Listening for Stories: Childhood Studies and Art Education

Abstract

Reflecting on two events documented in early childhood art classes as representative narratives of the possible, I present a case for the adoption of a childhood studies perspective in contemporary art education research and teaching. Moving beyond outmoded and unreliable developmental understandings, and becoming aware of the influence of prevailing social constructions of childhood on adult interpretations of children’s engagements, teachers and researchers may begin to recognize children as competent social beings entangled in a shifting series of relationships within the performative spaces of the art classroom.