A Dialogical Artmaking Space: Cultivating a Pedagogy of Listening in Early Childhood Art Education

Abstract

Early childhood educators have been encouraged to pedagogically engage with children, materials, and their given environments. However, neither dialogue nor the creation of a space for practicing the pedagogy of listening have received considerable attention. This article describes a phenomenological research study that aimed to examine the pedagogical engagement of early childhood educators in an artmaking space. I observed art/drawing events of young children and two early childhood educators in two different early childhood centers and interviewed the educators to gather and explore narratives that could become part of the phenomenological reflection and understanding of the phenomena under review. The study’s findings highlight the potential of drawing and artmaking as pedagogical tools in early education, and they also offer insights into how and why early childhood educators might practice radical dialogues with children within a pedagogy of listening.