Dramatic Reflection: Enhancing play qualities in a design experiment for inclusive play practices in school

Starting from a co-design project on inclusive, pedagogical play practices in schools, this paper presents a phenomenological design experiment called Dra-matic Reflection. The Dramatic Reflection experiment was created in collabora-tion with pedagogical teams in two Danish schools for the purpose of exploring pedagogical actions regarding different children’s ability to participate in play. Inclusive pedagogical actions are understood in a holistic and child-centered manner, and children’s play participation is understood to be an essential part of their ability to experience relational interdependence within the context of a school. This paper shows how a design experiment for play reflections, Dramatic Reflection, might, due to play qualities such as lightness, travesty, and empathy, nourish the emergence of genuine and meaningful changes within the pedagogi-cal profession. In conclusion, we discuss the relationship between understanding everyday life in schools through design and promoting changes for inclusive ped-agogical play practices by design.