Albin-Clark, J., & Archer, N. (2023). PRISM Journal PRISM Early View. Playing social justice: How do early childhood teachers enact the right to play through resistance and subversion?

Bäckman, K. (2016). Children’s Play as a Starting Point for Teaching Shapes and Patterns in the Preschool. In: Meaney, T., Helenius, O., Johansson, M., Lange, T., Wernberg, A. (eds) Mathematics Education in the Early Years. Springer, Cham.

Bradbury, A. (2024) The early years and play: The last bastion for democracy. Democracy & education.  BERA Research Intelligence. Issue 160. Autumn 2024.

Camas Garrido, L. (2018). Children’s play and democratic culture. International Journal of Play, 7(3), 308–321. https://doi.org/10.1080/21594937.2018.1532707

Carruthers, E. & Worthington, M. (2022). Playful, play and children’s mathematics? Education Journal 486, 14. May 2022. 

Carruthers, E. (2020). Mathematical teaching  in nursery schools in England: A way forward for mathematical pretend play and democratic pedagogies. Review of Science, Mathematics and ICT Education, 14(2) 25-41.

Carruthers, E.  Open mathematics: Open minds: Children’s thinking and mathematics. Community Playthings. 

Carruthers, E. & Worthington, M. (2006). Children's mathematics: Making marks, making meaning, (2nd ed.). Sage.

DCSF (2009). Children Thinking Mathematically: PSRN essential knowledge for Early Years practitioners.[Carruthers & Worthington were commissioned by the government to write this booklet].

Edo, M., Planas, N., & Badillo, E. (2009). Mathematical learning in a context of play. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 1(3): 1350-29

(22/04/21). The Guardian view on child’s play: help kids be themselves: Editorial.

Gaskins, S. (2013). Pretend play as culturally constructed activity. In M. Taylor (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of the imagination (pp. 224–247). Oxford University.

Germeroth, C., Bodrova, E., Day-Hess, C., Barker, J., Sarama, S., Clements, D. H., & Layzer, C.  (2019). Play it High, Play it Low. Examining the reliability and validity of a new observation tool to measure children’s make-believe play.  American Journal of Play 11(2).

Gleave, J., & Cole-Hamilton, I. (2012). A world without play - A Literature Review. England: Play England.

Helenius, O., Johansson, M. L., Lange, T., Meaney, T., Riesbeck, E., & Wernberg, A. (2016). When is young children’s play mathematical? In Mathematics Education in the Early Years, pp. 139-156. Springer. 

Johnsen Høines, M. (2004). Do we welcome children’s mathematics? Who are we? Proceedings of the 28th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education I, pp 81–86.

Kirkham, J., Stewart, A., & Kidd, E. (2013). Concurrent and longitudinal relationships between development in graphic, language and symbolic play domains from the fourth to the fifth year. Infant and Child Development, 22: 297–319.

Moll, L. Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzales, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a 

qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into Practice, 31(2), 132-141. 

Nolan, A., Paatsch, L., & Kinnear, V. (2024): Enriching the professional capital of primary school teachers to assess play and learning through play, Professional Development in Education, DOI: 10.1080/19415257.2024.2407405

Souto-Manning, M. (2017). Is play a privilege or a right? And what’s our responsibility? On the role of play for equity in early childhood education, Early Child Development and Care, 187(5-6), 785-787. 

Stokes, H. A. (2023). The barriers utilising play-based learning in England's primary school classrooms. The British Psychological Society.

van Oers, B,  (2013). Is it play? Towards a reconceptualisation of role play from an activity theory perspective, European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 21(2), 185-198.

van Oers, B. (2023). The development of mathematical thinking in young children’s play: The role of communicative tools. In: Palmér, H., Björklund, C., Reikerås, E., Elofsson, J. (eds) Teaching Mathematics as to be Meaningful – Foregrounding Play and Children’s Perspectives. Springer, Cham.

Voutsina, C., Stott, D. (2023). Preschool children’s conceptions of the meanings and use of written numerals in everyday life: a phenomenographic study of the nature and structure of qualitative variation. Educational Studies in Mathematics. 114, 274-275.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1933/1966). Play and its role in the mental development of the child. Psychology and Marxism Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2002.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University.

Wood, E. (2022). Play and learning in early childhood education: Tensions and challenges. Child Studies 1, 15-26.

Wood, E. & Hedges, H. (2016). Curriculum in early childhood: Critical questions about content, coherence and control. The Curriculum Journal, 27(3), 387-405.

Wood, E, A. (2014). Free choice and free play in early childhood education: troubling the discourse. International Journal of Early Years Education, 22(1), 4-18.

Worthington, M. (2018).  Funds of knowledge: Children's cultural ways of knowing mathematics. In V. Kinnear, M-Y Lai & T.Muir (Eds.), Forging connections in early mathematics teaching and learning (pp. 239-258).   

Worthington, M., & van Oers, B. (2016). Pretend play and the cultural foundations of mathematics. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal 24(1), 51-66. 

Worthington, M. For more articles on play, please see: Our publications