ERIC Number: EJ1267990
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020-Sep
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1463-9491
EISSN: N/A
Room for Monsters and Writers: Performativity in Children's Classroom Drawing
Penn, Leslie Rech
Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, v21 n3 p208-223 Sep 2020
Much research on children's classroom drawing emerged from an interest in the relationships between drawing and early writing and focused on drawing as a pedagogical tool to engage young children in planning, generating, and illustrating story ideas. In an eight-month case study of children's drawing in a kindergarten language arts curriculum, the author focused on children's classroom drawing not as a pedagogical intervention, but as an emergent event in which the intra-actions of children, drawing, and discourses coalesce. Of the many findings from this project, prevalent is the notion that children's drawing and drawings function as vehicles for more than just pre-literacy--that drawing and drawings produce critical, creative, and constructive thinking and learning. In this article, the author discusses children's drawing and drawings as events in which the often divergent interests of children, teachers, and curriculum materialize. Butler's and Barad's notions of performativity--the ways in which bodies materialize larger social discourses, such as gender--help the author to make sense of the ways children perform popular culture discourses, such as "monster," or local classroom discourses, such as "writer," in the kindergarten classroom. In looking at children's drawing and drawings as material, discursive, and productive events, the author hopes to expand perceptions of children's drawing beyond indicators of development, aesthetics, or literacy acquisition into critical, creative, and constructive learning experiences with significant cultural implications.
Descriptors: Freehand Drawing, Case Studies, Kindergarten, Language Arts, Popular Culture, Teaching Methods, Intervention, Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking, Learning Experience, Classroom Communication, Thinking Skills, Gender Differences, Aesthetics, Elementary School Students
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Elementary Education; Kindergarten; Primary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A