispositions, and it's this blurring of the boundaries of kind of human world, the physical realm, spiritual realm. And I would even say it's blurring kind of what counts as beings who are intelligent, kind of, because there's this, there's not a clear divide between, like the living and the deceased. And there's not a clear divide between kind of humans and animals either, per se. This is my long way of acknowledging that this idea of play, I haven't even gotten to my point. I'm just kind of pushing myself to think about how play can include the more than human worlds, right? Not just domestic pets, and that kind of thing, but also like, animals that we see locally that we may mimic, especially young children, and how animals are often used in like literature and movies to convey different concepts, and different traits and dispositions. And I guess my point is, as someone who's thinking about play a lot about like, kind of what counts is play and like, what learning may be represented in play, I'm trying to find a way of honoring different cultural perspectives on Play, including indigenous cultures here and what is currently known as Canada. Like generational stories, even from indigenous cultures. You know, I think of like the story, Sky woman falling and how the muskrat is the one who really plays the significant role, because he's the one who dives down to under the water to the bottom to scrape up soil that is needed to plant the seed that sky woman has in her hand on top of turtle's back, so I guess I just am kind of pondering very, very loosely, where animals come into play in our understanding of play, and how, like, our understanding of what we observe for when we're thinking of something as playful or not playful, is influenced by different cultural understandings, but also how it's influenced how then culture influences our language that we communicate, about play and about our behavior. I'm not making a lot of sense, but in my colonial ways of knowing and in my upbringing in the education systems and a science background I have, we don't use language that personify personifies. nonliving things are language that personifies animals, right? Like if I were to be say, I was an ecologist, and I studied salamanders to be kind of clinical about it right? I wouldn't be describing the salamanders with characteristics of timid or wondering or negotiating like these are all imposing human traits on the animals are so we think this is literally my brain at work in real time. And, okay, my whole point in saying this language, and knowledge and animal thing is English. And its connection to culture has sucked the play out of the way that we describe something as playful as, as animals and the playfulness of blurring the human and nonhuman world, the living world and the deceased worlds. And if we were playful about it, we would be imaginative and inquisitive. Curious, we can still be rigorous about like, in what ways are we connected spiritually to like, the more than human world, to trees, to the earth, to snow to water, we can be curious about those connections that are very real and vigorous about them without sucking the play out of it. Something I wanted to reflect on is that at this current time, in the world, there are so many different focuses about what young children need right now. Because we're coming out of the pandemic kind of maybe, it seems like and so we have all of the anecdotes experiences hot takes about like, what young children have experience. And given that right now, there, there have been a lot of political moves, tensions, invasions, you know, navigate the anxiety that comes from being exposed to adults constantly talking about things, just crisis after crisis at kind of, it seems like my point here is if we think about the kinds of conversations and emotions that children have experienced, over the past few years, it's probably been fairly intense, at least that's what kind of people are saying. So that's one realm of kind of framing what young children have experienced and thinking about, you know, there's been this talk of like, resilience, kind of and you know, how do we support children with you know, if you believe in this kind of bouncing back from COVID, then there's that. Anyway, all these ideas have had me really thinking about what's my own hot take on all this right? Like, and is it the focus on emotional well, being social emotional well being? Is there another angle to be taken here? In my own professional life, I've been welcomed into conversations about literacy as a co regulation tool. So this is another long way of me saying okay, so if there are all these different hot takes, and opinions about what Young Children have experienced and what they need. Here is my latest two cents. And it has to do with play. Because if I think of like what I've thought so far about play and what I've thought so far about, like, deep, like inquiry and investigation I'm often thinking about how like, well, I've said it before how getting into a state of flow. Like what how, what is the nervous theory, his nervous system experience when someone is in the state of flow or when they're playing or when they're in the zone eight. And I have a hunch that there is some kind of regulation that like is happening I'll have to do more research right to find out if this hypothesis about being in this state of flow is regulating. My hunch is that sometimes we talk about How Does Learning Happen backwards? Because in Ontario, I think the big conversation right now is well being and as it should be. And it's this focus on relationship building. Absolutely. I agree. And it's this focus on you know, expressing emotions, maybe processing emotions, identifying emotions, regulating emotions, co regulating emotions. And so there's this in it's the emotional piece is so connected to the social piece and the relationship piece, right? But how does it happen has four foundations, wellbeing, expression, engagement and