Volume 17, Number 2

Published 2025

Editors' Note

This issue of the American Journal of Play begins with an interview of artist and designer Jay Beckwith. He discusses his career creating play equipment, playgrounds, and play experiences. Also in this issue, Miguel Sicart proposes an eighth category—the rhetoric of computational play—to add to the catalog of seven play rhetorics examined by theorist Brian Sutton-Smith in his influential 1997 book The Ambiguity of Play. Then, M. Elizabeth Graue, Fujiuju Chang, Erica Ramberg, and YJ Kim describe the development of the Educationally Productive Play Protocol (EP3)—an educational observation tool used to support play-based teaching—and a pilot study related to it. Next, in an article that explores the role of play policy for older people, Janine Dodge, Maxwell Hartt, Rachel Barber, Nishant Dave, Marley Gryfe, and Victoria McCutcheon examine the extent to which play is integrated into the World Health Organization global database of age-friendly practices. Finally, Madeline Quasebarth, Jessica Wilks, Yul Ailea Stites, Sophie Knifton, Vanya Manthena, Robin Michelle Cogdell, Mason Arrington, and Patrick Jagoda discuss Hexacago Health Academy (HHA) 2.0, a five year summer intervention that used public health fundamentals, experiential learning, game design curricula, playing, making, and other principles to help underrepresented youth engage in complex systems thinking.

Interviews

A Lifetime of Creating Play Environments: An Interview with Jay Beckwith

As an artist, Jay Beckwith has used his interest in play sculpture to grow communities, and his book Build Your Own Playground! (1973) serves as a manual for community development. His concepts and designs have become an industry standard and can be found on most playgrounds worldwide. An active gardener since childhood, Beckwith—a board member of the School Garden Network of Sonoma County—and his wife Cecily Clover created an ideal small farm in the hills above Gration, California, on which they maintained sheep, chickens, a fruit orchard, and a quarter-acre food garden. Over a decade ago, Beckwith gathered a group of friends to create the Sonoma County GoLocal Cooperative.

Articles

The Eighth Rhetoric of Play

Miguel Sicart

To Brian Sutton-Smith’s catalogue of seven play rhetorics in his influential work, The Ambiguity of Play, the author adds an eighth category—the rhetoric of computational play, connecting the research field of game studies with other forms of play studies. By proposing this rhetoric, Sicart seeks to consolidate the relation between game studies and play studies. Key words: Brian Sutton-Smith; game studies; play rhetorics; play studies

Developing an Observational Tool to Support Play-Based Teaching

M. Elizabeth Graue, Fujiuju Chang, Erica Ramberg, and YJ Kim

The authors contend that, although recent research—especially concerning the role of teachers—shows play to be critical for early childhood education, most kindergartens in the United States limit play because of accountability worries. And this is especially true for those kindergartens serving Black and Brown children. To support the development of rich play-based teaching, the authors developed an educational observation tool called the Educationally Productive Play Protocol (EP3), which they describe in relation to a pilot study in thirty preschool classrooms and which offers evidence that teachers who viewed themselves as facilitators of play had higher ratings than their management-oriented peers. Key words: Educationally Productive Play Protocol of play-based teaching; professional development for teachers; teaching and play; teacher observation tools

WHO Plays? Play, Older People, and Age-Friendly Policy

Janine Dodge, Maxwell Hartt, Rachel Barber, Nishant Dave, Marley Gryfe, and Victoria McCutcheon

The authors assert that as the world’s population ages, play becomes an underappreciated and underdeveloped opportunity to address many of the challenges associated with growing old. But no systematic examinations exist for the role of play in age-friendly policy. The authors seek to determine the extent to which play has been integrated into such policy landscapes and conclude that the importance of play and playfulness for the well-being of older people in building and maintaining relationships has simply not been recognized. Key words: age-friendly cities; age-friendly practices; aging and social relationships; Global Database of Age-Friendly Practices; individual connectedness and the elderly; older populations; play and aging; positive emotions and the elderly

Teaching Systems Thinking Through Game Design Curricula: The Case of Hexacago Health Academy

Madeline Quasebarth, Jessica Wilks, Yul Ailea Stites, Sophie Knifton, Vanya Manthena, Robin Michelle Cogdell, Mason Arrington, and Patrick Jagoda

The authors describe Hexacago Health Academy (HHA) 2.0, a five-year summer intervention designed to increase interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) among mostly Black high school students in Chicago. The program features public health fundamentals and game design using principles of systems thinking, social-cognitive career theory, experiential learning, playing and making, and storytelling. They conclude that game play and game making can facilitate community collaborations and encourage marginalized youth to engage in complex systems thinking. Key words: education; experiential learning; game design; public health curriculum; pedagogy of the oppressed; STEM; systems thinking

