Curating Curiosity: an exploration of visual art experiences and self-identity formation through the voices of young children
type: CreativeWork
description: As human beings our identities are formed from birth as we draw on our connections to people, places and the experiences we encounter in life. For young children, adults are crucial in directing these experiences, whether this is at home, school or further afield and therefore they play a key role in identity formation. In the world of education this means that decisions are made by adults based on what is considered best for young children in order to succeed in the future. This has the potential however to have both an enabling and a limiting effect on children’s lives. In a climate where arts education funding is being cut and awareness of children’s voice and rights is growing in strength, this PhD seeks to explore experiences of visual arts and perceptions of self-identity from a child’s perspective with the aim of informing adult perspectives of arts education policy and practice in primary schools. The main argument focuses on children as autonomous identity curators continuously drawing on their curiosity of the world. By engaging them in dialogue about their experiences and lives, adults will be presented with an alternative perspective of the world that can be used to genuinely meet individual needs in young children. The research question 'How do visual art experiences interact with children’s self-identity?’ is addressed drawing on the principles of bricolage to discuss and analyse the issues through multiple lenses, including the work of Dewey, Bourdieu, and Giddens. A small-scale, multiple case-study, interpretivist approach has therefore been adopted focused on nine participants drawn from four classes from two schools in a Scottish city. Data were gathered during the academic session of 2016-2017 employing narrative inquiry and arts-informed, participatory methods and analysis. Each participant presented a uniquely different relationship with visual art, with some indicating that it was an integral part of their identity and others not so much. Adult…
abstract: As human beings our identities are formed from birth as we draw on our connections to people, places and the experiences we encounter in life. For young children, adults are crucial in directing these experiences, whether this is at home, school or further afield and therefore they play a key role in identity formation. In the world of education this means that decisions are made by adults based on what is considered best for young children in order to succeed in the future. This has the potential however to have both an enabling and a limiting effect on children’s lives. In a climate where arts education funding is being cut and awareness of children’s voice and rights is growing in strength, this PhD seeks to explore experiences of visual arts and perceptions of self-identity from a child’s perspective with the aim of informing adult perspectives of arts education policy and practice in primary schools. The main argument focuses on children as autonomous identity curators continuously drawing on their curiosity of the world. By engaging them in dialogue about their experiences and lives, adults will be presented with an alternative perspective of the world that can be used to genuinely meet individual needs in young children. The research question 'How do visual art experiences interact with children’s self-identity?’ is addressed drawing on the principles of bricolage to discuss and analyse the issues through multiple lenses, including the work of Dewey, Bourdieu, and Giddens. A small-scale, multiple case-study, interpretivist approach has therefore been adopted focused on nine participants drawn from four classes from two schools in a Scottish city. Data were gathered during the academic session of 2016-2017 employing narrative inquiry and arts-informed, participatory methods and analysis. Each participant presented a uniquely different relationship with visual art, with some indicating that it was an integral part of their identity and others not so much. Adult…
author: Robb, Anna
language: eng
keywords: art education, children's voice, identity, primary education
date published: 2019
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:08:46Z
provider: University of Dundee
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Dundee