‘Learning to play with new friends’: systematic quality development work in a leisure-time centre

Abstract

This article explores the recontextualisation of systematic quality development work (Sqdw) in a leisure-time centre. Two teachers’ processes of planning, organisation, documentation and evaluation were investigated, the aim being to explore the recontextualisation of Sqdw in practice. The study is thus a case study of these teachers’ practice carried out through fieldwork and using different methods. The findings reveal a practice where play with play-boxes is used in a systematic process as a tool to make children's social learning visible. The teachers create possibilities for children's learning in a manner in accordance with a leisure-time tradition where social learning is documented and evaluated. A formal educational discourse is not enacted in this leisure-time centre; instead a social pedagogical approach is reproduced. Nevertheless, Sqdw is enacted and appears to help the teachers make visible their social pedagogical work in a new context.