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theses

In order to understand how play and playgrounds became virtually synonymous with children, childhood and early education, this dissertation examines how play-focused programs, playgrounds and early education programs developed within the highly racialized social context of Philadelphia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. One of the central projects of this study is to integrate early childhood educators (all female in this time period), African Americans, and young children into play movement historiography. The inclusion of these actors not only demonstrates that dominant strands of American play advocacy—in which African Americans, and to some extent early childhood educators and young children, were largely absent—were not the only ones, but also that national trends did not always dictate children’s experiences at a local level. In addition, it shows how children’s actions helped to shape the programs and spaces that were created for them, contributing to the prioritization of play and the establishment of playgrounds in early 20th century Philadelphia. Furthermore, it explains how play and playground advocates’ ideas and goals affected children’s access to educationally focused play spaces and programs in unequal ways, showing that in Philadelphia play advocacy did not benefit all children, or communities, equally. This dissertation argues that for Philadelphia’s late nineteenth and early twentieth century children, caregivers and communities the city’s increasingly prolific production of play-centered programs and play spaces had varied effects, both positive and negative. The specific nature of these effects was dependent on the goals, beliefs, values and resources of particular play and playground advocates and, in particular, how closely their purposes and the strategies they used to implement their ideas aligned with the goals and needs of both those targeted as participants and those who were excluded. Thus, this dissertation provides a historical context for current discussions of play and playgrounds as self-evidently beneficial, while also responding to theoretical critiques of play-focused practices and spaces that characterize on or both as inherently detrimental, encouraging a more mindful approach to current discussions and debates regarding play and play space.

ETD_4823

http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.1/rucore10005600001.ETD.000068645

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

Includes vita

by Deborah Shine Valentine

doi:10.7282/T3M61HVJ

ETD doctoral

The author owns the copyright to this work.