Play, creativity and imagination can enable people to look at things differently, 

to extend their own potential. But formal education suppresses our natural instinct to play and as adults makes us think it’s wrong to play. Alison James is on a mission to reclaim the word play.

Alison has written about her commitment to teaching and learning creatively in many publications, from early work on autobiography and personal development planning in the creative arts, to her present day interests in creativity, imagination and play in higher education pedagogy. 

She co-authored Engaging imagination: helping students become creative and reflective thinkers with Professor Stephen Brookfield (2014) and more about Alison and her work can be found at Engaging Imagination. Alison was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2014.

At heart she is an educator and facilitator who unlocks conversations, ideas, capabilities in people, including herself, on how play, creativity and imagination can enable people to look at things differently.

She left full-time work at the university so that she could concentrate on a three year research study, funded by the Imagination Lab Foundation. While people think she retired, she prefers to call it free-range play.

Things to consider

• What age do we move on from play and creativity - 16? 18? 23?
• Through play, how we can rediscover the things that we love, that bring us joy and spark our curiosity. 
• The internal and external constraints from society to education to academia that stop us thinking about why we do things the way we do them? And stop us doing them differently.
• Play should simply enable you and others to do your jobs.
• Organizations such as Formula 1 and Red Cross use LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®
• A shift in the zeitgeist towards play.

Links

• The Power of Play in Higher Education: Creativity in Tertiary Learning (2019), Chrissi Nerantzi , et al.
• The Playful University Platform
• Brian Sutton-Smith
• Engaging Imagination: Helping Students Become Creative and Reflective Thinkers, by Alison Smith and Stephen Brookfield
• The Value of Play in HE

Get in touch!

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