Historically, the study of children’s art has been predominantly constructed on developmental cap... more Historically, the study of children’s art has been predominantly constructed on developmental capacities, graphic sophistication, and particular styles conceived by adults. Although these theories of classification were developed with the best of intentions, fashioned for a better understanding of young people’s art, they often simplify and decontextualize the lives and works of children. Children’s art, however, is a complex matter, one that is entangled with both adults’ and children’s presumptions, practices, and expectations. Attending to this complexity, this article explores how young children engage in art as political subjects who participate in, disagree with, and negotiate between adults’ expectations and their own desires. In doing so, I draw on philosopher Jacques Rancière’s homologous yet differentiated ideas of “politics” and “aesthetics, “ along with a painting activity of two 5-year-old boys in a kindergarten classroom, where the tensions involved with “going out of ...
In this article, I explore politics in children’s art practices that divert from normalized accou... more In this article, I explore politics in children’s art practices that divert from normalized accounts of children’s art and lives, especially those that seek to compartmentalize the child, children, and children’s artmaking, grounded on the ideas of French philosopher Jacques Rancière—namely, the distribution of the sensible, politics, and dissensus. By sharing a painting event I observed during an ethnographic case study in the arts-integrated kindergarten classroom of a university-affiliated childcare center in Pennsylvania, I examine how children negotiate the rules and roles imposed on them over the desire to work “out of the lines.” In doing so, I raise questions on how the research, pedagogy, and practice of young children’s art could benefit from a reconsideration of typical thinking to potentiate new and different perspectives.
Working with the concept of “leaking,” two art education researchers explore methodological and p... more Working with the concept of “leaking,” two art education researchers explore methodological and philosophical approaches to researching with children. Thinking with their individual studies in early childhood classrooms, the authors consider how conventional methods and methodology might leak when encountering the relations of children, classroom, materials, teacher, researcher, and so on. In both of their fieldwork, the notebook intended for field-note taking began to leak, becoming a sketchbook where the researcher and children could engage in collaborative thinking, making, and doing. This leaking provoked a (re)consideration of research with children as a site in which proficient and equally capable participants conjoin to explore the possibilities of research. The emergent events surrounding the sketchbook allowed to rethink the liminal space of researcher positionality, methodology, methods, children’s art, and childhood.
In this article, I explore politics in children’s art practices that divert from normalized accou... more In this article, I explore politics in children’s art practices that divert from normalized accounts of children’s art and lives, especially those that seek to compartmentalize the child, children, and children’s artmaking, grounded on the ideas of French philosopher Jacques Rancière—namely, the distribution of the sensible, politics, and dissensus. By sharing a painting event I observed during an ethnographic case study in the arts-integrated kindergarten classroom of a university-affiliated childcare center in Pennsylvania, I examine how children negotiate the rules and roles imposed on them over the desire to work “out of the lines.” In doing so, I raise questions on how the research, pedagogy, and practice of young children’s art could benefit from a reconsideration of typical thinking to potentiate new and different perspectives.
Visual arts with young children: Practices, pedagogies, and learning, 2021
Based on a moment of moral panic that arose while drawing Internet-found images with a five5-year... more Based on a moment of moral panic that arose while drawing Internet-found images with a five5-year-old girl who favored an image of a female that, for the author, seemed both kitsch-like and sexually suggestive, this chapter explores some of the heteronormative tensions and assumptions immanent to making art with children. Specifically, the author of this chapter draws on the work of Donna Haraway (2016), notably her conception of “troubles” and “response-abilities,” as well as the work of noted queer theorist Kathryn Bond Stockton (e.g., 2009) to inquire about how we might linger with these moments of panic and discomfort in order to ‘queer’ the notion of child innocence, a concept prevalent in Western histories of childhood art.
Ethics and research with young children: "New" perspectives., 2019
This chapter explores Jacques Rancière’s concept of ignorance in relationship to the author’s exp... more This chapter explores Jacques Rancière’s concept of ignorance in relationship to the author’s experience of drawing popular culture figures with children. Specifically, this chapter explores a drawing event, in which a five-year-old boy, Alex, worked collaboratively with the author to draw Star Wars characters. The author, drawing on the work of Ranciére, suggests that a kind of intellectual equality can be produced through the deliberate presupposition of ignorance and the activation of a will to un-know, which thereby enables the child and adult to attend with greater care to the negotiation of knowledge and culture in the context of drawing. Through this suggestion, the author argues for a relational ethics of ignorance.
Featuring the work of leading scholar-practitioners, Visual Arts with Young Children raises criti... more Featuring the work of leading scholar-practitioners, Visual Arts with Young Children raises critical questions about the situated nature of the visual arts and its education in early childhood. Innovative chapters explore the relationship of place to art practice and pedagogy, culturally-responsive and justice-oriented perspectives, as well as critical and reconceptualist approaches to materials, technology and media. Ideal for researchers and students of both early childhood education and arts integration programs, this volume is an essential step towards a deeper understanding of how visual arts are understood, valued and practiced in the early years.
