Playing with time: towards a global survey of recess practices

Play scholarship has focused on matters of space and accessibility to the exclusion of the opportunity for play time. Based on conversations with play practitioners, elementary school teachers, and child development researchers across the globe, this study will lay out the beginning of a global survey of recess practices, or school based play time. Along with a list of dozens of countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa, this paper shares commentaries by practitioners explaining the rationale for break time, and the relationship between recess and the children's schedules at school. It will also examine the current available UNESCO data about recess, examined in English, French, and Spanish. The purpose is to question current assumptions about children’s need for play time and expose the varieties of policy as an adult play practice.