The subtle strength of interwoven threads

‘Children’s learning is dynamic, complex and holistic. Physical, social, emotional, personal, spiritual, creative, cognitive and linguistic aspects of learning are all intricately interwoven and interrelated.’ (DET, 2019, p.10)

As I read my way through the woven layers of the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF ) – through Belonging, Being, Becoming, through the discussion of early childhood pedagogy and the interrelated elements of the Principles, Practice and Outcomes – I see the shimmering threads of art and creativity gleaming wherever the eye travels: threads that are embedded into the very design and careful crafting of the whole fabric of the document.

In the EYLF there is an assumption of holistic learning, connectedness with culture and community, rich, open-ended experiences, openness to uncertainty and the unexpected, richness and diversity of modes of communication, and strong, respectful relationships.

All of these elements are also the foundations for a creative, meaningful, complex, and integrated art curriculum. The approach in the EYLF assumes a relevant and context-specific art curriculum that is embedded into all aspects of children’s learnings and lived experiences – and this is why I see the shimmering threads of art and creativity so deeply woven into, across and through the entire document.

Gleaming brightly, I see the multiple, interwoven and interrelated threads of:

The praxis-based nature of arts curriculum: Learning in art is embodied – knowledge is in the body. The ‘knowing’ comes from the ‘doing’ (Dinham, 2019). ‘Childhood is a time to be, to seek and make meaning of the world. Being recognises the significance of the here and now in children’s lives.

It is about the present and them knowing themselves, building and maintaining relationships with others, engaging with life’s joys and complexities, and meeting challenges in everyday life’. Learning is characterised by doing, being in the moment, experiencing the time and energy of making and doing through the senses and the body.

 

The importance of play, open-ended and flexible materials, the unexpected, in fostering creativity: Creativity is characterised by risk, messiness, jumping into the unknown, going beyond rules (Prentice, 2000; Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Craft, 1999). Imagination, originality, invention, and playfulness are all key aspects of creative ways of being, that foster divergent thinking and problem creating. ‘Play is a context for learning that […] enhances dispositions such as curiosity and creativity’. In the total immersion in play, we find the focus, intensity, and joy of creative flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990). ‘Play spaces in natural environments include plants, trees, edible gardens, sand, rocks, mud, water and other elements from nature. These spaces invite open-ended interactions, spontaneity, risk-taking, exploration, discovery and connection with nature’.

The development of an aesthetic sensibility: The aesthetic dimension ‘is an attitude of care and attention for the things we do, a desire for meaning; it is curiosity and wonder, it is the opposite of indifference and carelessness, of conformity, of absence of participation and feeling.’ (Vecchi, 2010, p.5). Even the very youngest babies encounter their world aesthetically: through sight, touch, taste, smell, sound. Watching the morning light flickering through the leaves as the breeze touches skin and tousles soft hair, hearing the lorikeets screech and chatter as they feast on the sweet smelling gum blossoms overhead. Aesthetic experiences can involve ‘sensory and exploratory experiences’’ that immerse children in the beauty and magic of everyday objects and events. Aesthetic appreciation can ‘rekindle our capacity for appreciation’ and ‘put aside our dismissive haste…’ (de Botton & Armstrong, p.124), and remind us of the importance of beauty, wonder and delight; beauty that is not just about appearances, but is about inhabiting our worlds with connection, care, wonder, and curiosity. Aesthetic learning ‘focuses on connections to the natural world. Educators foster children’s capacity to understand and respect the natural environment and the interdependence between people, plants, animals and the land’), and children ‘demonstrate an increasing knowledge of, and respect for natural and constructed environments; […] show growing appreciation and care…’.

Graphic languages and symbolic meaning making: When we ‘teach art as language’, we reposition drawing, painting, clay, collage, wire, sculpture, new media, light & shadow (and…and…and…) as graphic languages (Rinaldi, 2006), and we notice the way that children ‘use the creative arts such as drawing, painting, sculpture […] to express ideas and make meaning’. Young children ‘draw on their experiences in constructing meaning using symbols’, and their sophisticated symbolic meaning-making gives us an insight into the thinking and learning that lie underneath their art making.

By regularly revisiting and returning to their subject matter and artworks, and revisiting and returning to high-quality materials and techniques, children can ‘manipulate equipment and manage tools with increasing competence and skill’. Developing proficiency in using a plurality of symbolic languages and gaining mastery in ‘skills and techniques that will enhance their capacity for self-expression and communication’, children can become more sophisticated in expressing their ideas artistically, allowing for them to communicate increasingly sophisticated theories and learning.

Visual art as a ‘tool for thinking’ (Pelo, 2007): Through the graphic languages, children can make their theories and questions visible, and listen to others’ perspectives. They make connections between ideas, connections between symbolic thought and visual representation, connections within their own theory-making, connections across from their mind to the thoughts of others to collaborate and challenge and collectively seek out and construct new understandings and meanings. (Britt & McLachlan, 2020; Pelo, 2007, Rinaldi, 2006, Robertson, 2000). Through an embedded art curriculum, we ‘provide opportunities for children to revisit their ideas and extend their thinking’ (DET, p.37) and ‘provide resources that encourage children to represent their thinking’. Paying close attention to and listening carefully as children ‘explore ideas and theories using imagination, creativity and play’, and ‘encourag[ing] children to make their ideas and theories visible to others’ will allow teachers to gain rich insights into the complexity of children’s thinking.

