The Emerging Role of Recreational Pedagogy in Fostering 21st-Century Skills in Inclusive Education

Recreational pedagogy integrates leisure, play, sports, arts, and creative expression into learning to promote enjoyment, engagement, and holistic growth. It provides an effective pathway for developing 21st-century skills such as creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, communication, digital literacy, and social-emotional learning. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 underscores these competencies while advocating for inclusive, equitable, and experiential education that serves learners from diverse backgrounds and abilities (Gadavala & Buddhadev, 2025; Rangarajan et al., 2025). This paper presented a narrative review with systematic elements examining the emerging role of recreational pedagogy in fostering 21st-century skills within inclusive education. Despite strong policy advocacy, the research problem addressed is the limited integration of recreational pedagogical approaches in inclusive educational contexts. A comprehensive literature search was conducted across ERIC, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Taylor & Francis databases to identify relevant studies and policy documents published in English between 2000 and 2025. Key search terms included combinations of recreational pedagogy, play-based learning, arts and sports in education, 21st-century skills, inclusive education, and NEP 2020. Peer-reviewed articles, books, policy documents, and reports discussing recreational pedagogy and their relevance to 21st-century skill development were included. Studies unrelated to education, non-English publications, and purely medical contexts were excluded. Data were thematically synthesized based on theoretical foundations, applications, policy alignment, benefits, challenges, and gaps. The review revealed that recreational pedagogy enhances inclusivity, learner engagement, and holistic skill development, aligning closely with NEP 2020’s vision for 21st-century skill and inclusive education.