It took an artist to first say that every child is an artist. It is easy to imagine an athlete saying that every child is an athlete because they love to run, or a civil engineer saying that every child is an engineer because they build dikes after rainfalls. Why don’t we agree that a child, is a child, is a child, is just about anything a child cares to be at play?
This blog post is about children making drawings while learning about natural science. It is about 23 children 3-6 year old in an early childhood class that participated in a study led by three researchers: Sabela F. Monteira, Maria Pilar Jiménez-Aleixandre, and Isabel Martins. The project resulted in a detailed article published in Cultural Studies of Science Education (Vol. 19, pp. 295-315) and available on Springer Nature: Cultural semiotic resources in young children’s science drawings.
The researchers examined two series of drawings of snails made a month apart during three years. They asked “which meanings do young children communicate with visual cultural semiotic resources available in the science classroom?” The authors deserve credit for recognizing “the need for expanding the borders of the object of research and examining the full social situation where learning takes place, considering the specific culture as well as the dynamics of children’s thinking.” They provide an excellent conceptual and historical context for their project, giving children, their teachers, and their interactions enough space for a solid input in the results. They understand drawing as a “social process” whose contents are “culturally mediated.”
Their observations are many and valuable. They documented the evolution from anthropomorphic, often influenced by the media or children’s literature, to more realistic representations, based on experience. They describe the strategies children use to highlight body parts or elements of importance to them. The positive impact of verbal exchanges with their teachers on the drawing experience is also underlined. Another valuable insight from this study is the influence of writing skills on the drawing tasks. The children learn to write and read parallel to the project, and this development is integrated to their drawing activity and how they frame specific elements of their images.
The research team did not say that every child is a malacologist. Two thumbs up to that.
Helix pomatia or Burgundy snail. Photo: Waugsberg. Source: Wikimedia, 2024.
They had been asked by to draw their family, their pet, an endangered species, a war, a politician, a scientists, their solution to save the planet, and much more. Two Polish researchers asked them to draw artists, and they did not like what they saw.
Małgorzata Karczmarzyk is assistant professor at the Faculty of Social Science, University of Gdańsk (Poland). Dominika Szelągowska teaches visual arts at a high school in the same city. They are both practicing visual artists and art educators.
Their article Artists in the Eyes of Children – Semiotic Analysis of the Meanings about Artists Constructed by Children was published in Kultura i Edukacja in 2018 (No.2, pp. 131-141). The study was very small in scope with only 13 seven year old students taking part, from a few Polish towns. Favorably, each drawing was accompanied by an individual interview with the child. It would be nice to see all the drawings, and not only two.
What is so interesting about this endeavor are the questions it investigates:
What meanings do seven-year-old children give to the term “artist”?
What distinguishing features, according to children, should an artist have?
How can the media influence the shaping of the meanings of children about the artist?
How can the aestheticization influence the shaping of the meanings of children about the artist?
Not many researchers have asked children how they see art and artists. It is surprising considering that we keep hearing the carelessly overused phrase “every child is an artist.” So, this article is a precious addition to the literature.
It turns out though that the authors seem less interested in seeing and hearing what the children have to show and say, than blaming educators for children’s narrow views on art. It is as if the participants were used, rather than engaged, as to make a point about the deplorable state of art education in their schools. The beret a boy drew on the head of a painter is received as stereotypical. So is the easel a girl provides the painter she drew. They tell us that “the poor visual art awareness of tutors is to blame, no knowledge of art, their own prejudices and limitations in its reception, their own negative educational experiences.”
The authors are on a mission when they say “the ultimate purpose of the research is to obtain knowledge which will allow effective changes in education, in this case, in art education.”
The article could have been written a century ago, so much it transpires the ever-lasting tension between teaching art techniques versus free expression, the classics versus the moderns and, artists as educators versus teachers as art educators. When it comes to liking or not their answers, it begs the question, who is asking the children?
Below, a drawing found in our collection. Made by Rishi, it depicts the various formal element of drawing. As a school assignment, I would assume that the authors cited in this blog would say this type of exercise contribute to transmitting a detrimental and narrow notion of art to children.
About one hundred people of different generations came to appreciate inspiring art, made by the student of the University of Guelph Child Care and Learning Centre (CCLC). The art for Exploring Connection was on display all week and part of the school day for students. A ceremony was held on Thursday.
Eight rooms were filled with hundreds of images made in various media, each reflecting a specific theme. They were created by the children over the recent months. It is always great to see artworks where they were made. Several of the images are displayed on our dedicated web page and will available all summer. We were given the opportunity to present some of our collection items to visiting families.
It is full of admiration for the CCLC educators who so wonderfully accompanied their students and documented the process, under the guidance of Pedagogical Leader Kimberley Barton, that I presented their director, Valerie Trew, with a certificate of appreciation. Both partners of this exhibition project are grateful for the sponsorships and kind support from LINAMAR and GUELPHTODAY.com.
The CCLC was the perfect place and team to hold our first ever exhibition partnership. It is a place where children, their care givers, educators and researchers can learn from each other. Several families have expressed the intention to contribute to the collection. More to come about new items soon.
