Drawing as Language: Expanding the Cultural and Linguistic Repertoire of Young Children

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Integrating Arts, STEM, and Literacy Education (Table 5)

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to advocate for a transformative lens on early childhood art education that values the graphic languages within the linguistic and cultural repertoires of learners who speak different languages at home other than at school. A qualitative research project investigated United States multilingual early childhood educators who attended a study week to Reggio Emilia, Italy, infant toddler, and preschool programs and Italian educators and interpretation of the hundred languages within emergent bi-and multilingual early childhood settings. While drawing is usually in service to language learning as an add-on activity, the research revealed that it is considered essential within the linguistic repertoire of bi-and multilingual children as an opportunity to construct robust and complex meanings.

Author

• Geralyn Schroeder Yu, University of New Mexico