Young children drawing: the significance of the context College
of Ripon and York Paper presented at the British Educational
Research Association Annual Conference, University of Leeds,
13-15 September 2001 The role of drawing in children's learning
is frequently misunderstood. Even within foundation stage
classrooms, where the opportunity to draw is often freely
available, there is usually an adult focus upon 'mark making
leading to writing' rather than communication and creativity.
Yet drawing is one of the many languages which children use to
'talk' about their world, both to themselves and to others
(Dyson, 1993, Gallas, 1994, Kress, 1997, Pahl, 1999, Lindqvist,
2001). Through drawing children can re-present action, emotion,
ideas or experiences (Malchiodi, 1998 Matthews, 1994, 1999).
This paper uses data, collected as part of a longitudinal
research project about young children and drawing across
settings, to illustrate the importance of the context, physical,
social and cultural, in which drawing takes