Public Displays of Children’s Work in Early Learning and Elementary School Settings as Documentation of Children’s Learning Experiences

Abstract

This paper reports findings from a qualitative investigation that documented the exhibition of children’s work in public spaces within early learning centers and elementary schools. An iterative, photo-documentation methodology was used to document the student work on display using photographs taken in 20 public elementary schools and four early learning child care centers in the Southeastern United States on four occasions over the course of an academic year. Five overarching themes in the public documentation and display of children’s work were identified in the data: Holidays; Audience Engagement; Preschool Children as Media; Integrated Content and Creative Understandings; and Thinking in Action. In PreKindergarten and Kindergarten classrooms, it seemed that children often created works based upon teacher-provided models, but the displays of children’s work conveyed little information about children’s learning in these classrooms. Overall, the data indicated that teachers especially in the early years of schooling could provide greater opportunities to promote observability of children’s learning and individuality in displayed works and opportunities to intentionally engage viewers to interaction with these displays.