Valerie Trew (left) and Kimberley Barton receive CDIC certificate from Léo Beaulieu, 13 June 2024. Photo: Kim’s mom.
It is a vast and complex subject, as old as storytelling itself in current and past civilizations. This ability we have to project human features and qualities to non-human animals, plants and things is so omnipresent, we just have to glance at gamer avatars, or our sport team mascots to measure its far reaching impact. It can be found in basically any art form.
A short blog post cannot dive into the intricate complexity and ramifications of anthropomorphism. This post is meant to highlight the fact that some researchers with various backgrounds are increasingly questioning how the, let’s call them traditional storytellers, are making use of anthropomorphism. So, parents, writers, illustrators, playwrights, and even clerics, pay attention because a diverse group of literary critiques, cognitive scientists, social theorists and ecologists want to talk about anthropomorphism as a double edged sword.
On one hand, there are the well-known benefits, as mentioned by Nigerian researcher Helen Adhuze, in an article titled The face and phases of anthropomorphism in children literature, “Anthropomorphized characters boost empathy in children. This relational attitude is facilitated through the human imagination operational at the various stages of human development. Essentially, anthropomorphism is a human attitude developed as a child and maintained through adulthood. It is a specific human attitude, not a childish mistake.” (Adhuze, Journal of Language, Literature and Culture, Vol. 1, no. 1, 2022)
Growing up, we become experts “anthropomorphers.” Parents and educators know too well how anthropomorphic characters can be efficient attention grabbers, and motivation boosters for children engagement. For example, take this school activity developed by Creative Exchange, a collaboration project of the England Arts Council and Durham University (United Kingdom). The activity shows “How to use anthropomorphism to release children’s creativity,” to develop their imagination and collaborative skills. The vast majority of contents in elementary school libraries include anthropomorphic images.
Not everyone agrees that anthropomorphism has only benefits, and some give it a thumb down, pointing to what may loom in its shadow. We find much of these warnings in an exhibition catalogue, of Animals Are Us: Anthropomorphism in Children’s Literature; Celebrating the Peter Solomon Collection. The exhibition was presented in 2021 at the Houghton Library, in Cambridge. The catalogue by Thomas Hyry and several others, offers a great reading experience, and includes awesome illustrations. Four contributors penned the chapter “The Pitfalls and Potential of Anthropomorphism in children Literature.” It shows clearly how the practice more than often perpetuates stereotypes and demonstrates blatant lack of representation and diversity. We cannot help, it seems, but project both our virtues and flaws into whatever we want to make more human. The authors raise important red flags, and see greater awareness as an important step for better storytelling.
They close with a glimpse of optimism, saying that “as fields such as childhood studies, psychology, and literacy education developed their understanding of the child reader, children’s literature also evolved to position children as more purposeful, thoughtful, and agentive”(Animals Are Us exhibition catalogue, p.23)
In 2014, psychologists Patricia Ganea, Caitlin Canfield, and Kadria Simons-Ghafari investigated and concluded that anthropomorphism will actually inhibit children’s ability to learn actual facts about the animal world. It is, they argued, as if the fantastic nature of anthropomorphic characters “may not only lead to less learning but also influence children’s conceptual knowledge of animals.” In their article Do cavies talk? The effect of anthropomorphic picture books on children’s knowledge about animals (Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 5, 2014), they explain that there is a range of anthropomorphism that goes between a completely fantastic and a partially realistic characterization. They saw that when selecting books for their students, teachers tend to favor less realistic images, and rarely choose books where animal characters are shown in their natural environment. This, they say, may bring children to a lack of understanding of biological aspects of animals. In other words, children should be told when they are exposed to anthropomorphized creatures, told that it is not factual information, even when this might seems obvious to adults.
If you think educators, psychologists and literary critics are the only ones interested in the subject, think twice. Scholars in computer sciences, as well as religious studies are also showing interest in how children go about anthropomorphism. See what some of them have to say in this amazing book When Children Draw Gods A Multicultural and Interdisciplinary Approach to Children’s Representations of Supernatural Agents, published by Springer in 2023, as part of a book series New Approach to the Scientific Study of Religion. The chapter by Gregory Dessart and Pierre-Yves Brandt, Humanness and Non-Humanness in Children’s Drawings of God: A Case Study from French-Speaking Switzerland is of particular interest. It presents a case study with a focus on de-anthropomorphization as a progressive process. According to them, children undertaking religious education could be less inclined to portrait God with human traits.
As I reflect about the scientific articles cited above, isn’t it interesting that ecologically minded educator and religion educator might each hope that children be less impacted by anthropomorphism each for a different motive, the first for giving access to biological facts, and the other for less human-like representations of the divine? The socio-emotional power of anthropomorphism is immense. Is it too strong or misleading? It is an important question.
Something is brewing in literary studies, specifically among the comics and graphic novel scholars. Could it be the genre’s reckoning with its lasting and deep connection to childhood? If so, this is a good sign, as it reflects the maturity of the field, which painstakingly overcame the stigma of a literature of lesser importance. Stigma it endured for too long in the past.
