Making Memory Matter: Constructive Play as Materialized Memory Practice

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Friday 3:45 pm - Gold 4
  In Roundtable Session: Beyond the Traditional: Critical and Contemporary Examinations of Normalized Narratives, Perspectives, Curriculum, and Practice Across Disciplines

Abstract

Grounded in contemporary childhood memory studies and sociomaterial theory, this study explores how materiality shapes memory in children’s constructive play. Using visual ethnography, elicitation interviews, and Visual Network Analysis (VNA), it focuses on a 15-year-old Mongolian child living in Finland, examining how materials entangle with memory across cultural and temporal contexts. The findings conceptualize materialized memory practice as a non-linear, relational process where memory, imagination, and materiality co-emerge. Through play, the child reassembles past experiences and reimagines future possibilities. This study demonstrates how constructive play enables children to remember and narrate their lives through material engagement, contributing to global conversations on childhood memory, play, and identity, especially in transnational contexts shaped by movement and belonging.

Authors

• Sinyoung Kim, University of Helsinki

• Kristiina Kumpulainen, University of British Columbia