Call for papers – Vol. 20, n. 2/2026

2026-05-07

Play, Games, Toys: Ludic Cultures and Educational Processes

Play represents a constitutive dimension of educational experience and a privileged lens for observing processes of development, learning, and socialisation. Far from being relegated to a marginal or merely recreational function, play takes shape as a cultural practice, a symbolic space, and a field of mediation between the individual, context, and artefacts. This call for papers invites contributions that explore, from a pedagogical perspective, the role of play, games, and toys in formal, non-formal, and informal educational settings. Submissions addressing the following areas, among others, are welcome:

the educational value of play across different stages of life;
contemporary transformations of play between the digital and the analogue;
the relationship between play, inclusion, and participation;
toys as didactic devices, cultural mediators, and simulations of social or working life;
ludic practices in educational services, both formal and non-formal.

This call thus aims to contribute to a re-reading of play as a key category for rethinking educational processes in their complexity and plurality.

Articles may present:

theoretical contributions and critical literature reviews;
qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods empirical studies;
participatory research and action research methodologies;
analyses and comparative studies of educational practices;
good practices and case studies.

Submission guidelines and important deadlines:

All contributions, with a maximum length of 25,000 characters including spaces, must be original and not previously published in other journals, and will be subject to double-blind peer review in accordance with the journal's procedures.

Languages: Italian, English, French, Spanish
Manuscript submission deadline: 1 September 2026
Manuscript review results: 1 October 2026
Revised paper submission: by 1 November 2026
Expected publication: by December 2026

Editorial guidelines, the submission procedure, and the article template are available on the journal's website at the following address:

https://journals.francoangeli.it/index.php/ess/about/submissions