By Peter Budig 

They are fascinated by play. And they know precisely how play supports learning.

The university lecturers from Portugal, Spain and Turkey want to impart this to their students. They established the "Play, Education, Toys and Languages Programme", an Erasmus Mundus Master’s degree abbreviated as PETaL. Under this, future teachers and nursery professionals acquire tools for practical use that are based on sound scientific evidence. However, the programme also caters to creatives who want to focus on the design of educational toys and ultimately work according to an entirely new professional profile in the design departments of toy companies.

The people behind PETaL

These five proven experts teach how play and toys promote the delivery of early childhood education and foster language acquisition:

• Prof. Elena Gómez Parra, Universidad de Córdoba, PETal Consortium Director
• Prof. Dalila Lino, Politécnico de Lisboa, Coordinator of PETaL
• Prof. Ozana Ural Marmara University Istanbul, Program Director of PETaL
• Prof. Esra Molu Marmara University Istanbul, Coordinator of PETaL
• Prof. Işik Kamaraj, Marmara University Istanbul, PETaL Lecturer

They established the four-semester programme for post-graduate students – in other words, students that had completed a Bachelor degree – in 2011. The European Union is supporting the Erasmus programme, in which mobility is integral to the educational model: the first semester is taught in Córdoba, Spain, the second in Lisbon, Portugal, and the third in Istanbul, Turkey. The students may choose from the three locations for their studies in their final semester.

How PETaL uncovers hidden treasure with the help of courageous women

The PETaL founders’ concepts take the theses in "A Study of the Play-Element in Culture" and apply them to teaching practice. The theses were written by Johan Huizinga (1872-1945), a talented Dutch cultural historian. His work, Homo Ludens, is therefore the starting point for the release of the "magical power of knowledge" in this international teaching programme: with scholars from all over the world, for students on all continents. What an undertaking! "We are girls, we are brave", says Prof. Elena Gomez Parra from Spain with a smile. She recognises that it took courage to launch this teaching programme, the "only one of its kind in the world". The road has been rocky, but the programme is now established worldwide.

Where it leads: games for families that free the human spirit

The seed is taking root. Three graduates from the first group of PETaL students were inspired by the idea of learning through play and thereby reaching the very young and their families at the same time. Macarena Macaya from Chile, Sofia Salas from Mexico and Ginika Nwobodo from Nigeria teamed up already during their PETaL semester in Istanbul. They continued to believe in and work on their idea after completing their studies. They develop games that "stimulate creativity, intercultural understanding and teamwork, that free the human spirit to think in a new way". As game designers, they pursue their trade with their label Puercomonte. By developing and designing their own games, they are rethinking and revitalising teaching practice for the very young.

The effect of PETaL: from science to the dice table

They have learned concepts in the Master's programme on how to learn better through games. With games they have developed and designed themselves, they rethink teaching the youngest children and bring it to life in practice. They place special emphasis on emotional learning and empathy. The games they have developed for this purpose can be used helpfully in schools or in coaching. In Mexico, they have managed to establish a successful start-up from this. They also presented their label "Puercomonte" with the "cultural awareness games" in Nuremberg. On 3 February 2023, they presented themselves and their games at a table when the Game Inventors' Fair was held parallel to the Toy Fair for the first time. Three hopeful game designers in a group of over 140 game inventors and game inventors from around 20 countries who presented their work to the talent scouts of the publishers.

Whatever holds the world together in its inmost folds: enabling culture to be experienced through play

Goethe’s scholar Heinrich Faust could never have dreamed that it would be possible to undertake the agonising task of teaching even the very young to "perceive whatever holds the world together in its inmost folds" without the need for a pact with the Devil – indeed, through play! "Human beings in the beginning of mind" is how the PETaL lecturers put it: "We want to make it possible for pre-school children to experience culture through play while their minds are still fresh and unmoulded." This allows what is going on inside and hidden from our senses to emerge from its mysterious world into conscious reality. An understanding of the world can arise through the innocence of play, not through thinking or talking.

That is the seed. Through its skilful and nurtured growth with Erasmus funding, it is producing its crop in Europe in the cities of Córdoba, Lisbon and Istanbul. And new seeds are being spread all over the world, releasing their play potential while incorporating culture at the same time. Not just for teachers of pre-school children, but also for future NGOs, toy design departments, social workers, university scholars and, not least, all managers of companies, Homo Ludens has once again become a force in teaching and won the hearts of people, further proving that "human culture arises and unfolds in and as play" (Johan Huizinga).

The next PETaL year just started in September 2023. The graduates from the 2021–2023 cohort have reaped the harvest and will now plough their furrow in the labour market. And they will benefit for a lifetime from the global contacts they have made during the PETal Master's programme.

PETaL academics in the toy city of Nuremberg

This also applies to the network of PETal lecturers. The PETal team met in for the exhibition opening at the Nuremberg Toy Museum, the treasure trove of play. Until 28 April 2024, it is showing the special exhibition Toys from Turkey . Sunay Akın, the Turkish poet, intellectual and founder of the Istanbul Toy Museum, has loaned his treasures for this. As he is also a lecturer on the international Master’s degree that is helping to make a scientific breakthrough in play, he invited the lecturers from the PETaL Erasmus programme to the opening.

About the author

Peter Budig studied Protestant theology, history and political science. He worked as a freelance journalist, headed up the editorial department of a large advertising paper in Nuremberg for ten years and was the editor of Nuremberg’s Abendzeitung newspaper. He has been freelancing again since 2014 as a journalist, book author and copywriter. Storytelling is absolutely his favourite form.