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Running head: CHILDRENS QUALITATIVE RESEARCH PAPER

Childrens Qualitative Research Paper Suzanne M. Verhagen University of Missouri

CHILDRENS QUALITATIVE RESEARCH PAPER Qualitative Research Paper The purpose of this research was to investigate a childs piece of art through the assigned readings of multiple authors and experts. My initial hypothesis was that this was a simple drawing about a kid and his favorite colors. After thorough examination and research, however, I learned that there is more to childrens art than meets the eye. I was able to determine the potential age of my unknown student and presume other valuable information about his artistic development/stage. In addition, I learned the importance of looking closely for important features of a childs artwork rather than making assumptions and therefore, ignoring (what could be) important details. Method The participant of the drawing is unknown. This piece was retrieved from my instructor, Mary Franco, in my Learning Teaching & Curriculum 4240 course. Initially, I thought it was unfortunate that I had no information about the artist. At the conclusion of my research, I concluded there were both pros and cons to not knowing the student. The pros included the unknown itself: not knowing the child meant I couldnt ask him or her any questions. Instead, I had to find the means to gain a better and deeper understanding of my research from experts. With that said, however, I firmly believe it would have been beneficial to build a personal relationship with the student and ask him or her questions about the drawing to determine any hidden meaning that might have contributed to my understanding.

CHILDRENS QUALITATIVE RESEARCH PAPER What I did throughout my research of this drawing was examine it multiple times through various angles and perspectives. For example, I tried to put myself in the shoes of a young artist and come up with different possible reasons why I thought the student may have drawn multiple shades of the sky. The most important part of my research, however, was applying and connecting this piece to various authors and expert knowledge. Brittain & Lowenfelds (1970) summary charts provided insight into which specific stage this artist may be. In Analyzing Childrens Art, Kellog described the basic scribbles in detail, which was applicable for this specific childs drawing. I also grew in understanding of why childrens drawings look a certain way through studying the various principles Wilson & Wilsons (1982) article Learning to draw: nurturing the natural provided. Lastly, Elliot Eisners Ten Lessons the Arts Teach and Mary Erikson & Bernard Youngs Art Advocacy: What Every Educator Should (But Maybe Doesnt) Know challenged me to consider the importance of seeing my future students as unique artists and why. Findings In detail, my students drawing consists of a male stick figure which includes: two arms, two hands with three fingers each, two legs, two feet with three toes each (similar to chickens feet), a rectangular body, a face with two blue eyes, a large black dot representing a nose, about a dozen strands of black hair, and half of the males face covered in black (quite possibly representing a beard). All of these features minus the eyes are in black crayon. Red crayon is almost completely shaded in between the two legs. The legs are slanted heavily to the right side representing a backslash. The figure is centered on the white 8x11 sheet of paper. Behind the figure, the background is separated into four different lines of colors: black is at the top, under that is red, below red is blue, and the bottom shade is a dark gold. Each color strip covers about

CHILDRENS QUALITATIVE RESEARCH PAPER one-fourth of the page (not including the figure). The top three strips of color (black, red and blue) all appear to be drawn in lines resembling zig-zags, or Scribble 6: Multiple vertical line (Kellogg, 1970, p.39). On the other hand, the bottom strip of gold appears to be multiple (colored-in) circles and zig-zags connecting each. According to Lowenfeld and Brittain (1970), I would place this child in the "Preschematic Stage, Four-Seven Years: First Representational Attempts (p.475). I believe this artist fits the "Preschematic Stage" stage primarily because of the space representation, secondly due to his/her human figure representation, and thirdly due to drawing characteristics (Lowenfeld & Brittain, 1970). The reason behind why this child artist has drawn four shades of color is unknown; however for the purpose of this research, they will be referred to as floating objects. Space seems to surround the child, as well, which was another point made by Lowenfeld and Brittain for this specific stage. Next, it seems that the childs head-feet symbol has grown out of a scribble. There is evidence of clothes and hair, although these things have hardly any detail. Lastly, the shape of the persons body is basically a rectangle (geometric) and the background colors do not seem to relate. This is where a personal conversation with the artist could have helped my research. According to Wilson & Wilson (1982) this child drew according to the simplicity principle. It seems that this image depicts the artist's idea of what a human looks like in simplest form. There are arms, hands, fingers, legs, feet, toes, a body, face (with features) and hair, in plain terms. Wilson & Wilson might also say that this child's drawing fits into the territorial imperative principle because this child tries to fill in the white space with a different color for a background (or possibly grass at the bottom and perhaps black facial hair on the person). As a result, the person seems enlarged.

CHILDRENS QUALITATIVE RESEARCH PAPER Conclusion My findings conclude that this child is between the ages of five and seven. It is also probable that this drawing may be one of their first attempts at a representation. Even though researchers like me may be unaware of the true artists thoughts, experts lead us to welldeveloped conclusions about a young childs reasoning behind their outwork. The figure drawn in my piece may be the artist himself due to Wilson & Wilsons (1982) theory which states Children will often exaggerate the person that they perceive as most important (Wilson & Wilson, 1982, p. 47). One might argue there arent any other figures, or people, in this drawing to compare to, thus leaving no room to exaggerate the figure, however if indeed the multicolored background represents the sky, the person must either be very tall or exaggerated. As the regular classroom teacher, I want to encourage growth in artistic development in many ways. One way I can do this is by seeking to integrate art into every subject on a regular basis. Every subject includes math, social studies, language arts and scienceall are possible with extra effort. In this drawing in particular, I see Eisners point in stating The arts celebrate multiple perspectives: one of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world (Eisner, 2002, p. 3). The reason I see this lesson apply to my students drawing is because whoever this person is and whatever the background represents is his/her personal perception of who it is and what surrounds this person. And it is to be celebrated because of its uniqueness. My investigation has led me to recognize the importance of child art development for regular classroom teachers in general because it helps me to realize every student is in a process of learning, growing and developing into a life-long learner. In addition, Erikson & Young hit the nail by saying, Our students would judge us as unfair if we expected them to have

CHILDRENS QUALITATIVE RESEARCH PAPER knowledge and skills they were never taught (Erikson & Young, 1999, p. 40). This statement makes total sense, especially for those teachers who are tempted not to take the extra effort to integrate because they expect other teachers to educate their students in the arts, and they dont believe that their students would benefit from integration in all disciplines. Finally, I have to agree with Eisner in saying the arts connect to other subject matter. The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstance and opportunity (Eisner, 2003, p. 3). As a general classroom teacher, I may be the greatest, most consistent presence in many of my students lives. This means it is inevitable they will come to school with personal burdens and issuesones that derive from class and their home lives. The arts create opportunity to express what cannot be said in words (Eisner, 2003, p. 3). I want to give children the opportunity to express themselves and the complexities of life they may not know how to handle otherwise.

CHILDRENS QUALITATIVE RESEARCH PAPER References page Eisner, E. W. (2002). The arts and the creation of mind. New Haven: Yale University. Erikson, M., & Young, B. (1996). School Arts. Davis Publications, Inc. Kellogg, R. (1970). Analyzing childrens art. Palo Alto, CA: National. Lowenfeld, V., & Brittain, W.L. (1970). Creative and mental growth. New York: Macmillan. Wilson, M., & Wilson, B. (1982). Teaching children to draw. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.