Skip to main content
Open Book Publishers

2. Gathered in Play: Play as the Common Space during the Covid-19 Lockdown in Serbia

Chapter of: Play in a Covid Frame: Everyday Pandemic Creativity in a Time of Isolation(pp. 33–54)

Export Metadata

  • ONIX 3.0
    • Thoth
    • Project MUSE
      Cannot generate record: No BIC or BISAC subject code
    • OAPEN
    • JSTOR
      Cannot generate record: No BISAC subject code
    • Google Books
      Cannot generate record: No BIC, BISAC or LCC subject code
    • OverDrive
      Cannot generate record: No priced EPUB or PDF URL
  • ONIX 2.1
  • CSV
  • JSON
  • OCLC KBART
  • BibTeX
  • CrossRef DOI deposit
    Cannot generate record: This work does not have any ISBNs
  • MARC 21 Record
    Cannot generate record: MARC records are not available for chapters
  • MARC 21 Markup
    Cannot generate record: MARC records are not available for chapters
  • MARC 21 XML
    Cannot generate record: MARC records are not available for chapters
Metadata
Title2. Gathered in Play
SubtitlePlay as the Common Space during the Covid-19 Lockdown in Serbia
ContributorŽivka Krnjaja(author)
Nevena Mitranić(author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0326.02
Landing pagehttps://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0326/chapters/10.11647/obp.0326.02
Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
CopyrightKrnjaja, Živka; Mitranić, Nevena;
PublisherOpen Book Publishers
Published on2023-06-01
Long abstractThe paper presents how the play of preschool children and their families was supported in Serbia during the Covid-19 lockdown. Firstly, we outline the approach to play nurtured by the Department of Preschool Pedagogy in Serbia and how play, understood in this way, might be important for resilience on an individual and social level. Further, we will focus on the joint action of teachers from the Department of Preschool Pedagogy and students on the undergraduate course Children’s Play and Creativity in creating a resource, The Treasury for Common Play between Children and Adults, during the Covid-19 lockdown. The Treasury is an illustrated publication with suggestions for different playful situations and activities that children and parents can undertake at home while in isolation. It was promoted to the families in cooperation with policymakers and preschool teachers. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis on twenty-four written feedbacks of the families from the territory of Belgrade on using The Treasury, we tried to understand the nature and quality of the common play experiences of parents and children during home isolation. We interpreted the research findings focusing on openness towards the world, creative potential and relational nature. Based on the research findings, as well as our participation in working with students, educational policymakers and practitioners, we make two recommendations at the end of this paper for improving educational practice: cultivating play in a joint, systemic effort and establishing educational practice on creative potential.
Page rangepp. 33–54
Print length22 pages
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Keywords
  • play
  • preschool children
  • families
  • Serbia
  • Covid-19 lockdown
  • Department of Preschool Pedagogy
  • resilience
  • joint action
  • undergraduate course
  • Children's Play and Creativity
  • resource
  • Treasury for Common Play between Children and Adults
  • illustrated publication
  • suggestions
  • playful situations
  • activities
  • home isolation
  • feedback
  • interpretative phenomenological analysis
  • research findings
  • openness
  • creative potential
  • relational nature
  • educational practice
  • joint effort
  • systemic effort
  • creative potential
  • improving educational practice
Contributors

Živka Krnjaja

(author)
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1684-952X

Živka Krnjaja is a full professor at the University of Belgrade, Serbia, in the Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Pedagogy and Andragogy. In the last six years she has been actively involved in the national reform of early childhood education in Serbia. She is one of the authors of the national curriculum framework for early childhood education, Years of Ascent. She is an author and co-author of numerous books and manuals for practitioners, including topics of curriculum development, project learning and pedagogical documentation in kindergarten. Her focus of research and teaching is learning in early childhood education, child’s play and creativity, curriculum development and evaluation and research of practitioners.

Nevena Mitranić

(author)
PhD Candidate at University of Belgrade
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1519-9935

Nevena Mitranić is a teaching assistant and PhD candidate in pedagogy in the Department of Pedagogy and Andragogy, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade. As a junior researcher at the Institute of Pedagogy and Andragogy, she has participated in projects to pilot the preschool curriculum draft Years of Ascent, and inclusive early childhood education in Serbia. Her focus of research and teaching are learning in early childhood education, child’s play and creativity, curriculum development and evaluation.

