[xmca] The deadline for the MCA Special Issue on Play October 31

Hi there,
We want to reiterate that the deadline for the MCA special issue on play
submissions is October 31 (not August 31!). We also want to reiterate that
no special extensions will be given after that date.
We are pleased that the issue receives such a wide attention and interest.
We are now re-sending the call for your convenience and look forward to
reading your contributions.
Cheers,

Special Issue Editors:
Sonja Baumer and Kristen Radsliff Clark

Call for Papers
Mind, Cultural, and Activity: An International Journal invites contributions
for a special issue:
 Playworlds of Children and Adults: Cross Cultural Perspectives on PlayPedagogy

One of the core issues in developmental theories over the last two centuries
has been the role of play in both the evolutionary development of species
and the ontological development of individuals. How might we theorize
playwhen it does not seem to directly lead to consequences that
apparently
ensure survival or bring about other provisions affecting livelihood? While
some CHAT theorists see play as the leading developmental activity in early
childhood ( e.g., El'konin, 1971), others have questioned the cultural and
historical universality of this claim (e.g., Goncu, 1999). Vygotsky
specifically discusses the role of play in human development in an essay
(published in "Mind and Society, 1978) where he argues that play creates a
zone of proximal development (ZOPED) and that "in play a child is always
above his average age, above his daily behavior; in play it is as though he
were a head taller than himself" (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 102). Vygotsky also
specifically emphasizes, "though the play-development relationship can be
compared to the instruction-development relationship, play provides a much
wider background for changes in needs and in consciousness" (Vygotsky, 1978,
p.102). Despite this, there has not been much additional empirical work
examining what these wider effects are and how and under what circumstances
play creates a zone of proximal development.
One exception to this is the work of Gunilla Lindqvist (1995, 1996, 2001).
Lindqvist (1996) grounds the educational approach of play pedagogy in a
lesser known work of Vygotsky, entitled "Imagination and creativity in
childhood" (Vygotsky, 1930/2004). She embraces Vygotsky's cultural approach
to children's play and argues for a play-based pedagogy – an approach in
which adults actively and jointly participate in children's play. In a
practical realization of this approach, Lindqvist and her students worked
together with 3- to 8-year-old children to create Playworlds, an educational
practice that includes adult-child joint pretense and dramatization of a
text from children's literature, and visual art production.
We invite proposals that examine implementations of Playworld and
other playpedagogy based educational practices across different
cultural and
linguistic educational settings.
Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:
• Playworlds as cultural-historical, and activity theoretical objects of
analysis.
• Theoretical and practical implications of cross-cultural variations in
the implementation of Playworld practice.
• How Playworlds contribute to learning and development. The role
of playin human development.
• Playworlds as productive pedagogy. How Playworlds function differently
from other interventions designed to support interactions with literature
and cultural narratives.
• Playworld practice and the zone proximal development.
• Playworlds and the relationships between fantasy and reality; play and
art.
• Playworlds and educational policy or cultural movements.
• Playworlds as research methodology. Ways to study Playworld practice
and ways to study through Playworld practice.
• Playworlds across the lifespan. Adult engagement in Playworlds.
• Playworld pedagogy for formal and informal contexts.
Deadline for submission of papers is 31 October 2007. Please send papers via
email to Sonja Baumer ( sbaumer@gmail.com) AND Kristen Radsliff Clark (
kristen@webleaf.com). Queries are welcome (sbaumer@gmail.com ). Manuscripts
should be 15 to 25 pages in length and prepared according to the Publication
Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th Ed.). All text,
including indented matter, footnotes, and references, should be typed
double-spaced on 8½ x 11 in. paper. The number and length of footnotes
should be kept to a minimum. Footnotes should be numbered serially and
included after the references in the text. All figures must be camera ready.
All submissions will be blind reviewed. To facilitate the blind reviewing, a
separate cover page with the title, author's name, affiliation, electronic
mail address, and telephone and fax numbers must accompany each manuscript.
This information should not appear anywhere else on the manuscript. Mind,
Culture, and Activity Journal is published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
http://www.leaonline.com/loi/mca

Sonja Baumer
Institute for the Study of Social Change
University of California, Berkeley,
2420 Bowditch Street #5670
Berkeley, CA 94720-5670
sbaumer@gmail.com
sbaumer@sims.berkeley.edu

Kristen Radsliff Clark
Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition
and Department of Communication
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive; La Jolla, CA 92093-0092
kristen@webleaf.com
krclark@ucsd.edu
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Received on Tue Jul 31 10:49 PDT 2007