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Suzanne Axelsson

@theplayactivist.bsky.social
334 followers 257 following 94 posts

The Original Learning Approach is a play responsive pedagogy rooted in social justice Play activist - because if play flows the children will thrive. Some words that feel important to me Collective autonomy, decolonisation, wonder, curiosity, joy...

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Reposted by Suzanne Axelsson
Linda Linder @lindalinder.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
A lovely read about junkology from my friend and collegue @theplayactivist.bsky.social suzanneaxelsson.substack.com/p/the-junkol...
suzanneaxelsson.substack.com
The Junkologist
understanding junkology
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
When is the line crossed? Because world leaders seem to be ignoring everything that is blatantly obvious about what is really going on here from the start...
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
But I do think there is a risk when we the word play to the pedagogical phrases we use... because it tricks us into believing children are accessing more play than they really are. suzanneaxelsson.substack.com/p/play-is-play
suzanneaxelsson.substack.com
Play is Play
Weighing in on the words we use... (again)
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 14/07/2025
Play is play has become a blogpost... because there was more room to be able to articulate the complexity... of course even one blogpost cannot capture everything...
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Al Jazeera English @aljazeera.com · 03/07/2025
At least 73 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since dawn, including 33 aid seekers, according to medical sources.
bit.ly
‘Horrific scenes’ in Gaza as Israel kills dozens of aid seekers
At least 73 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since dawn, including 33 aid seekers, according to medical sources.
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Observation suggests that the opposite of “woke” is selfish, cruel and stupid.
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Learning through Landscapes @ltlnews.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
School grounds are already feeling the effects of our rapidly changing climate 🌡️ Find out how nature rich outdoor spaces bolster climate resilience, encourage biodiversity, and promote climate action — and why school grounds must be part of the climate change solution 👇 ltl.org.uk/news/why-sch...
ltl.org.uk
Why school grounds must be part of the climate change solution - Learning through Landscapes
Find out how school grounds can bolster climate resilience, encourage biodiversity, and promote climate action through learning and play in nature rich environments.
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
According to my sleep researcher husband - this is the benefit of sleep for all ages
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
Another national advisor here feeling honoured to be part of such an important movement to empower educators to ensure children's rights
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Senator Scott Wiener @scottwiener.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
Just some creepy armed Mad Max guys trying to gain entry to Dodgers Stadium. ICE says it wasn’t them. DHS says they were Border Patrol. But honestly who the hell knows? They’ve given permission for any psycho to put on a ski mask, point a gun, grab people & throw them into an unmarked vehicle.
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Gaza Freedom Flotilla Coalition @freedomflotilla.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
💥Freedom Flotilla Coalition Update💥 The #FreedomFlotillaCoalition confirms that 4 of the 12 abducted from international waters have been deported, while 8 remain unjustly detained. Israel is handling the custody of all 12 as though they had entered illegally— ...2/
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Alison Stenning @alisonstenning.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
I always saying opening a street for play is magical, often not spectacular, but the ordinary magic that Stuart Lester talks about. No wonder those who try it want more. www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midland...
birminghammail.co.uk
Residents of street where cars banned for kids to play say 'make it permanent'
The road, near a city primary school, was temporarily closed down to all forms of traffic
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Pam Jarvis @drpam.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
This is another good article on this topic. Let’s hope we can move on from strait jacket of faux ‘cog sci’ and factory-school TLAC very soon.
aeon.co
Your brain does not process information and it is not a computer | Aeon Essays
Your brain does not process information, retrieve knowledge or store memories. In short: your brain is not a computer
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Reposted by Suzanne Axelsson
Alison Gopnik @alisongopnik.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
New paper from Laura Lewis and Jan Engelmann et al. (including me) with a clever new method. Chimps and kids will forgo reward to get a chance to look at social interactions royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....
royalsocietypublishing.org
Chimpanzees and children are curious about social interactions | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Curiosity is adaptive, enhances learning, and reduces uncertainty. Social curiosity is defined as the motivation to gain information about the actions, relationships, and psychology of others. Little is known about the developmental and evolutionary roots ...
