Two eleven-year-old boys face a bulletin board, arranging silver thumbtacks into shapes of fighter planes. The boys' play revolves around the action video game, its language, strategies, heroes, villains, obstacles, and continual updates. As an after-school art teacher and student-teacher supervisor, the contact the author has with young artists…

This response to Marni Binder reflects upon two examples of (im)migrant children's artwork and challenges the dominant notion that (im)migration experiences--and their subsequent portrayals--can be fit into neat slots. The authors position multimodal composing opportunities as affording children a vital instrument for deploying their full semiotic…

"I'm trying the least of anything to control this drawing ... in fact I want it to run away with me." says Billy, a fifth grader who reads at 13th grade level. He clears his throat and begins to sketch and his stories flood the page. This qualitative research paper looks at what free sketchbook drawing does for a group of boys ages 8-14 who…

Defines the concept of the phenomenal--as opposed to the objective--body and points to modern, primitive, and children's art as rich sources of phenomenal representation. (SJL)

Discusses murals done by Egyptian children. Differences in the drawing styles of American and Egyptian children are discussed. The author states that the significance of the wall drawings is that they represent a rich social setting in which children learn to produce art. (AM)

Argues that the most widely used accounts of children's artistic development are not only inadequate and incomplete but that they seriously misinform, obscuring more than they reveal about children's drawings. (Author/SJL)

When this author first published his account of "The Superheroes of J. C. Holz" (Wilson, 1974), he could not have imagined that the comics of one Iowa boy would shape his thinking about children's images, the purposes of art and art education, narrative, popular visual culture, and his present theorizing about pedagogy. He states that…

Describes ways that aesthetic theories can be integrated into children's art education. The author illustrates elements of E.H. Gombrich's theory of aesthetic perception using as examples art activities designed to increase student awareness of their "mental sets" and their understanding of how mental sets influence visual perception. (AM)

The first thing a visitor notices when entering Hollytree primary school is the art-work displayed on every wall. This paper, based on a three-year ethnographic study of the school, mobilizes field notes and interview and photographic data to probe the meanings of this visual "display". We argue that the walls (re)produce and promote…

The president of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Ernest L. Boyer, discusses the importance of developing creativity in the classroom. (MD)

Discussed is whether or not folk art and children's art are really art. Child and folk art are two rich sources of imagery that can lead to a re-examination of the connections between the ethical and aesthetic in other more traditionally accepted forms of art. (Author/RM)

Discusses ways in which teachers and parents respond to children's artwork. Presents six traditional approaches to responding to children's art and analyzes these approaches in terms of each one's impact on the child artist. Suggests alternate and more appropriate ways to respond to children about their art. (BB)

There are different types of copying, some involving artistic behaviors and some not. It is important to differentiate these types, separating the replication of conventions from more inventive artistic behaviors. A framework for such examination is applied in a group of pilot studies involving children copying comic strips. (Author/RM)

In this article, the author discusses the importance of Viktor Lowenfeld's influence on her research, describes visual anthropology, gives examples of her research, and examines the implications of this type of research for teachers. The author regards Lowenfeld's (1952/1939) early work with children in Austria as a form of participant observation…

Explores problems in the relationship between professional arts and art education. Identifies three negative practices used in schools: (1) the oversimplification of art to children, (2) an over-reliance on language to explain art, (3) the fear of allowing mistakes to occur in children's art. (BSR)