Reagan, Isobel; (2024) Drawing from Perspective: An Exploration of Children’s and Teacher’s Perceptions of Visual Art in the Early Childhood Curriculum. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

There is a growing consensus that the curriculum in England is being increasingly narrowed, with subjects such as visual art side-lined in favour of a focus on core subjects. Factors such as assessment and accountability pressures, lack of teacher confidence and understanding, funding cuts, and lack of training and development opportunities have been highlighted as detrimental to the position of the arts in the curriculum. Meanwhile, further evidence suggests that comparable dynamics may apply to the Early Years Foundation Stage, yet research exploring the impact on visual art in the early childhood curriculum is scarce. This doctoral research sought to contribute to understanding how visual art is positioned within the early childhood curriculum by exploring the perspectives of children and teachers. Elliot Eisner’s theories regarding art education underpin this research, with democratic, pragmatist and constructivist applications of his ideas being discussed and his theories of artistry, expressive outcomes, productive idiosyncrasies, and forms of representation amongst others, used to further explore the findings. The research used an interpretive approach, including interviews with 24 reception and nursery teachers and a participatory methodology with 12 child participants aged between 3 and 5 years. Findings demonstrated that children’s agency was significant to how visual art was conceptualised by participants. Data revealed that teacher participants experienced lack of curriculum time, in addition to the prioritisation of more formal subjects espoused within standardised assessment and accountability measures, as substantial challenges to visual art’s inclusion. Findings highlighted the relevance of teacher perceptions of children’s cultural backgrounds, with some perceiving parents as undervaluing visual art in their child’s life. Overall, I argue that visual art’s status in the curriculum is complex, simultaneously undervalued and otherised in policy and wider societal discourses, and this confusion regarding the purpose and benefit of visual art education contributes to teacher’s perspectives in multifaceted ways. Ultimately, this research highlights how visual art supports children to make valid and valuable artistic and cultural contributions to their classroom curriculum.

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