belonging and the relationship piece and emotional piece of just talked about is often talked about in connection to belonging, right? I feel like every EC has theories about like, these four foundations and kind of, which is a prerequisite to what? And my latest hot take my latest two cents, is that actually, engagement is how we regulate. Okay, so like, and this is connected to play, because, for me, the way one way that I regulate my emotions because I can be so I've experienced a lot of emotional dysregulation in my life. FYI. And as an adult, as someone who's over 30, who is 30 I'm finally I finally have a grasp on how the heck I What the heck my nervous system is all about. And how to regulate my emotions. So for me, it's through music. But it's not just it's not just music for the sake of expression. It's not just music because of the belonging piece. And it's not just music about well being it's something about a deep engagement, a deep focus. A deep being captured infatuated, you know, enamored with wondering about it's though it's that sensation that is happening with engagement when I'm playing my guitar when I'm playing music, and it's getting into that state of flow, right being in this state of like, time melting away, but also time it flows like flows by flew by flow is flying by Wow. Words. And it's this idea of it being really intense, but also so peaceful and so common, so freeing. It's this weird paradox of like, authors a good like YouTube talk about this that kind of talks about several different paradoxes that happens when you're in the state of flow. And my wandering right now is that play is the avenue to flow, which is the avenue to deep engagement, which is the avenue to regulation, it may or may not involve other people to varying degrees. And it may or may not involve different aspects of expression, right, like sometimes, and that is something that is more regulating to us and other times. It's not about an outward expression, but it's About a tuning into, like a sound or a song or an activity and event and experience rate. Okay, and I'm just making another connection here to this idea of engagement because that that those steps, they're not steps they're not going to be a linear process but this like cycle and spiral of engagement and inquiry is so connected to like, the learning cycle the, you know, research cycle, scientific inquiry, pedagogical documentation, all the cycles, reflective practice, right all same stuff, same shit repackage. And this cycle of engagement is life, it's part of our, our ways of being for lifelong learning. And I don't I want to be careful because it's easy to take this idea of engagement and, and follow it to this idea of being productive or, or learning for the sake of like, colonial educational knowledge, right. But that's not what I mean here. deep engagement, and investigation or curiosity or listening, listening, there's a there's something about this idea of an attunement to an experience, right, a listening that happens. And I owe my colleague harmony for this because she's been talking about pedagogy of listening, and oh, man, it has me fired up. But anyway, this idea of a tuning and engagement is connected to something deeper, and more spiritual and humane than productivity as future students and as future workers because it's connected to the ways in which we make meaning out of an experience. So if I think of an example of a child, or anybody what I'm doing right now walking along a river, and you know, kicking random stones and being tempted to build a fairy house, and, you know, resisting the urge to crush and pile of ice that I see that's just calling to be smashed. And, you know, there's a lot of I see that I want to walk on. I'm tuning into this space, and I am engaging with it. In a, in a, in a deep way, right. And it's through that engagement that I'm becoming regulated with the more than human world, the natural world, the land, the water, the wind. The animals I see duck ducks right now our games are ducks, you can probably hear it some gifts to today, I saw a heron? I don't know what kind I don't know if it was a blue heron. It was so long and beautiful. And it just soared right above the traffic as I was driving. And man. It's hard once you get interested in birds, because it is a driving hazard. Let me tell you, I just want to stop all the traffic and be like, Look up, everybody's like, why are you just driving me straight lines and not looking around? There's freaking blue heron that is blessing us with its presence. Okay, tangent anyway. Yes. Okay. My idea right now is that play an engagement? I can't, there's not a hierarchy of the four foundations, right. But I have this importance and draw and feeling drawn to this idea of engagement. And I think for me, there's a connection here to this idea of meaning making. And that's why it feels important. And that's the, this is the warmth. That is pedagogy. Right? meaning making pedagogy. You know, there's this definition I always come back to it's like the theory and practice of the teaching and learning processes. That's such a clinical definition. The reality for me of, of thinking pedagogically, being invited into pedagogical conversations is that it is a it is a practice and an experience of meaning making and that is a heartfelt spiritual thing. It is about wandering conversation, and it's about processing and reflecting and going through those cycles of kind of inquiry and reflection and all that. Boozhoo. Hey, I hear you. I see you too. Anyhow. And I'll probably transition now to sharing a couple latest kind of whimsical ideas I've had about play that I've tried to capture in auditory format. Or maybe I just talk about play a little bit on each episode. I don't know, I haven't decided  and I won't decide. it'll be an in the moment decision. Okay, I see more and merganzer ducks just for anyone who is interested in who I'm encountering on this walk. Oh, and a tire, some fallen logs. 