Historically, the study of children’s art has been predominantly constructed on developmental cap... more Historically, the study of children’s art has been predominantly constructed on developmental capacities, graphic sophistication, and particular styles conceived by adults. Although these theories of classification were developed with the best of intentions, fashioned for a better understanding of young people’s art, they often simplify and decontextualize the lives and works of children. Children’s art, however, is a complex matter, one that is entangled with both adults’ and children’s presumptions, practices, and expectations. Attending to this complexity, this article explores how young children engage in art as political subjects who participate in, disagree with, and negotiate between adults’ expectations and their own desires. In doing so, I draw on philosopher Jacques Rancière’s homologous yet differentiated ideas of “politics” and “aesthetics, “ along with a painting activity of two 5-year-old boys in a kindergarten classroom, where the tensions involved with “going out of ...
In this article, I explore politics in children’s art practices that divert from normalized accou... more In this article, I explore politics in children’s art practices that divert from normalized accounts of children’s art and lives, especially those that seek to compartmentalize the child, children, and children’s artmaking, grounded on the ideas of French philosopher Jacques Rancière—namely, the distribution of the sensible, politics, and dissensus. By sharing a painting event I observed during an ethnographic case study in the arts-integrated kindergarten classroom of a university-affiliated childcare center in Pennsylvania, I examine how children negotiate the rules and roles imposed on them over the desire to work “out of the lines.” In doing so, I raise questions on how the research, pedagogy, and practice of young children’s art could benefit from a reconsideration of typical thinking to potentiate new and different perspectives.
Working with the concept of “leaking,” two art education researchers explore methodological and p... more Working with the concept of “leaking,” two art education researchers explore methodological and philosophical approaches to researching with children. Thinking with their individual studies in early childhood classrooms, the authors consider how conventional methods and methodology might leak when encountering the relations of children, classroom, materials, teacher, researcher, and so on. In both of their fieldwork, the notebook intended for field-note taking began to leak, becoming a sketchbook where the researcher and children could engage in collaborative thinking, making, and doing. This leaking provoked a (re)consideration of research with children as a site in which proficient and equally capable participants conjoin to explore the possibilities of research. The emergent events surrounding the sketchbook allowed to rethink the liminal space of researcher positionality, methodology, methods, children’s art, and childhood.
In this article, I explore politics in children’s art practices that divert from normalized accou... more In this article, I explore politics in children’s art practices that divert from normalized accounts of children’s art and lives, especially those that seek to compartmentalize the child, children, and children’s artmaking, grounded on the ideas of French philosopher Jacques Rancière—namely, the distribution of the sensible, politics, and dissensus. By sharing a painting event I observed during an ethnographic case study in the arts-integrated kindergarten classroom of a university-affiliated childcare center in Pennsylvania, I examine how children negotiate the rules and roles imposed on them over the desire to work “out of the lines.” In doing so, I raise questions on how the research, pedagogy, and practice of young children’s art could benefit from a reconsideration of typical thinking to potentiate new and different perspectives.
Visual arts with young children: Practices, pedagogies, and learning, 2021
Based on a moment of moral panic that arose while drawing Internet-found images with a five5-year... more Based on a moment of moral panic that arose while drawing Internet-found images with a five5-year-old girl who favored an image of a female that, for the author, seemed both kitsch-like and sexually suggestive, this chapter explores some of the heteronormative tensions and assumptions immanent to making art with children. Specifically, the author of this chapter draws on the work of Donna Haraway (2016), notably her conception of “troubles” and “response-abilities,” as well as the work of noted queer theorist Kathryn Bond Stockton (e.g., 2009) to inquire about how we might linger with these moments of panic and discomfort in order to ‘queer’ the notion of child innocence, a concept prevalent in Western histories of childhood art.
Ethics and research with young children: "New" perspectives., 2019
This chapter explores Jacques Rancière’s concept of ignorance in relationship to the author’s exp... more This chapter explores Jacques Rancière’s concept of ignorance in relationship to the author’s experience of drawing popular culture figures with children. Specifically, this chapter explores a drawing event, in which a five-year-old boy, Alex, worked collaboratively with the author to draw Star Wars characters. The author, drawing on the work of Ranciére, suggests that a kind of intellectual equality can be produced through the deliberate presupposition of ignorance and the activation of a will to un-know, which thereby enables the child and adult to attend with greater care to the negotiation of knowledge and culture in the context of drawing. Through this suggestion, the author argues for a relational ethics of ignorance.
Featuring the work of leading scholar-practitioners, Visual Arts with Young Children raises criti... more Featuring the work of leading scholar-practitioners, Visual Arts with Young Children raises critical questions about the situated nature of the visual arts and its education in early childhood. Innovative chapters explore the relationship of place to art practice and pedagogy, culturally-responsive and justice-oriented perspectives, as well as critical and reconceptualist approaches to materials, technology and media. Ideal for researchers and students of both early childhood education and arts integration programs, this volume is an essential step towards a deeper understanding of how visual arts are understood, valued and practiced in the early years.
Uploads