Abstract :
In this article I present some ideas, based on
qualitative research into young children’s drawing,
related to the developing discourse on
young children’s thinking and meaning making. I
question the relationship between perception
and conception and the nature of representation,
challenging traditional ideas around stage theory
and shifting the focus from the drawings themselves
to the process of drawing, and thus to the
children’s own purposes. I analyse examples of
my observations (made in naturalistic settings
within a nursery classroom) to reveal the range
of representational purposes and meaning in
children’s drawing activity. My analysis shows
that, rather than being developmentally determined,
the way children configure their drawings
is purposeful; children can recognise the power
of drawing to represent, and that they themselves
can be in control of this. I explore aspects
of the process, including transformation and talk
to show the importance of understanding drawing
in its specific contexts. I show how children’s
drawing activity is illuminated by the way in
which it occurs and the other activities linked to
it, presenting drawing as part of children’s
broader, intentional, meaning-making activity. As
an aspect of the interactive, communicative
practices through which children’s thinking
develops, representation is a constructive, selfdirected,
intentional process of thinking in action,
through which children bring shape and order to
their experience, rather than a developing ability
to make visual reference to objects in the world.
I suggest that in playing with the process, children
are actively defining reality rather than
passively reflecting a given reality.
