Children spend a great amount of time playing at school. Through play, they explore the world around themselves, discover their instincts, form survival skills and knowledge, step by step build relationships with other people. Play, therefore, plays an imperative role in children’s development (Smith & Roopnarine, 2018). Mentioning play also refers to a play environment which is the condition that can either support or impede and pose a threat to children’s play (Kyttä, 2003).

Children are not only the object of research in different fields such as psychology or education. They are actually the agents of their development; and they have their own opinions, thoughts and feelings when interacting with the world surrounding them (Corsaro, 2012; Kustatscher, 2017). Corsaro (2012) argues that ‘children do not simply internalise society and culture, but they actively contribute to cultural production and change. From the perspective of interpretive reproduction, however, children are always participating in and are part of two cultures - their own and adults’- and these cultures are intricately interwoven’ (Corsaro, 2012, p. 489). Similarly, Kusatscher (2017) also found out that children not only reproduce but also challenge the already established opinions of the society. Therefore, research on inclusive play environments for children needs to take into account children’s voice as children are the agent of their own development and they know what is appropriate and imperative for their own growth.

 We are living in the world of globalization where, however, discrimination based on social-cultural and economic backgrounds is still a chronic issue. This happens not only in adulthood but also in childhood, which can impact children's development negatively. Therefore, it is necessary to build an inclusive play environment for children in order to support sustainable development as equity and inclusion are two sustainable development goals related to education that the United Nations promoted in 2015 (UN General Assembly, 2015, p.17).

Promoting an inclusive play environment requires teachers’ awareness, knowledge and skills. Therefore, exploring teachers’ perspectives of an inclusive play environment and the specific training or support which teachers need to be provided with is an initial step to create an inclusive play environment for children.

This research will be conducted in Spain (Andalusia) and Vietnam, which are two countries which follow different educational systems. While the former bases on Western-individualistic culture, the latter develops with the foundation of Eastern-collectivism. Both countries are diverse and rich in culture, where different social groups co-exist. The comparison between the two countries can bring a multi-cultural perspective to address a global issue of promoting inclusive play environments for children to ensure equality and equity in education. It is also noteworthy that it does not mean they are seen as two solid cultures as Dervin (2011) argues that it is necessary to move away from solidified, separate and objectivist perspectives of cultures; instead, it is imperative to have a liquid approach to intercultural discourses, which takes into account discursive choices and manipulations of speakers that often sink below speakers’ speech. In addition, culture does not cause behaviours, but summarises an abstraction from it (Dervin, 2011).

With the aforementioned aims, research questions of this study are the following:  

1. Research question 1: What is the teachers’ perception of an inclusive play environment as well as the strategies that can promote such inclusive play environments?
2. Research question 2: What are children’s needs and their perspectives of an inclusive play environment?
3. Research question 3: What are the differences between Spanish and Vietnamese teachers, regarding their habits and beliefs of an inclusive play environment for children?
4. Research question 4: What training / support do teachers need to create inclusive play environments?

This study will apply qualitative research by interviewing Vietnamese and Spanish (Andalusian) teachers as well as observing teachers’ work with children’s play at schools in order to identify what teachers need to be trained or support to offer children with an inclusive play environment and form the concept of inclusive play environments from both teachers and children's perspectives. Subjects: The subjects of this research will be Early Childhood Education teachers from Spain (Andalusia) and from Vietnam (15 teachers for each country). All ethical procedures are conducted to collect the data from the two countries. Instruments: Qualitative data will be gathered by applying a semi-structured interview for the teachers and an observation template to observe teachers’ work with children’s play at schools. The semi-structured interview aims to explore teachers’ perspectives of an inclusive playful environment for children, its attributes and requirements in order to construct a list of criteria to identify and build an inclusive playful environment for children. In addition, the interview also aims to investigate what support that teachers need from policy makers to create more inclusive play environments. The data collected from the interview will be coded with the support of the software MAXQDA. The interview questions include: - What do you think of the diversity in your class? (where does it come from? their influences on your practice and the children themselves?) - What do you think of an inclusive play environment for children? (in terms of design, work with children, toys, tools, their importance)? - Is it important to promote diversity and inclusion in your class? Why? - If the teacher answers yes for the previous question, then what are some ways to promote diversity and inclusion in your class? - Do you need any support (training, policy) to address the issue of diversity in your class? An observation template is built to observe and assess teachers’ work with children’s play. The observation aims to evaluate teachers’ competence of building inclusive play environments for children so as to find out appropriate support for teachers. It also provides another view to assess teachers’ competence, besides the interview with teachers. The observation focuses on finding out what children need to express themselves in their play and be included in the play environment as well. Photos, narratives and other artistic forms of expression are applied to collect students' thoughts of inclusive play environments.

The study expectedly finds out attributes and requirements of an inclusive play environment for children as well as identify training support to help teachers of Andalusia (Spain) and Vietnam to create a more inclusive play environment, taking into account the perspectives of teachers and children from both Global North and Global South worlds. In addition, the study will also build an observation instrument as a tool for educational managers to evaluate teachers’ competence to integrating equity and inclusion in children’s play environment. Furthermore, the project also points out some policy suggestions to help policy makers impose laws to support equality and equity in children’s play environments.

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