References
  1. Boyd Webb, Nancy (ed.) 2015. Play Therapy with Children and Adolescents in Crisis (New York: Guilford)
  2. Edmiston, Brian. 2008. Forming Ethical Identities in Early Childhood Play (Abingdon: Routledge), https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203934739
  3. Eichberg, Henning. 2018. ‘Play against Alienation?’ in The Philosophy of Play as Life: Towards a Global Ethos of Management, ed. by Wendy Russell, Emily Ryal and Malcom MacLean (London: Routledge), pp. 211–26, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315454139-16
  4. Fegert, Jorg. M., et al. 2020. ‘Challenges and Burden of the Coronavirus 2019 (Covid-19) Pandemic for Child and Adolescent Mental Health: A Narrative Review to Highlight Clinical and Research Needs in the Acute Phase and the Long Return to Normality’, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 14, (2020), https://doi.org/10.1186/s13034-020-00329-3
  5. Feldman, Daniel. 2019. ‘Children’s Play in the Shadow of War’, American Journal of Play, 11 (3): 288–307
  6. Fink, Eugen. 2000. Igra kao simbol svijeta [Play as Symbol of the World] (Zagreb: Demetra)
  7. Fleer, Marilyn. (2009). ‘A Cultural-Historical Perspective on Play: Play as a Leading Activity Across Cultural Communities’, in Play and Learning in Early Childhood Settings: International Perspectives, ed. by Marilyn Fleer and Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson (Berlin: Springer), pp. 1–18, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8498-0_1
  8. Henricks, Thomas. 2014. ‘Play as Self-Realization: Toward a General Theory of Play’, American Journal of Play, 6: 190–213
  9. International Play Association. 2020. Play in Crisis: Support for Parents and Carers (International Play Association), http://ipaworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IPA-Play-in-Crisis-Booklet-for-parents-and-carers-2020.pdf
  10. Khattar, Randa and Callaghan, Karyn. 2016. ‘Playing with Play: A Playful Reconnaissance’, in Play: A Theory of Learning and Change, ed. by Tara Brabazon (Berlin: Springer), pp. 27–33, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25549-1_3
  11. Krnjaja, Živka. 2012a. ’Igra na ranim uzrastima [Play in Early Years]’, in Standardi za razvoj i učenje dece ranih uzrasta u Srbiji, ed. by Aleksandar Baucal (Beograd: Institut za psihologiju), pp. 113–32
  12. ——. 2012b. ’Igra kao susret: koautorski prostor u zajedničkoj igri dece i odraslih [Play as an Encounter: Coauthorial Space in Common Play between Children and Adults]’, Etnoantropološki problemi, 7: 251–67
  13. ——. 2021. ‘Predškolsko vaspitanje i obrazovanje u vreme „korona krize“: fizička izolacija i „efekat tunela”[Preschool Education in Times of Corona-Crises: Physical Isolation and “Tunnel Effect”]’, in Obrazovanje u vreme kovid krize: Gde smo i kuda dalje, ed. by Vera Spasenović (Beograd: Filozofski fakultet), pp. 67–82
  14. Lester, Stuart, and Russell, Wendy. 2008. Play for a Change. Play, Policy and Practice: A Review of Contemporary Perspectives (London: Play England)
  15. ——. 2010. Children’s Right to Play: An Examination of the Importance of Play in the Lives of Children Worldwide, Working Paper, 57 (The Hague, Netherlands: Bernard van Leer Foundation)
  16. Manning, Erin. 2009. Relationscapes: Movement, Art, Philosophy (Cambridge: MIT Press), https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262134903.001.0001
  17. ——. 2012. Always More Than One (Durham: Duke University Press), https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822395829
  18. Marjanović-Shane, Ana, and Jane E. White. 2014. ‘When the Footlights Are Off: A Bakhtinian Interrogation of Play as Postupok’, International Journal of Play, 3: 119–35, https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2014.931686
  19. Marjanović, Aleksandra. 1979. ‘Stvaralaštvo, igra i vaspitanje predškolskog deteta [Creativity, Play and Upbringing of Preschool Child]’, Predškolsko dete, 1–2: 3–33
