Playful Methods

<p>This book introduces three new subjects to the context of literacy research—play the imaginary and improvisation—and proposes how to incorporate these important concepts into the field as research methods in order to engage people materials spaces and imaginaries that are inherent in every research encounter. Grounded in cutting-edge theory chapters are structured around lived narratives of research experiences demonstrating key practices for unsettling and expanding the ways people interact behave and construct knowledge. Through an exploration of difference play and the imaginary authors Medina Perry and Wohlwend present an active set of practices that acknowledges and attends to the global fragmented politicized contexts in literacy research. </p><p>This book provides researchers and literacy education scholars with rich and clear theoretical foundations and practical tools to engage in literacy research in ethical creative and responsive ways. The authors invite readers to <i>play </i>by exploring the ways in which pedagogical research artistic and other creative contexts can be sites to examine identity plurality and difference. Chapters feature innovative elements such as author dialogues that make visible how the authors engage with the ideas they present; guiding questions to prompt reflection and conversation; playful invitations to share possibilities of play in real-world contexts; and stories and practices to ground the conceptual and playful inquiry. </p>