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Michael Wragg

Senior Lecturer

Mike is a senior lecturer and researcher on the BA (Hons) Childhood Development and Playwork course.

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Dr Mike Wragg

About

Mike is a senior lecturer and researcher on the BA (Hons) Childhood Development and Playwork course.

Mike is a senior lecturer and researcher on the BA (Hons) Childhood Development and Playwork course.

He has been involved in the children's play and playwork sector since the early 2000s when he began my career as a Play Development Officer in Bradford. During this time, he founded the Big Swing Adventure Playground, which is at the heart of the play development charity that Mike chairs: Play Bradford.

Between then and now, Mike has been the CEO of Warwick Community Campus (an adventure playground in Wakefield, now known as The Addy); Head of Play and Youth Services in Stoke-on-Trent; a private Play and Playwork Trainer and Consultant; an International Outdoor Operational Playground Inspector, and since 2008, Senior Lecturer in Playwork at Leeds Beckett University, teaching on the undergraduate programme, overseeing the postgraduate play therapy programmes and supervising PhD candidates in play and playwork.

At Leeds Beckett he obtained a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education and Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, and completed a PhD in the application of play and playwork in the creative industries. He has developed and delivered postgraduate play and playwork education programmes in Beijing, China; at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica; and at the Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon, Portugal as part of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master's Degree in Play, Education, Toys and Language (PETaL).

Mike's current research involves the application and evaluation of playwork methods with people living with advanced dementia in care homes.

Related links

School of Health

Research interests

Mike's current research interests lie in the application and evaluation of play and playwork with people living with dementia, playwork practice in prisons, and social impact assessments of adventure playgrounds.

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Publications (10)

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Journal article
Play and Playwork in the Prison: past, present and future
Featured 07 January 2016 Prison Service Journal(223):5-10 Hmso

Playworkers often occupy nooks and niches overlooked or considered to be beyond the remit of the wider Children and Families’ Workforce. Encountered in these spaces may be vulnerable or traumatised children, whose emotional and developmental needs are forgotten, ignored or trivialized. In response playworkers seek to enable children in such unsettling circumstances to exercise their autonomy through the intrinsically motivated behaviour of play, and in so doing regain agency and emotional equilibrium. One example of such a space is the prison in which children can be unaware of the nature and purpose of their visit and may be subjected to necessary yet emotionally destabilising controls, which have been observed to render them confused, worried and anxious. This paper summarises the key themes of a presentation delivered at the inaugural conference of the Prison Research Network, April 2015 at Leeds Beckett University. The presentation drew on experiences of playworkers, and children and parents visiting play facilities in a number of the country’s prisons, and raised questions about future research and impact assessment of such provision.

Journal article

towards an inversion of the deficit model of intervention in children's play

Featured 10 June 2013 European Early Childhood Education Research Journal21(2):283-291 Informa UK Limited

This article will assert, via the analysis of a series of observations in practice that well-intentioned adult interventions in the play of children are often ill-informed, misguided and counterproductive in their attempts to act in the best interests of the child as informed by the major policy frameworks which guide and govern them (Children Act 2004, UNCRC 1991). It will attempt to establish that such practice is informed by a deficit model which is constructed upon a number of evolutionary and often subliminally engrained socio-cultural principles and assumptions which while seeking to develop, protect and normalise children result in restricting their developmental potential, putting them at greater risk of harm and producing irregularities in their behaviours. If this paradigm gives way to one informed by an alternative set of more analytically constructed perspectives, principles and assumptions improved outcomes for children will result. Ce document fera valoir, en passant par l'analyse d'une série d'observations dans la pratique, que les interventions des adultes bien intentionnés dans le jeu des enfants sont souvent mal informés, erronée et contreproductive dans leurs tentatives pour agir dans les meilleurs intérêts de l'enfant en connaissance de les grands cadres stratégiques qui guident et les gouverner (Children Act 2004, CDE, 1991). Il tentera d'établir que cette pratique est informé par un modèle de déficit qui est construit sur un certain nombre d'évolution, et souvent inconsciemment ancrée socio-culturelles principes et d'hypothèses qui, tout en cherchant à développer, protéger et normaliser les résultats des enfants en limitant leur potentiel de développement, en mettant les plus à risque de préjudice et les irrégularités de production dans leurs comportements. Si ce paradigme cède la place à un courant par un autre ensemble de points de vue plus analytique construits, les principes et les hypothèses de meilleurs résultats pour les enfants en résultera. © 2013 Copyright EECERA.