  20. ——. 1987. ‘Dečja igra i stvaralaštvo [Child’s Play and Creativity]’,Predškolsko dete, 1–4: 85–101
  21. Massumi, Brian. 2002. Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation (Durham: Duke University Press)
  22. Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development. 2018. ’Pravilnik o Osnovama programa predškolskog vaspitanja i obrazovanja Godine uzleta [National Curriculum Framework for Early Childhood Education: Years of Ascent]’, http://www.mpn.gov.rs/wpcontent/uploads/2018/09/OSNOVE-PROGRAMA-.pdf
  23. ——. 2020. ’Predškolsko vaspitanje i obrazovanje u vreme epidemije Covid-19 [Preschool Education and Upbringing in the Times of Covid-19 Epidemic]’, http://www.mpn.gov.rs/wpcontent/uploads/2020/03/pred%C5%A1kolsko-vest_pdf.pdf
  24. Mitranić, Nevena, and Dragana Purešević. 2021. ‘Kompetentnost pedagoga u doba krize [The Competence of Pedagogues in Times of Crisis]’, in Vaspitanje i obrazovanje u digitalnom okruženju, ed. by Ivana Jeremić, Nataša Nikolić, and Nikola Koruga (Beograd: Institut za pedagogiju i andragogiju), pp. 239–46
  25. Mitranić, Nevena. 2016. ‘Smernice za društvenu podršku dečjoj igri [Guidelines for Social Support to Child’s Play]’, Nastava i vaspitanje, 65: 411–25
  26. Miškeljin, Lidija. 2021. ’Pristupi obrazovne politike predškolskom vaspitanju i obrazovanju u doba krize [Approaches of Educational Policies to Early Childhood Education in Times of Crises]’, in Obrazovanje u vreme kovid krize: Gde smo i kuda dalje, ed. by Vera Spasenović (Begrad: Filozofski fakultet), pp. 101–18
  27. Montag, Christian, and Jon D. Elhai. 2020. ‘Discussing Digital Technology Overuse in Children and Adolescents during the Covid-19 Pandemic and Beyond: On the Importance of Considering Affective Neuroscience Theory’, Addictive Behaviors Reports, 12, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.abrep.2020.100313
  28. Pavlović Breneselović, Dragana. 2010. ‘Dobrobit deteta u programu naspram programa za dobrobit [The Wellbeing of Child in the Curriculum vs Programing for Wellbeing]’, Nastava i vaspitanje, 59: 251–64
  29. Pramling Samuelsson, Ingrid, Judith T. Wagner, and Elin Erikson Ødegaard. 2020. ‘The Coronavirus Pandemic and Lessons Learned in Preschools in Norway, Sweden and the United States: OMEP Policy Forum’, International Journal of Early Childhood, 52: 129–44, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13158-020-00267-3
  30. Purešević, Dragana. 2021. ‘Vrtić na daljinu u vreme Covid-19 krize: Perspektiva roditelja [Distance-Kindergarten in Times of Covid-19 Crisis: Parents’ Perspectives]’, in Obrazovanje u vreme kovid krize: Gde smo i kuda dalje, ed. by Vera Spasenović (Beograd: Filozofski fakultet), pp. 133–50
  31. Reid, Jo-Anne, and Denise May Wood. 2016. ‘Practice Play in Learning to Teach: Performing a Teaching Body’, in Play: A Theory of Learning and Change, ed. by Tara Brabazon (Berlin: Springer), pp. 147–65
  32. Sicart, Miguel. 2014. Play Matters (Chicago: MIT Press), https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/10042.001.0001
  33. United Nations. 1989. Convention on the Rights of the Child, https://www.unicef.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/UNCRC_united_nations_convention_on_the_rights_of_the_child.pdf
  34. Villarreal, Alexandra. 2020. ‘“The Most Stressful Time Ever”: How Coronavirus Affects Children’s Mental Health’, The Guardian, 17 April, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/17/us-children-mental-health-coronavirus
  35. Vellacott, Julie. 2007. ’Resilience: A Psychoanalytical Exploration’, British Journal of Psychotherapy, 23: 163–70, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1752-0118.2007.00015.x
  36. Wilig, Carla. 2013. Introducing Qualitative Research in Psychology (New York: McGraw-Hill Education)