View of This bibliometric study aimed to map and explore the scientific production related to act of playing in theses and dissertations in Physical Education from 2001 to 2023. To this end, a survey of published studies available in the Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations database was conducted combining the terms "to play," "act of playing," "toy," and "Physical Education." This search resulted in 65 studies, including nine theses and 56 dissertations. The results indicated that production on the topic increased from 2012 onwards, concentrated in the South (32,3%) and Southeast (47,4%) regions of Brazil, with children as the main population investigated (47,7%). Empirical studies with a qualitative approach to data are predominant (98,4%),. The most frequently used keywords in the published studies are “schoolar physical education”, “games and play” and “child and childhood”. It is concluded that the production about the act of playing is concentrated in a few Universities, in regions with a higher occurrence of Postgraduate Programs in Physical Education, demanding expansion by consolidated research groups in the area of childhood, in order to problematize conceptions and to support discussions on the topic in initial teacher training.

Return to Article Details This bibliometric study aimed to map and explore the scientific production related to act of playing in theses and dissertations in Physical Education from 2001 to 2023. To this end, a survey of published studies available in the Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations database was conducted combining the terms "to play," "act of playing," "toy," and "Physical Education." This search resulted in 65 studies, including nine theses and 56 dissertations. The results indicated that production on the topic increased from 2012 onwards, concentrated in the South (32,3%) and Southeast (47,4%) regions of Brazil, with children as the main population investigated (47,7%). Empirical studies with a qualitative approach to data are predominant (98,4%),. The most frequently used keywords in the published studies are “schoolar physical education”, “games and play” and “child and childhood”. It is concluded that the production about the act of playing is concentrated in a few Universities, in regions with a higher occurrence of Postgraduate Programs in Physical Education, demanding expansion by consolidated research groups in the area of childhood, in order to problematize conceptions and to support discussions on the topic in initial teacher training.