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Reposted by Suzanne Axelsson
Gaza Freedom Flotilla Coalition @freedomflotilla.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
The last instalment of the livestream as we saw the Madleen off earlier today. To follow the vessel on the journey you can follow them with this tracker: live.garmin.com/session/75cf... freedomflotilla.org/2025/06/01/a... (updated with the names of the 12 people on board Madleen).
live.garmin.com
Catania Jun 1, 2025 | LiveTrack
LiveTrack creates a real-time view of your location during an activity, so friends and family can follow along.
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Reposted by Suzanne Axelsson
Gaza Freedom Flotilla Coalition @freedomflotilla.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Day 2- a beautiful sunrise as the Madleen sails to Gaza. #BreakTheSiege #sunrise #FromTheRiverToTheSea
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 31/05/2025
Play as a form of thinking Play as a language Play as being and becoming Play....
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
2. We meet others with kindness because kindness is beneficial for both giver and receiver. It contributes towards community and belonging and collectiveness. Which then contributes to children (and adults feel safe and brave. Which results in curiosity, exploration, and learning and play flow.
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
When it comes to the crunch its autonomy and flow that I think, as play-responsive educators we need to focus our attention on... Creating space for a collective autonomy where we can be our authentic self together with others. 1.
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connected baby @connectedbaby.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
We've got lots of videos of Colwyn talking in this month's sessions for #TheTrevarthenSeries. And we're going to get learn about some of the other researchers working with film, on whose work he built. connectedbaby.net/product/june...
connectedbaby.net
June 2025 - The Trevarthen Series: Studying babies through film - connected baby
June 2025 - Our latest course within The Trevarthen Series will traces the increasing capacities of movie cameras over the past decades have helped scientists to carry out sophisticated analyses of th...
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
I think this text is a fabulous example of understanding aesthetic as full of feeling (rather than beautiful) - after all anaesthetic is the lack of feeling/sensation. Art in all its forms awakens feelings - so context is of course is going to be important as to what feelings are stirred...
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Wendy Russell @wendyrussell.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
Play England's new strategy recognises all the ways children play & that it's not them that need fixing but the systems round them. bit.ly/43AoFlFC Congrats @eugeneminogue.bsky.social @profhelendodd.bsky.social @naomilott.bsky.social Paul Brindley @mic-martin.bsky.social @geekdadgamer.bsky.social
bit.ly
106415 Play England - Strategy Document FINAL
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
This post explores how children communicate with the world differently from adults... and that play has its own evolving language suzanneaxelsson.substack.com/p/the-langua... How do you notice children's dialogue with the world?
suzanneaxelsson.substack.com
The Language of Play
Just before the pandemic I started to walk the land as a way to decolonise the way I think and see the world.
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Reposted by Suzanne Axelsson
Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
A thousand yeses to this from Cole Arthur Riley.
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
A child's right to scrapes and bruises while playing suzanneaxelsson.substack.com/p/a-childs-r...
suzanneaxelsson.substack.com
A child's right to bruises and grazes
the ouchy side of democracy
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Reposted by Suzanne Axelsson
Thoughtful @thoughtfulp4c.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
If someone asked you to draw a cat in school, would you feel free to make the decision to draw one or not? All the children drew one today when asked! Freedom was the topic of conversation at this week’s P4C Club funded by donations from #WonderWander24.
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Reposted by Suzanne Axelsson
sophiacollins.bsky.social @sophiacollins.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
How depressing that we still have teachers with so little understanding of child protection. If children are trained to be obedient to adults in authority over them, it makes them more vulnerable to abuse. Supporting children’s autonomy and right to make their own choices protects them from abuse.
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 27/04/2025
But is it really ever really "wild" if it's a non native species - or has it just escaped and now dwelling in the "wild" Whatever wild means (?)
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
A country rooted in trust can have toilet signs like this... A country rooted in fear, ignorance and hate cannot. Left- Konstfack, Stockholm Right - Ethnographic Museum, Stockholm Toilets used safely this week.
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Reposted by Suzanne Axelsson
Jonathan Berk 🏠 @berkie1.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
"It took us few weeks of tactical implementation to reclaim it as a public space... The children needed just a couple of hours to transform it into a playground.” 📍 Milan 🇮🇹
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
In listening - deep listening. Hope is found in collective autonomy - being our authentic self together with others. In unhurried interactions with the world - wonder and curiosity. A play-responsive teaching approach creates space for a pedagogy of hope. For the adults and children alike 2
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
A pedagogy of hope is found in authentic relationships, with the children, colleagues and parents. It is found in small acts of kindness. 1
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
Jag tycker att dialoger kring det är bra. Reflektion kring varför blir jag triggered av just detta - för att det händer oss alla kring något. Är det något jag upplevt, sett, läst? Och finns det ett sätt jag kan övervinna min trigger så att jag kan se vad barnen upplever istället. Det är inte lätt
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
- att krigs/kampLEKAR är hur pojkar utvecklar deras empati...
