Friday, 24th April 2020

University of Birmingham

The Children and Childhood Network at the University of Birmingham is holding a Play Conference, funded by Midlands 4 Cities Doctoral Training Partnership in association with the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

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The overarching theme is ‘The Power of Play’ in research, policy and practice. Attendees will include doctoral researchers, academics, teachers and educators, and professional organisations from across the Midlands and the UK. Further details will be announced in due course.

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Call for Papers

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The Network is currently welcoming proposals for papers/presentations, posters and workshops. The Conference will include a mixture of presentations and practical workshop sessions reflecting the diversity of research, policy and practice on ‘play.’  

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Submission Guidelines

Papers/presentations:

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Presentations and papers might focus on:

·         Research on ‘play’ for/with children and young people;

·         A demonstration of a project related to play;

·         Educating others about the power of play.

 

The above are intended as examples and we will consider papers and presentations which cover all aspects of play – for children, for young people, for everyone. Presentations should be no shorter than 10mins and no longer than 15mins duration.

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Workshops:

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The workshop sessions should aim to promote and encourage the use of play in the learning environment in an innovative or creative way.  We are interested in workshops that are interactive, allow for the participation of the delegates, and which equip attendees with tools that they can take back to their work environments and implement with children and young people. Workshops are expected to be no shorter than 45 minutes but no longer than one hour in duration. 

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Research Posters:

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Research Posters will be considered from academic researchers or external organisations who work on ‘play’. We will also accept submissions from schools who have undertaken class or school projects on ‘play’ and would like to display their work at the conference. This could be in a poster format, real examples of children’s work, or a PowerPoint presentation.

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Submissions for all categories should be no longer than 350 words. For research posters, PDF copies of posters are welcomed, but not essential.

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Deadline for all submissions – Friday 20th December 2019

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Please email your submissions to the Children and Childhood Network at the University of Birmingham: childhoodnetwork@contacts.bham.ac.uk

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