Imaginative Play Within Muslim Stories: Exploring Truth, Constructing Culture — A Multisite Design Experiment

• In Event: Photography, Play, Embodiment, and Automated Scoring: Enriching the Lives of Learners and Teachers

Abstract

A six-month multi-site design experiment explored how children engage in imaginative play in four Muslim educational communities in Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Riyadh, and Toronto. A collaboratively-designed playgroup centering traditional Muslim stories was offered to children over ten sessions. Through observation and interviewing, we examined how participants engaged in play and altered the playgroup to meet their aspirations. Individual and collaborative thematic analysis highlighted that while children played in various ways, mature imaginative play was elusive. Yet, imaginative play emerged with certain conditions: scaffolded invitations to play within storytelling, child agency, and mixed-maturity participants. Centering the voices of Muslim children, this study examines engaging learners and educators in negotiating truth, culture, and making meaning of heritage in the present through play.

Authors

• Claire Alkouatli, University of South Australia
  Presenting Author

• Mariam Alhashmi, Zayed University
  Presenting Author