This themed edition of the Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning focuses on outdoor play and learning in early childhood through a lens of cultural differences and similarities. Five articles are included in this special issue and are preceded by a discussion of the contemporary challenges in this area of research. During the last century, there has been an overwhelming change in the nature of children’s play in western countries (Brussoni, Olsen, Pike & Sleet, 2012). Play is an ambiguous concept concerning children’s “own” activity: a voluntary, intrinsically motivated experience where the activity itself is more important than the outcome (Bateson, 2005; Sutton-Smith, 1997). Play can include activities that are voluntarily engaged in, without adult intervention, characterized by fun, intense activity, spontaneity, freedom and self-initiative (Wiltz & Fein, 2006) but it can also encompass structured play with varying degrees of adult guidance.
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