07. Playfulness, imagination, and creativity in play with toys: A cultural-historical approach

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present a wholeness perspective on the relation between creative imagination and children’s activity when playing with toys. This is explored through a case retrieved from a 4-month experimental research project, specifically from a social fantasy play session. In order to analyse and examine children’s play, the study builds on a dynamic model of human activity—a Vygotskian approach—placed within a contemporary cultural-historical framework. This is expanded upon with an analytical model that connects creative play with the concept of change in play. In this model of transgression, children’s playful activities are understood as the basis for the transformation of play during play. This model offers an opportunity to observe transformations through initiatives and negotiations of the play activity. In the study, toys are conceptualised by types of mediation; that is, as toys used for social fantasy play and as toys used for creative construction play. It is shown that a wholeness perspective on play and changes during play must take into consideration children’s transgressions and negotiation of these transgressions. This gives a potential to observe how these act upon cultural traditions and institutional practices as transgressions of the established life-world.International Research in Early Childhood Education, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 111–128