Unraveling the Colonial Illusion of Representation: Material Agency for Relational Ethics in Early Childhood Art Inquiry (Poster 12)

• In Event: Virtual Poster Session
  In Virtual iPresentation Only: Critical Perspectives on Early Childhood Education Virtual Poster Session

Abstract

This presentation examines the colonial illusion that restricts creativity in early childhood art inquiry and explores how material agency and relational ethics provide a pathway to reimagine art education for young children beyond developmental, representational, and Euro-human-centric paradigms. Grounded in critical posthumanism, new materialism, and social ecology, the study positions children's aesthetic inquiry as a co-constructive, ethical engagement with more-than-human entities. Drawing on ethnographic vignettes from early childhood classrooms, I demonstrate how children’s creative processes serve as a resistance to normative learning frameworks when supported by an attunement to material liveness, conatus, and uncertain and indetermined possibilities. This work presents a justice-oriented vision for art education and research for future generations, offering collaborative prompts for rethinking curriculum through a more-than-human lens.

Author

• Hyewon Oh, Growing Place Ocean Park Early Childhood Education Center