Book Reviews

Seth Giddings, Toy Theory: Technology and Imagination in Play

Emilie St-Hilaire

Katelyn Clark, Play Stories: Using Your Play Memories and Perspectives to Inform Teaching Practice

James Ewald Johnson

Samuel Broaden and Kisa Marx, Rethinking Weapon Play in Early Childhood

Christopher J. Ferguson

Abigail A. Van Slyck, Playhouses and Privilege: The Architecture of Elite Childhood

Amy F. Ogata

Julien Mailland, The Game That Never Ends: How Lawyers Shape the Videogame Industry

Betsy Rosenblatt

Tom Boellstorff and Braxton Soderman, Intellivision: How a Videogame System Battled Atari and Almost Bankrupted Barbie

Christopher M. Bingham

Contributors

Janine Dodge is a graduate research fellow in the Population and Place Research Lab and a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography and Planning at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada. She is a former president of the International Play Association (IPA) in Brazil. Her research focuses on the relationships between older people, play, space, and social interaction. Maxwell Hartt is the Director of the Population and Place Research Lab and an associate professor in the Department of Geography and Planning at Queen’s University. He is the principal investigator of the Aging Playfully project and is the author of the forthcoming book Aging Playfully: Reimagining the Possibilities of Age-Friendly Community Planning. Rachel Barber is a graduate research fellow in the Population and Place Research Lab and a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography and Planning at Queen’s University. Her research focuses on Canadian left-behind places and their relationship with resident community engagement. Nishant Dave is a former graduate research fellow in the Population and Place Research Lab and a graduate of the Master of Urban and Regional Planning program in the Department of Geography and Planning at Queen’s University. Marley Gryfe is a former graduate research fellow in the Population and Place Research Lab and a graduate of the Master of Urban and Regional Planning program in the Department of Geography and Planning at Queen’s University. Victoria McCutcheon is a former graduate research fellow in the Population and Place Research Lab and a graduate of the Master of Urban and Regional Planning program in the Department of Geography and Planning at Queen’s University.

Beth Graue is professor emerita of Early Childhood Education in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A former kindergarten teacher, Graue has focused her work on early childhood policy and practice, including kindergarten readiness, home-school relations, class size reduction, public prekindergarten implementation, and play-based professional development in early mathematics. She received the Distinguished Contributions to Research award from the American Educational Research Association’s Early Education/Child Development Special Interest Group in 2024. Fujiuju Chang holds a Ph.D. from the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at UW-Madison. Her research focuses on play-based teaching and learning and on teacher education. Her dissertation explored early childhood educators’ beliefs and practices of a play-based curriculum. Erica Ramberg, formerly a kindergarten teacher, is a member of the teaching faculty in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at UW-Madison. Her research focuses on the mediation through play-based practice by childhood teachers of children’s agency. Previously she coordinated the early childhood and ESL teacher education program and served as a research assistant in the Center for Research on Early Childhood Education (CRECE) at UW-Madison. YJ Kim is an assistant professor of design, creative, and informal education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at UW–Madison. Her work appears in such journals as Computers & Education, British Journal of Educational Technology, and Learning and Instruction. She founded and directed of the MIT Playful Journey Lab.

Madeline Quasebarth is a researcher at the University of Chicago, specializing in sexual and reproductive health. Sophie Knifton is a researcher at the University of Chicago in the Department of Complex Family Planning whose work focuses on access to reproductive health care for young people in Chicago. Patrick Jagoda is a professor of English and media studies at the University of Chicago. His areas of research are critical theory, cultural studies, game studies, and the history of science. Yul Stites, is a public health professional dedicated to educational equity and access for young people. Mason Arrington is a game designer based in the Chicago area, focused on educational and culturally responsive game design. Robin Carnilius is a designer and mixed media artist with specialty in translating complex ideas into easily consumable products for a wide range of audiences. Jessice Wilks is a curriculum design specialist. Vanya Manthena is a researcher at the University of Chicago in the Department of Complex Family Planning, with specialties in maternal fetal issues and sexual and reproductive health matters for young people.

Miguel Sicart is a professor of digital play at the Center for Digital Play, IT University of Copenhagen. He is the author of The Ethics of Computer Games, Beyond Choices: The Design of Ethical Gameplay, Play Matters, and Playing Software. His research studies play, culture, and technology in the information age, combining theories and methods from the philosophy of technology, game studies, and science and technology studies.