Playful Learning Across Borders: Global and Transdisciplinary Approaches to Engaged Education

Play is a powerful driver of engagement, creativity, and deep learning across all ages and educational contexts. From early childhood classrooms to university lecture halls, playful pedagogies are gaining renewed attention as researchers and practitioners seek approaches that humanize learning, foster curiosity, and promote equity. However, dominant narratives around play often remain siloed within specific disciplines or age groups, limiting opportunities to examine its potential across borders—both geographic and disciplinary. At the same time, global crises, assessment pressures, and cultural shifts continue to challenge educators’ ability to integrate play meaningfully into formal learning spaces. There is a pressing need to elevate diverse, research-informed examples of playful learning that reflect a range of cultural, methodological, and theoretical perspectives.

This Research Topic seeks to address the urgent need for research that transcends traditional boundaries in the study of play and learning. While isolated pockets of innovation exist, global conversations around playful learning are often fragmented and context-dependent. Our goal is to bring together scholarship that bridges continents, disciplines, and frameworks to better understand how play can transform educational practice and policy. We invite submissions that critically engage with playful learning as both a pedagogical stance and a justice-oriented imperative. We aim to highlight how playful practices can support agency, inclusion, social-emotional development, and academic achievement—especially among historically marginalized groups. In doing so, this Research Topic will create a rich mosaic of research that both celebrates and interrogates the possibilities of play as a tool for engagement, equity, and empowerment.

We welcome empirical, theoretical, and methodological manuscripts that explore playful learning in diverse educational and cultural contexts. Submissions may focus on early childhood, primary, secondary, or higher education; formal or informal learning settings; and cross-sector partnerships. Interdisciplinary work is especially encouraged, drawing from fields such as developmental psychology, curriculum studies, literacy, STEM, arts education, educational technology, and neuroscience.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Registered Report
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Playful Learning, Global Education, Transdisciplinary Approaches, Engaged Learning, Equity in Education, Innovative Pedagogies

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.