Journal article

The Big Swing: reflections on the first 10 years of an adventure playground

Featured 02 September 2015 International Journal of Play4(3):324-332 Informa UK Limited

This paper examines the life and times of the first 10 years of an adventure playground and the ways in which that playground has been affected by and responded to the opportunities and challenges presented by changes to the prevailing national and local socio-political and economic climate of that decade. The paper explores significant events in the playground's history and the ways in which those events have been influenced by the interrelationship between popular public perceptions of children and their play; the national and local policy context for children, play and playwork; and the implications of such for the playwork practice of those charged with developing and running one of the north of England's flagship playwork provisions. During the latter part of the playground's comparatively short life many of these factors have inevitably contributed to or been played out against a backdrop of ideological political and economic reform popularly termed as austerity. Although the full financial implications for small charitable organisations such as The Big Swing of the present UK government's austerity programme are only just becoming realised, the ideological neoliberal tenets by which they are informed have had a demonstrably detrimental effect on the playground's practice and delivery.

Journal article
Encouraging state of playwork in the UK
Featured 24 September 2024 International Journal of Play13(3):1-6 Informa UK Limited
AuthorsWragg M, Edwards S

Over the course of the last 15 years, the UK Playwork sector has experienced significant reductions in public spending, which has led to the closure of many community-based play projects. National bodies, representing the field, particularly in England, have been pared back in terms of scope and influence, and children's play and playwork have fallen down the political pecking order. Never to be deterred, however, the playwork sector has rallied and features a number of examples of play projects and organisations that have grown in size and influence during these lean times. This paper discusses a particular example of the playwork sector's resilience in the face of adversity, namely the development of the first UK-wide Adventure Playground Network, and discusses the encouraging state of playwork in the UK.

Chapter

The Child's Right to Play, rhetoric or reality

Featured 2011 Children's Rights in Practice sage publications
AuthorsAuthors: Wragg MBA, Editors: Jones P, Walker G
Journal article

The playful citizen: civic engagement in a mediatized culture

Featured 02 July 2020 International Journal of Play9(3):358-359 Informa UK Limited
Journal article

Play and Playwork: Notes and Reflections in a Time of Austerity. International Journal of Play, Special Issue. Vol.4:3, December 2015

Featured 09 December 2015
Journal article

Editorial

Featured 02 September 2015 International Journal of Play4(3):215-216 Informa UK Limited
Journal article
The Value of Playwork for Care Home Residents Living With Dementia: A Pilot Study
Featured 02 August 2025 Dementia1-20 SAGE Publications

Playwork is a profession that focuses on enabling and enriching children’s play experiences, creating a space for spontaneous, self-directed play. The application of playwork principles to dementia care holds promise and resonates with a relational approach to care. However, this area of practice has not yet been explored. This study aimed to explore if and how playwork approaches could be applied with people living with dementia and their impact on residents and those delivering the programme. A five-week playwork programme, delivered by undergraduate playwork students and lecturers, was piloted in a care home, with residents living with dementia. Interviews were conducted with care home staff, students, and playwork lecturers, and reflective diaries of the playwork sessions were maintained by students and lecturers. The findings indicate that playworkers can feasibly adapt their approaches so they are appropriate for older adults living with dementia. Playworkers can encourage agency and support free expression and exploration for residents. The sessions were perceived as having a positive impact on residents’ emotional wellbeing, sense of recognition, social interaction, and engagement, as well as on some staff members’ assessments of residents’ abilities. The study also highlights the crucial role of care staff expertise during the sessions, particularly in addressing the medical and physiological needs of residents. However, engaging care staff proved challenging, resulting in a lack of continuity after the project concluded.

Chapter
Playwork: A Unique way of working with children
Featured November 2018 The Cambridge Handbook of Play: Developmental and Disciplinary Perspectives Cambridge University Press
AuthorsAuthors: Brown FC, Long AM, Wragg M, Editors: Smith PK, Roopnarine J

Current teaching

  • UG Course:
    • BA (Hons) Childhood Development and Playwork
  • Modules:
    • Childhood: the nature and meaning of childhood
    • Childhood: Rights and Society
    • Childhood: Research Perspectives
    • Childhood: global perspectives
    • Experiential learning.
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Michael Wragg
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