‘Children use their fluency in a range of art languages to make their thinking visible to themselves and to others, to construct new understandings, and to unearth new questions. Work with art media fans the flickers of possibilities in ordinary moments, sparking the fire of inquiry.’ (Pelo, 2007, p.110)

Cultural connectedness, creative reciprocity: Children’s rights as cultural citizens, their rights to participation and visibility remind us of the importance of the deep cultural belonging and creative reciprocity that can occur through engaging with and responding to the work of other artists, and experiencing art in museums and galleries (Bell, 2010; Bell, 2017; Britt & Palmer, 2021, Piscitelli, 2012). ‘Children develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities and an understanding of the reciprocal rights and responsibilities necessary for active community participation. This is evident, for example, when children […] broaden their understanding of the world in which they live; express an opinion in matters that affect them; build on their own social experiences to explore other ways of being; participate in reciprocal relationships’.

The key role of a respectful, wondering, noticing, responding adult: In fostering children’s art and creativity, ‘the warmth of a listening presence does much to keep young children engaged in what they’re playfully doing’ (Kolbe, 2014, p.70), ‘warm, trusting relationships, predictable and safe environments, affirmation and respect for all aspects of their physical, emotional, social, cognitive, linguistic, creative and spiritual being’. Visual art pedagogy becomes so much richer though the presence of early childhood teachers and educators who are delighted by and respectful of children’s symbolic meaning making, who notice and respond to children’s creative encounters with materials and aesthetic experiences, who are open to possibilities ‘to move beyond pre-conceived expectations about what children can do and learn’.

And yet, I am also keenly aware of the tensions here, too. There is very little specific mention of ‘art’ in the EYLF, and this is a certainly a critique that I have heard. Yes, the beautiful possibilities, uncertainties and complexities of lived, integrated art curriculum for young children are gestured towards throughout the whole document. But at the same time, we know that these subtle, shimmering threads are competing for the attention of early childhood teachers and educators alongside the seductively simple, bright, neatly packaged, boldly headlined ‘art activities for kids’ (with a nice clear photo of the predetermined finished product) on a Pinterest board. I regularly come across the belief that ‘Outcome 5’ is the only way you can connect the EYLF to visual arts experiences. Have you ever heard this too? I feel so dismayed by how this ‘quick and easy’ tick-a-box solution reduces the strength and depth of our complex professional judgement and understandings. I wonder why this misunderstanding is so often repeated? Is it because the actual words ‘art’, ‘drawing’, ’painting’ and ‘sculpture’ are used in Outcome 5, and not elsewhere? Is it because, without clear and explicit illumination, those gleaming interwoven threads of art and creativity throughout the rest of the document blend into the background and become too subtle to be noticed and appreciated by all?

Perhaps, then, a recommendation for more deliberate and direct highlighting of richly embedded art and creativity in early learning would be valuable in our revised EYLF. Would some more specific examples, linked to every outcome serve as stronger reminders of the ways in which art, creativity, imagination, curiosity, wonder, cultural connectedness, aesthetic engagement, and graphic representation are intertwined and intrinsically embedded into all of the multiple and diverse ways children encounter, respond to, and learn about their worlds?

Whether or not these changes occur in the revised document, as we work with/in early childhood visual art pedagogy, let’s use the strength of those interwoven, shimmering threads of art and creativity that are already embedded through almost every paragraph of the EYLF, to shift the focus back to young children’s extraordinary capacity for sophisticated symbolic meaning making, for exquisite moments of aesthetic wonder and delight, for risky, messy, unexpected, playful, joyful, immersive art and creativity.

REFERENCES

• All quotes in bold italics are referenced to: Australian Government Department of Education and Training (DET). (2019). Belonging, being & becoming: The early years learning framework for Australia.
• Bell, D. (2017), ‘Aesthetic encounters and learning in the museum’, Educational Philosophy and Theory, 49:8, pp. 776–787.
• Bell, D. (2010), ‘Five reasons to take young children to the art gallery and five things to do when you are there’. Australian Art Education, 3(20), pp. 87–111.
• Britt, C. (2005). Theories of memory. In A. Fleet & J. Robertson. (Eds.). Exhibit-on 2. Provocations: Clarity and confusion, unpacking interpretation. Sydney: Institute of Early Childhood.
• Britt & Palmer (2021) Art and Wonder: Young Children and Contemporary Art. Sydney: MCA.
• Britt, C. & McLachlan, J. (2020). Unearthing Why: Stories of thinking and learning with children. Sydney: Curious Teacher.
• Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Journal of Leisure Research, 24(1), pp. 93–94.
• Craft, A. (1999) Creative development in the early years: some implications of policy for practice. The Curriculum Journal, 10(1): 135-150.
• De Botton, A. & Armstrong, J.,2013. Art as therapy. Phaidon Press.
• Dinham, J. (2019). Delivering authentic arts education. South Melbourne: Cengage.
• Kolbe, U. (2014). Children’s imagination: Creativity under our noses. Byron Bay: Peppinot Press.
• Pelo, A. (2007). The Language of Art: Inquiry-Based Studio Practices in Early Childhood Settings. La Vergne: Redleaf Press.
• Piscitelli, B (2012). Young Children, the Arts and Learning: Outside of School, at Home and in the Community. In Children, Meaning-Making and the Arts, edited by Wright, S. 158–75. Sydney: Pearson.
• Prentice, R. (2000), ‘Creativity: a reaffirmation of its place in early childhood education’, The Curriculum Journal, 11:2, 2000, pp. 145–158.
• Rinaldi, C. (2006). In dialogue with Reggio Emilia. London, UK: Routledge.
• Robertson, J. (2000). Drawing: Making thinking visible. In W. Schiller (Ed.) Thinking through the arts. Sydney: Harwood.
• Vecchi, V. (2010). Art and Creativity in Reggio Emilia: Exploring the Role and Potential of Ateliers in Early Childhood Education (Contesting Early Childhood). Oxon: Routlege