Common Threads supports a wide range of research projects on playwork theory and practice, particularly empirical and historical research. Our international PARS community is also actively involved in research projects into the effectiveness of PARS playwork practice. We also publish International Journal of Playwork Practice, the official journal of PARS playwork.
The International Playwork Census – a new global research project to find out who is involved in playwork and what that means.
In the 2011 UK census, some 53,000 people declared their job role as ‘playworker’. However, the UK playwork field has lacked any sustained central or membership body since its inception just after the Second World War, and there is still no centralised register of those involved in the playwork profession. Very little is therefore known about the UK playwork workforce in terms of demographic data, and there has been no investigation into what constitutes the playwork field. Furthermore, playwork is now used in many different countries around the world, and there is no comprehensive data available as to where playwork is being used and to what extent there is an international playwork workforce. This study aims to collect extensive data about playwork from playworkers and people who use a playwork approach in their work anywhere in the world.
Dr Pete King (Swansea University) and Dr Shelly Newstead (Common Threads Publications Ltd) are currently undertaking this research, which has been approved by the Research Ethics Committee, College of Human and Health Science at Swansea University. Thank you to everybody who took part in the survey from 19 different countries. We are now in the process of analysing the data from 19 different countries and have already published one paper from this study.
If you want to discuss any aspects of the research, you can email Pete at p.f.king@swansea.ac.uk or telephone+44 1792 602314.
Journal articles from the International Playwork Census
Shelly Newstead & Pete King (2021) What Is the Purpose of Playwork?, Child Care in Practice
The Play Cycle 20 years on
In 1998, Gordon Sturrock and Perry Else presented a paper at the IPA USA International Play Conference in Colorado. The paper was titled ‘The playground as therapeutic space: playwork as healing’, later referred to as ‘The Colorado Paper’ and introduced the Play Cycle to playwork practice. In the last twenty years, elements of the Play Cycle (such as ‘play cues’, ‘play return’, ‘play frame’ and ‘annihilation’) have entered into common use within the playwork sector, and appears in training and education, text books and underpins professional playwork practice. The aim of this research was to investigate understandings and applications of the Play Cycle and whether it has influenced playwork and childcare practice over the last 20 years.
This research was conducted by Dr Pete King from Swansea University and Dr Shelly Newstead. Read about the findings from the research in the journal articles below and the Routledge Advances in Playwork Research book, The Play Cycle: Theory, Research and Application.
For more details about the study, please contact Pete at p.f.king@swansea.ac.uk or 01792 602 314.
For more information about the original Play Cycle, read Therapeutic Reader One, which includes ‘The Colorado Paper’.
Journal articles from the Play Cycle study
If you are in the UK and do not have access to journals through an educational institution, try the Access to Research scheme available in public libraries.
King, P. & Newstead, S. (2019) Childcare Worker’s Understanding of the Play Cycle: can a focus on ‘process not product’ contribute to quality childcare experiences? Child Care in Practice
King, P. & Newstead, S. (2020) Re-defining the Play Cycle: An empirical study of playworkers’ understanding of playwork theory. Journal of Early Childhood Research 18, 99-111.
King, P. & Newstead, S. (2019) Understanding the adult role in the Play Cycle – an empirical study. Child Care in Practice
King, P. & Newstead, S. (2020) Demographic data and barriers to professionalisation in playwork Journal of Vocational Education & Training
PARS Special Interest Groups (SIGs) develop and disseminate research relevant to PARS playwork practice. Each PARS SIG is an online research and practice-based forum and members are invited to use the PARS Play Cycle SIG to help them to develop new research, share practice, create new knowledge and disseminate new knowledge about the Play Cycle. PARS SIGs are open to researchers and practitioners from any discipline interested in developing their own knowledge and practice and supporting the development of PARS playwork theory and practice around the world.
PARS SIGs are hosted on the Common Threads Facebook page. These Facebook groups are private – to submit a request to join you can either:
• click the link below for the group you would like to join
• email pars@commonthreads.org.uk making sure to tell us which SIG you wish to join.
The Play Cycle – led by Dr Pete King, Swansea University, UK https://www.facebook.com/groups/383108746955317/
Intergenerational Playwork – led by Associate Professor Jennifer Cartmel, Griffith University, Australia https://www.facebook.com/groups/490729602604691/
PARS in Educational Settings – led by Dr Jonathan McCloud, Roanoke College, USA https://www.facebook.com/groups/424465902766195/
International Journal of Playwork Practice was founded by Dr Shelly Newstead and originally published as Journal of Playwork Practice by Policy Press from 2014 to 2017. IJPP is now widely accessible as an open-access, online peer-reviewed journal, hosted by Bowling Green University, USA. https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/ijpp/
IJPP aims to advance playwork research and practice by providing the first ever interdisciplinary platform for the publication and dissemination of scholarship relevant to playwork practice. The journal bridges the playwork theory-practice divide by facilitating practitioner access to research relevant to their practice, and enables researchers interested in ‘playwork’ to access a hitherto inaccessible field of practice and its literature.
International Journal of Playwork Practice is run by an international Board of playwork scholars and academics from other disciplines with an interest in playwork. For more information about the journal, please sign up to the IJPP mailing list. To submit an article, please read our Guidelines for Authors and submit your article through the IJPP website.
To purchase back copies of the first seven issues of International Journal of Playwork Practice, please click here. You may also be able to access digital copies via Portico.
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Common Threads Playwork is the trading name of Common Threads Publications Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales. Registration Number 4500413.
Common Threads trades as a social enterprise.
Our registered office address is:
Office 2,
The Sackhouse,
Jicklings Yard,
Wells-next-the-Sea,
Norfolk,
UK
NR23 1AU
Common Threads is proud to be an NCFE International Award Centre no. 9001442