Next, I wanted to share a few reflections I've been gathering about random kind of thoughts I've had about play or where things have bubble up, that I've just hit record on my phone to capture. So check it out. 

Okay, my thoughts on play, right now are reflecting on a little like, I don't know, experience I had outside with a colleague of mine, we were kind of playing with these materials in the snow. And we kind of ended up creating these really cool sounds with, of course, sound is always on my mind. But we went out there with the intention just to use this random arrangement of materials and document it. The interesting kind of personal reflection I was having was just on how many cool sounds we ended up making. And what kind of sounds drew my attention and also what my body was kind of experiencing in that moment, because it just caught my attention, I feel like I was just pulled so strongly to the present moment, and to what my senses were experiencing. So like what the sound was, but also this like rush of, of joy joyousness experiencing something so new in the worlds like and just having kind of marveling at it, like being in awe, or like reverence. And I guess this kind of links to play because I was thinking about how I kind of ended up feeling like I was kind of in the zone with this experience. You know, getting into that space where you can be really inquisitive about something or really inspired or interested in something, I think is kind of connected to this, like serendipitous moments, where you end up feeling that like Spark of joy or like an opening up like something kind of swells in the front side of your body. And you're like drawn into something with in a way that has such tangible concentration, but also is it's a kind of intensity, that's really just a positive experience. And then it kind of connected me to whenever I think of joy, I'm trying to really notice just joy in my body what it feels like. And I've I've been drawn towards something that Jeanne Clinton writes about. I am obsessed, as you know, if you've listened to this with this idea of spirals, and what Jeanne Clinton has talked about is, is what do we need to engage in positive upward spirals into pop through positive experiences through, you know, X successful experiences, or just engaging in processes that are aligned with our dispositions and that are, you know, strength based, and all those those kinds of positive psychology way of viewing things? Yeah, this upward spiral to me, is just so connected to experiences of joy and wonder. And also, it's connected to something Carolyn ween says, I don't remember if I've talked about this on the podcast yet, because this podcast is just me wandering and wandering and wondering, and documenting and along the way, so I probably reiterate the same messages over and over again, but Carol and ween it's the think feel act series from the Ontario government, but it's for the middle years. And this document has a line in it somewhere that talks about this wind horse effect, which is basically this like positive swell and swirling of energy and excitement when children in the middle years get really, you know, engaged in something and excited and they get loud and there's this, you know, there's just this this whirlwind effect, right. And I think if I were to extend the point that she's making is, is that is that is what play is like that's what we're learning happens and rather than thinking as adults Oh, it's getting too noisy, it's getting too rowdy. That's shutting down the exact moment where children are humans are just in the zone and committed to taking this, this play or this assignment, like seriously, and just being invested in having this energy, this swells of positive emotions and joy, and oh my gosh, we need that right now. We need those positive upward spirals, we need to be moving. We need movement at all. movement that you know shakes things up is unsettling is is is exciting, inviting and reminds us that there's so much joy to be experienced, there's so much to wonder about, there's so much serendipity that happens if we if we move, right if we move at all. Anyway, that's, I'm just attached to that kind of how do we get more of that? And how do we advocate that that is that should be promoted and protected. And it's it's simple, but it's also complex. And if you listen to my episode with Bob Henderson, he talked about how seek simplicity to preserve complexity. And I think this is one example of the thing that we're seeking is this, this simple understanding of joyful moments in play. And they're actually so much more complex. But we really need to a be aware of them, and be prioritize them. Because I think for all humans, that's probably just really important. Anyway, those are my thoughts on play today. That's all. And I think I actually might wrap up this episode there because that was jam packed full of a lot of ideas that I've been pondering for some time. And rather than fitting in even more ideas, I might just take my time. And I might actually have instead of play being a part one and part two, I might just keep going with random episodes about play. Maybe hopefully, I could find a way to weave in my wonderings into every episode. But sometimes that doesn't always align with if I have a particular guest on or interview happening, so yeah, thanks for listening to my latest wonderings on play. As always, if you have your own thoughts and ideas about play, if you've had similar kind of, you know, questions or ideas as I've had, or if you've thought through some of these things and come to a different conclusion than I have, I would love to hear your version of this journey. So feel free to reach out to me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, my handle in all three places is at playful pedagogies you can find my website playful pedagogy.ca. And you can always email me which is at playful pedagogies.ca. I look forward to hearing your perspective on this topic. And in the meantime, stay playful