Drawing Goodbyes: Young Children’s Multimodal Meaning-Making and Relational Connections in Ethnographic Research

• In Event: Writing (Righting) Ethnographic Exits: Methodological Insights on Leaving the Field from Elementary Literacy Researchers

Abstract

As an early childhood educator conducting classroom-based research, I explored young children’s literacy practices to inform my pedagogical choices. Transitioning from practitioner action research to ethnographic inquiry has allowed me to consider the broader cultural and relational dynamics that shape young children’s interests, communicative practices, and peer relationships within early childhood environments as well. This paper, with a focus on the final phase of an eight-month ethnographic project with pre-kindergarteners, examines the methodological and ethical implications of “exiting the field” (Delamont & Smith, 2023). Specifically, it illuminates the multimodal texts children produced during a final group drawing session (Figure 4) and a series of individual exit interviews (Figure 5). Rather than treating these artifacts as sentimental closures, I analyzed how they reveal the meaning-making processes of young children and the relational shifts that occur as the research formally comes to a close.

My research, informed by Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) notion of visual grammar —a semiotic perspective that posits visual communication as more than a reflection of language — views children’s drawings as structured and culturally situated texts. Through elements such as composition, spatial arrangement, and visual emphasis, children’s drawings communicate ideas shaped by their social experiences. Engaging also with Wright’s (2012) perspective on early childhood creativity, I interpret drawing as “a fundamental form of making meaning which surfaces what children already know, and their further discoveries and learning made during the process of drawing” (p. 61). Wright illustrates how drawing is deeply intertwined with gesture, language, and play by the embodied, narrative, and multimodal nature of young children’s meaning-making. Together, these perspectives enable a nuanced understanding of children’s visual work, not as simplistic or immature, but as complex, intentional, and socially meaningful forms of communication.

During the final weeks of the study, I conducted exit interviews in which children were invited to draw using materials suited to their preferences and interests. As they worked, I encouraged them to discuss or ask questions about anything that sparked their interest. The artifacts they created served as both conversation starters and representational texts, offering insight into their meaning-making processes and perspectives on the research relationship.

Primary data includes artifacts and verbal reflections from exit interviews and group drawing sessions, as well as audio transcripts and detailed field notes that document the context. These were analyzed alongside earlier observations and informal interviews to support a layered, interpretive understanding of children’s evolving communicative practices.

My findings suggest that the children’s texts transformed the exit interview into a site of co-authorship by reconfiguring typical research roles. Their texts reflected images, gestures, and symbolic play, which expanded conventional definitions of literacy. Akin to Coffey’s (2018) concept of “event horizons,” their ethnographic exits emerged as moments dense with affect, memory, and power renegotiation. This work contributes to broader conversations in early childhood studies about children’s agency, the ethics of research relationships, and the value of multimodal expression as a legitimate scholarly data source by reframing ethnographic exits as sites of literacy and relational inquiry.

Author

• Carmen Lugo Llerena, Teachers College, Columbia University