Play-literacy interface in childhood education: Across the scales of time and space

Play has been widely examined and viewed as an effective pedagogy to promote children's literacy development. While current research has identified various benefits associated with play, discrepancies still exist regarding what type of play could be more effective, for example, home play or school play. This could further lead to an outcome-oriented, positivist perception of play as a designed intervention that risks neglecting children's agency in creating, negotiating, and interpreting their play activities. In this conceptual article, we explore the theoretical affordance of the concept of temporal and spatial scales to rethink children's play as a dynamic, multilayered flow of meaning-making and negotiation across time and space. We discuss how using the lens of scales, play can be analyzed as actions, processes, and contexts. The methodological and pedagogical implications of scales are also illustrated for practical applications in research and education on play-based literacy learning. Finally, this article aims to draw researchers and educators’ attention to the complexity and diversity of play, as well as children's agency in (re)constructing playfulness. Copyright © 2025 The Author(s).