The moment of play and movement: A qualitative study of children’s playful shared movements
Abstract
The aim of this article is to investigate children’s playful shared movements on the preschool playground and to understand their doings when they perform apparently new and unexpected movements in these meetings. Video observations and field notes from two preschools constitute the empirical material, and we have analyzed three situations from the video observations to investigate the research question. The findings indicate that children in playful movement interactions use their habits to create moments that introduce something new and unexpected, what Daniel Stern (2007) conceptualizes as critical now moments. These now moments are opened up by imaginings, transformations, and excitement. In these moments, children can be creative and curious, leading to opportunities to experience growth in how they use their body and the place. Whether now moments led to creativity, growth and development, seemed to depend on the emotional attunement between the participants.
Authors contributing to Journal for Research in Arts and Sports Education retain the copyright of their article but agree to publish their articles under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, for any purpose, even commercially, under the condition that appropriate credit is given, that a link to the license is provided, and that they indicate if changes were made. They may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses them or their use.