At the centre of this momentum is a dynamic group of researchers, led by Maaheen Ahmed, at the Ghent University (Belgium). They initiated informed discussions about children characters in European comics, and the influence childhood had, and still have on writers and illustrators. They put in place the appropriately named COMICSproject. In their own word, the project “advances the hypothesis that children in comics are distinctive embodiments of the complex experience of modernity, channeling and tempering modern anxieties and incarnating the freedom denied to adults.”
The instigators will host a conference this September 18 and 19th in Ghent: Comics, Children and Childishness. A rare coming together of literary criticism and the history of childhood, it promises to be an innovating event.
Another comics studies conference, this one covering a wide range of contemporary concerns, is to take place this week on July 27-29th, at the University of North Texas. Themed Comics on the Margins, it is hosted by the Comics Studies Society.
To follow progress in comics studies, see the academic journal The Comics Grid.
Every year we like to raise our voice, along with other organizations all over the world, in support of broader awareness of the rights of children. During economic downturns, ecological disasters and military conflicts, children are among the most vulnerable and suffer greatly.
We take this opportunity to introduce you to a group of university researchers who dedicate their efforts to bringing greater protection to children. Their work deserves much respect. The Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory on the Rights of the Child is based at the University of Ottawa. Their essay competition will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students. They publish a blog in English and in French with inspiring and accessible articles.
Children’s drawings can be a lot of fun and will, more often than not, bring a smile to the adult who encounters them. There is however one thing that experts seem to agree on, and it is that these images are not to be taken lightly, most of all when it comes to sharing with a child. As children reveal themselves candidly, it is everyone’s responsibility to welcome self-expression in a safe and supportive environment.
We share this video presentation recorded in October 2020, and produced by the Discovery Museum (Boston), in which Dr. Ellen Winner, Professor of Psychology at Boston College and Senior Research Associate at Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education, shares her findings on the subject.
The Psychology of Artistic Behavior in Children. By Discovery Museum. Source: Youtube, 2022.
TEDx Talks also has a few short conferences on children’s drawings. This lively one, The Power of Children’s Art, by Dr Martha Skogen, designer, researcher, with a Phd is in Visual Communication from NTNU, has also a lot to show and to think about.
It may have taken hundreds of millions of years, but the blob is finally reaching its long overdue fame, at the highest level. A blob has joined the International Space Station crew last month. Its reaction to a micro-gravity environment is under scientific scrutiny. Find out about the educational scope of the experiment in this short cnet.com article by Leslie Katz.
Many of us who love to draw, have of course had more than one encounter with the blob. The fun colorful two-dimensional one, that is. While you keep a curious eye on the ISS experiment with the yellow creature, revisit the many drawing resources about blob art on the web. Teachers will appreciate this Blob-Art Challenge presented by MarieLee Singoorie Trempe, on Pinnguaq. If you are more the hyperrealist type, make sure to see this Stephanie Villiotis’ article “How to draw a realistic blob of paint..” on Make A Mark Studios. We will definitely add some of these instructional video to our playlists. Marvel Comics’ Blob must be so proud!
Blob, by Audrey Dussutour / CRCA / CNRS. Source: CNRS.fr, 11 september 2021.
The connection between children’s drawings and education, art education or developmental psychology may appear to be a given. At the Collection, we like to argue that tighter connections to anthropology, history and ethnography would benefit the advancement of knowledge.
The interest in children’s drawings occasionally emerge from unexpected places. Alina Gabriela Tamas, who teaches in a kindergarten, made a surprising and stimulating connection between children’s drawings and the study of geography. Published in the Romanian Review of Geographical Education (Vol. III no. Feb. 2014), her article presents an analysis of 42 drawings of trees, by 21 pre-school children aged 4 to 7. It is concise and illustrated with all the related reproductions. Who would have thought that we should throw geography in the mix too?
Hello Tree, by Sahana, 2020. Source: CDIC-CIDE, 2021.
For safety reasons, we are using schools very differently during the pandemic. Air circulation, room capacity and group transitions all had to be reconsidered. Teachers use more electronics than ever, namely for virtual teaching and so do students. The need for breaks from screen time is felt by everyone. Each time the school goes to lockdown and reopens is an opportunity to reconsider whether we prefer to attend school from home mask-free, or at the school masked all day.
Will our school buildings feel increasingly obsolete as the post-pandemic era will set in and we gradually wake up from this collective nightmare? That is a question school trustees, policy makers and unions will certainly be addressing and debating. It is important that parents and their children also take part in this discussion.
Architects as much as anyone else should make their voice heard and encourage new ways to envision future learning spaces that are more adaptable to transitions from regular use to crisis situation. We came across the interesting website on architecture and education, edited by Adam Wood and Emma Dyer. They present over twenty interviews with fellow architects, teachers and other education professional on the subject. They also have a page on school museums around the world, like the Museum of Schools and Children’s Book, in Turin (in Italian). Revisiting what schools were like in the distant past, is one way to reconsider what they should look and feel like in the future.
Header banner, website. Museum of School and Children’s Book, Turin. Source: Fondazione Tancredi di Barolo, 28 February 2021.