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
Det som är intressant är att om det är krigsLEK är det sällan en tävling - mer en koreografi, eller att ta reda på hur stark/snabb en är samt hur stark/snabb andra är - men fokus är att leken fortsätter inte vinna. Barn listar ut snabbt att om en är inte schysst då sluta leken. Plus forskning säger-
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
Intrinsic motivation är alltid bättre än extrinsic - för då är det me sannolikt för ett livslångt lärande än ett skol-långt lärande - för att när skolan är slut en är inte beroende på ett yttre motivation för att fortsätta (lärare/betyg osv)
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
There are just so many characters that allow us to explore different aspects of being human - even the forest becomes a character And I just love the juxtaposition of them being big and small at the same time... which I played around with using photography
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 11/04/2025
www.academia.edu/63379399/Arb... Here's something I wrote together with Jayne Osgood - where Mumintrolls were a part of the understanding process Next May I am co-hosting a tour of Swedish/Finnish preschools using the lens of the Mumintrolls to explore pedagogy
academia.edu
Arboreal Methodologies: the promise of getting lost (with feminist new materialism and Indigenous ontologies) for social studies
Arboreal methods bring embodied encounters in the forest, together with tales of the forest as commercial enterprise and the recent growth of the forest school movement. We pursue a critical, tentacul...
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Air pollution has dropped significantly in #Paris in the last 15 years as a result of a deliberate strategy. Mayor @annehidalgo.bsky.social’s leadership has traded car space for green space, safe bike space, kid space.. and traded pollution for people. Good trade.
Air pollution graphics for central Paris between 2007 and 2023.
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Reposted by Suzanne Axelsson
PlayGroundology @playgroundology.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Thanks to the good folks at @londonplay.bsky.social for sharing this photo story on London adventure playgrounds from the @londonmuseum.bsky.social
playgroundology.wordpress.com
London Museum Photo Story – From Wartime Bomb Sites to Adventure Playgrounds
Thanks to the good folks at London Play for sharing this photo story from the London Museum – great pics and commentary. We’ve been deprived of the adventure playground experience in Ca…
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Nina Odegard @ninaodegard.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
A must read
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Pam Jarvis @drpam.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Essential viewing from @carolecadwalla.bsky.social If you live in a western nation, and you watch just one video today, this should be it. @yorkshirebylines.co.uk @bylinesnetwork.co.uk @bylinetimes.bsky.social youtu.be/TZOoT8AbkNE?...
youtu.be
This Is What a Digital Coup Looks Like | Carole Cadwalladr | TED
YouTube video by TED
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
8. Of course collaboration is going to be harder if we teach and exist in a competitive world. But I believe we can be changemakers... through respect, valuing each other, listening, curiosity and being open to new knowledge and unlearning.
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
7. The Original Learning Approach is about teaching the collaborative skills children need to tap into a play responsive approach to the world, learning and work rather than a competitive approach that creates rivals and pitches humans against each other.
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
6. In play it is the play - the doing/being/experience/process that is the motivation and it is intrinsic.
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
5. Competition is about pitching people/groups against each other to achieve whatever they seek to achieve - be it grades in school, the fastest runner, earning the most money. It's about extrinsic motivation - the winning rather than the doing is the motivating force.
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
4. - challenges, collaborating, enjoying the buzz of what is being done rather than focusing on winning and the anxiety of losing.
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
3. But what I see is competition is being described as positive/healthy or negative - yet when I read the descriptions of positive competition it is seems less like competition and more like play -
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
2. Competitiveness I think is one of those things that we need to regulate just as we do with fear, anger and a whole myriad of feelings and states of being - regardless of whether they are perceived as positive or negative.
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Suzanne Axelsson @theplayactivist.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Recently I have been thinking about competition and how it affects our lives. It really is just everywhere. 1.
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