1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«This study addresses the absence of play theory’s application to seniors’ art education.» (p. 3)

Questions/Hypothèses :
«This research asks: […] how does the playful art education of three senior citizens in Montreal, who are ages sixty-five and over, relate to their stories of play from different developmental stages of life, and […] how do each of these seniors define their play today?» (p. iii)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«All of the participants [n = 3] for this research ended up randomly being female. Their ages of 76, 80, and 88, randomly ended up covering a decent-sized spectrum of senior ages. […] At random, all of the participants had immigrated to Canada from different areas of the world (Australia/Holland, Portugal/Africa, and Sri Lanka).» (p. 40)

Instruments :
- Guide d’entretien semi-directif
- Grille d’observation

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse de contenu

3. Résumé

«The findings reveal that this study’s participants define play in individualized ways.» (p. 98) The analysis shows that all «of the participants’ temperaments seemed to at least partially stem from their cultural and family upbringings.» (p. 63) Considering «that culturally-based master narratives formulate individual identities […], it makes sense that the participants’ stories indicated that family, culture, war, and temperaments are all connected. […] Family, culture, and income seem to have informed the nature and content of each participant’s play history. Family is a kind of sub-culture, and income is often determined by that particular sub-culture. In this way, so much of play seems to boil down to culture.» (p. 68) «Since these findings tell a story of the impacts that culture, nature, family, and income all seem to have on how seniors define play, future seniors’ art education sites should be established with these factors in mind. Art educators may want to team up with environmental educators to look at how the physical environments of art studios could be merged with nature to inspire more playful art making. This is due to how participants’ play histories necessitated literary landscapes as story settings that made natural and socio-cultural environments seem crucial to how seniors played as children, and how they continue to play and relax today.» (p. 97)