The SAGE Handbook of Outdoor Play and Learning - Hardcover

Waller et al have given us a remarkable book that presents the impact of globalization on outdoor play around the world, skillfully bringing together local research, pedagogy and policy in the context of global “playgrounds” or outdoor play spaces. Diverse worldviews on outdoor play are examined along cultural values such as spirituality, gender roles, age veneration, sustainability, and children’s rights which, together with a section on research methodology for studying young children’s outdoor play, make it especially relevant to the field. This book is a must read for all early childhood educators around the world!

This is a really valuable international collaboration. Presenting wide-ranging evidence for the importance of playing and learning outdoors, it also demonstrates how much research into children’s outdoor play is maturing. Crossing research, policy and practice, the collection shows the depth and breadth of current research areas and methods in this field, and how research paradigms and approaches are themselves being pushed by these studies. Drawing from cultures and approaches across countries and regions alongside useful critical reviews, the handbook also offers contexts to frame further enquiry – and there are a great many questions waiting to be explored!

This international handbook will provide a fantastic resource for all those interested in how outdoor play and learning can act to benefit our children and our environment. The wealth of different perspectives brought together by these experienced and highly respected editors in the field offers an eclectic and coherent insight into both research and theory about outdoor play and learning.

The SAGE Handbook of Outdoor Play and Learning is an impressive collection of interdisciplinary, multicultural and global knowledge about children's outdoor play, written by internationally acclaimed scholars. Contrary to the publishers' modest opinion (p. 16), I think this handbook is very comprehensive! The book provides a vast amount of in depth knowledge covering a wide range of relevant issues, including critical perspectives. I hope the book will find a large circulation; it is exceedingly relevant for students, teachers and educators, teacher educators, researchers as well as authorities and politicians who are concerned about children's upbringing, play and leaning.

There has been a growing academic interest in the role of outdoor spaces for play in a child's development. This text represents a coordinated and comprehensive volume of international research on this subject edited by members of the well-established European Early Childhood Education Research Association Outdoor Play and Learning SIG (OPAL). Chapters written by authors from Europe, North and South America, Australasia and Asia Pacific countries are organised into six sections:

• Theoretical Frameworks and Conceptual Approaches for Understanding Outdoor Play & Learning
• Critical Reflections on Policy and Regulation in Outdoor Play & Learning
• Children's Engagement with Nature, Sustainability and Children's Geographies
• Diverse Contexts and Inclusion in Children's Outdoor Play Environments
• Methodologies for Researching Outdoor Play and Learning
• Links Between Research and Practice