Community connections: Leisure education through afterschool programming

Abstract

ABSTRACT Leisure education may help children to explore personal meanings of leisure, identify leisure preferences and better understand the role of leisure in their lives. Leisure scholars have advocated for the right to leisure education for children and research has produced implementation strategies, pedagogical approaches, and general principles to develop leisure education programmes for children. However, leisure education in schools has been slow to evolve. Schools face enormous challenges and significant educational reforms when tasked with providing leisure education. A unique solution may be to focus on the development of leisure education in before and after school programmes designed for children. These programmesmay provide an ideal context to create leisure education programmes for a significant number of Canadian children. This paper describes an inspiring initiative aimed at developing leisure education in a before and after school programme.