Cultural participation for, with and by children – Enhancing children’s agency through art pedagogy, visual knowledge-building and learning

Abstract

This article focuses on how children's rights in society can be manifested with cultural tools and through cultural participation. The article discusses cultural participation for, with and by children based on the core ideas of a Swedish governmentally initiated strategy implemented in the 1970s. The right for children to take part in cultural activities, to be culturally active and to express themselves is based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). Art education and visual activities for children in formal and informal cultural environments and the use of contemporary art will be discussed. An art-based project in collaboration between a cultural institution and preschool and younger children is described. The main purpose of the article is to analyse what impact the use of cultural participation and cultural tools has on children's collective experience and learning, as well as to discuss and contextualise the relationship between culture, preschool and school as it is influenced by global and societal changes, particularly the increasing visual impact in society through the use of digital media and multimodality. The results show how an art gallery visit and the use of cultural narratives, such as art educational activities at a preschool based on work with a picture book, create visual knowledge and contribute to children’s agency and understanding of equity as one of the aims in the early childhood education curriculum.

Documents of Socially Engaged Art

“…Participatory cultural activities may encourage them to trust in their thinking, addressing their right to freedom of expression, as stated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). By becoming active participants, children and adolescents are empowered to perceive themselves as active subject creators and visually competent in explorative meaning-making processes through settings of art-based visual experiences (Häikiö, 2018). The development of communication skills through artistic activities then becomes an opportunity to stimulate the perceptions of their lives-worlds and their learning processes.…”

Children's Cultural Backpack and Preschool Education

“…Despite the asymmetrical power relationship between adults and children, children can still have the agency to be social designers. Karlsson Häikiö (2018) demonstrates how children's rights can be manifested through cultural participation. The children in his study used cameras to photograph the world outside preschool from their own perspective.…”