Inclusive Play-Based Frameworks for Mathematics Problem-Solving in Non-Formal and Adult Education

Source abstract

This chapter theorises inclusive play-based mathematics problem-solving in non-formal and adult education as a socio-technical assemblage oriented to epistemic justice. Synthesising constructivist, socio-cultural, ethnomathematical, and adult learning paradigms with participatory game pedagogy, it articulates design heuristics, ecological typologies, and lifespan-sensitive play modalities that mobilise community numeracies while destabilising deficit identities. The chapter activates frameworks such as Universal Design for Learning, culturally sustaining pedagogy, and the capability approach to specify equity-inflected principles for analog and digital games across community, workplace, carceral, and migratory settings. It concludes by sketching governance and data-ethical architectures through which policy makers, educators, technologists, and worker collectives can institutionalise rigorous and joyful mathematics across the lifespan.