The play in research and the research in play: a participatory treasure map experience project

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article recounts the changes that occurred when a research study was redesigned to become more participatory, involving children, teachers, families, and the wider symbolic cultural neighbourhood. What emerged was a research study that was integrated into the curriculum of a four-year-old classroom. Here, the process is specifically examined through which curriculum emerged when the research project called the Treasure Map Experience (TME) was embedded into the weekly curriculum of a four-year-old classroom. In recounting this process, it became evident that the emergent early childhood curriculum included tenets of Developmental Education, notably the two most prevalent instructional practices of shared direct instruction and environmental exposure, which correlate with Vygotsky’s spontaneous/everyday and scientific concept acquisition. Moreover, the inclusion of numerous technical and psychological tools is noted as they appear in the emergent Treasure Map Curriculum. Based on the idea that child development occurs as a result of a sociocultural process where a child appropriates cultural tools within relationships and interactions with adults and ‘more knowledgeable others’, the emergent curriculum serves as an example of Developmental Education. Further, the research study informs the development of the curriculum at the same time that the curriculum informs the direction and findings of the study.