This article describes a small, collaborative, arts‐based research project conducted in two rural early childhood centres in regional Australia, where the children made large‐scale collaborative paintings in partnership with teachers and researchers. Observation of young children's artistic practices, in order to inform the development of pre‐service curriculum and pedagogy was a central aim of the project. The findings are framed with respect to pedagogy, practice and learning: the pedagogy that supports children's artmaking; the benefits of learning in and through the arts, and the notion of collective practice in early childhood settings. Findings suggest that collaborative and intergenerational artmaking in early childhood settings enable powerful learning opportunities. A combination of establishing a rich art environment, applying constraints, yet allowing for children's agency can create a rich and engaging art education, which is vital in any setting if children are to develop their aesthetic awareness, artistic skills, and critical, abstract, imaginative, collaborative and creative thinking. The role of the proactive art educator in children's development is crucial, which has implications for teacher preparation and in‐service professional development. These project findings also have implications for ecologies of learning and communities of practice from early childhood to higher education.
In the continuing ‘Not Ourselves’ practice-based project, we are attempting to unravel the harmonics of the collaborative voice in educational research, in which the singular voice of the ‘author’ also gives voice to multiple others. We approached this project as an enquiry into the process of ‘collaboration in the making’ and as an emergent practice. Each of the authors of the article has a different professional background: one an environmental educator; another an arts educator; and the third a contemporary artist. We explored walking together|apart to yield outcomes that were not tied to traditional notions of collaboration. The maps we created as we walked speak to collaborations that are rutted, insecure and ambiguous through irregular cooperations. This visual essay is structured into three sections where we collectively and individually explore concepts we refer to as ‘findings, windings and entwinings’.
Developing one's creative potential is a basic human right, and thus the relationship between democracy and creativity is ineffable. Reggio Emilia pedagogies recognise this intrinsically; teaching through this modality embeds deep learning and an aesthetic awareness not often evident in formal schooling, despite the overwhelming evidence regarding the value of a sustained art education. Our children are all born creative and brave, yet something happens to them as they grow -the opportunities to express themselves artistically at school become minimised, the art curriculum becomes marginalised, and our children's creative genius falls away. What would Reggio Emilia look like in the High School classroom? Imagine a curriculum where all students' creative potential was nurtured, every day. This article explores this proposition, and argues that by utilising the highly successful pedagogies of Reggio Emilia, we can attend to the fundamental right of every child to an education that nurtures their inherent creativity.
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