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Abstract

Holistic approaches are an evolving pedagogy in the Outside of School Hours Care (OSHC) sector that, despite its recognised value, remain an elusive practice for many educators. This ambiguity has been acknowledged in My Time Our Place (MTOP): Framework for School Age Care in Australia 2.0 (AGDE, 2022). In alignment with this process, the ability for OSHC and extended learning to empower children’s self-identities is fundamental to supporting their holistic development. In a world emerging from the coronavirus pandemic, the ongoing impacts on children – the result of physical separation and societal stressors – cannot be ignored. Accordingly, the child’s voice needs to be understood, in order to inform the future of these holistic pedagogies. A tool that emerged to achieve this was the development of a Loose Parts Pod, a transportable adventure playground that travels across 33 schools in Queensland. The pod was designed to overcome restrictions of physical play settings; however, children’s reflections revealed far more significant impacts on children’s perceptions of play, belongingness, and self-identities. As such, these voices gave insight into how the pillars of the Whole of Child philosophy were realised through children’s engagement with Loose Parts Play. These pillars include:

  • Preparing children to reach their potential in a world yet to be imagined 
  • Promoting children’s sense of personal well-being and optimism 
  • Supporting children in making connections between their world and the worlds of others.  

The significance of using children’s voices not only confirmed the importance of holistic pedagogies, but findings highlighted common elements across all sites that accessed the Loose Parts Pod, thus supporting this. The elements for empowerment presented by children include active play agents, facilitating multi-age play, world sharing, and deconstructing adulterated play. These findings can be used to further explore, within the OSHC sector, methods of best practice to empower Whole of Child.

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