In this conversation, Lisa Goddard and Adrianne Bacelar de Castro situate play within the story of early childhood education and consider how it has been shaped by developmental expectations and neoliberal pressures. Drawing on everyday moments from Lisa’s work in early childhood settings, we will reopen possibilities for how play might be reconceptualized or even deconceptualized in the context of the Anthropocene. Together, we will think about play not as preparation for the future but as a way of creative world-making. Register here.

Lisa Goddard (she/her) is a PhD Fellow in Reggio Childhood Studies at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Italy). Her research explores playful pedagogy in early childhood during the age of the ecological crisis. She holds an MEd in Early Childhood Education from Boston University, an MSc in Applied Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh, and a BA in Language and Social Behavior from Brown University. Lisa has been in the ECE field since 2017, serving as educator, curriculum developer, teacher coach, and pedagogista in Italy and the Boston, Massachusetts (USA) area. She currently resides in Bologna, Italy with her dogs.

Presentation Series Playing in the Anthropocene