Schoolchildren's visualizations of Europe

Author(s):

Rachel MasonAnabela Moura Marie Fulkova

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

15. Research Partnerships in Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

15 SES 07 A,

Paper Session

Time:

2009-09-29

15:30-17:00

Room:

JUR, HS 16

Chair:

Philippe Masson

Contribution

This visual presentation reports a small-scale study of children's visualizations of Europe in six EU member states. The purpose was to collect visual and verbal data to guide action research in schools. The context for the study is a two-year cross national project entitled Images and Identity: Improving citizenship education through digital art funded under the EU Comenius scheme. Education for democratic citizenship (EDC) has been a Council of Europe priority since the mid 1990s. However Citizenship or Civic Education was established as a specific education aim very recently in many member states and there are shortfalls in resources and teacher training (Kerr 2004). Although art education provides important opportunities to address the emotional and symbolic aspects of human experience, ingrate verbal and non-verbal forms of expression and promote intercultural communication between learners and teachers (Boughton 1999) its contribution to teaching citizenship has not been explored in the European context. In this project art educators in Germany, England, Portugal, Czech Republic, Malta and Ireland are collaborating with citizenship trainers on the production of training materials that aim to increase school children’s identification with Europe through discussion and production of visual images. The training materials will include a visual resource, together lesson ideas and guidelines for discussing and creating images with schoolchildren using digital processes, platforms, and techniques. The project is conducted within an action research framework. Teams of HE staff, student teachers and teachers in each member state are engaging in three cycles of action. In the first they created a visual education resource of images by contemporary European artists and investigated school children's visualizations of Europe. In the second they will plan, implement and evaluate educational interventions in schools in each member state using these resources. In the third a selection of lesson exemplars will be piloted and evaluated for inclusion in a cross-national training product. Flickr and Webct are being systematically employed to document the action in each country and facilitate sharing of information, resources and evaluation. The small scale survey that is the focus of the proposed presentation was completed during the first action cycle. The action teams asked themselves: What kinds of knowledge and ideas do children have about Europe? (2) How do they describe their feelings and thoughts through visual media?

Method

Five hundred schoolchildren in Germany, Malta, Czech Republic, England, Ireland and Portugal were asked to choose a visual image that described their feelings and thoughts about Europe; and to write a brief statement explaining where it came from, why they had chosen it, what it communicated and what they felt. Their age, gender and ethnicity were recorded. The data collected in each country was entered into Excel spreadsheets and the initial descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages and averages) were generated using the formula/analysis processes. Visual data were categorised by image type, its source and the subject of the image. Then the visual and verbal data were combined and interpreted thematically by each action team so as to reveal the messages and meanings they communicated. At the present time the data and findings from each country are being synthesised and compared to reveal similarities and differences.

Expected Outcomes

Previous studies of children’s national, regional and European identity have tended to employ interviews and/or questionnaires. The visual data collected in this study will augment this knowledge by engaging with children’s personal and collective associations with Europe in ways that are often difficult for them to express in words, particularly those students who are not living in their home country. The presentation will show examples from the data base of visual images children in the six countries selected to represent their thoughts and feelings about Europe. They will constitute research evidence for some tentative conclusions about the kinds of identifications they hold (geographical, political, cultural, ethnic etc); and (ii) visual modalities that might facilitate expression reflection and construction of collective identifications within the European context in schools. Additionally it will highlight methodological issues arising while the team were collecting and analyzing visual data in this cross national research.

References

Axia, G .; Bremner, J.G.; Deluca, P. & Anderson, G. (1998) Children drawing Europe: The effect of nationality age and teaching, British Journal of Developmental Psychology (16) 423-437. Barett M (2007) Children’s Knowledge Beliefs and Feelings About Nation and National Groups. Hove: Psychology Press Barret M and Buchanan–Barrow E (eds) 2007 Childrens Understanding of Society Routledge London Barrett,T (1999) ‘Criticizing Art: Understanding the Contemporary’, New York: McGraw Hill Humanities Blandy, D and Congdon K (1987) Art in a Democracy. New York Teachers College Press Brooks, C. (2004) Young peoples’ understanding and representation of place across Europe. In Kent A and Powell, A. (Eds) Geography and Citizenship Education: Research Perspectives. London: Institute of Education, University of London. Citizenship and Europe An introduction http://wweureo.org/Geog_Cit/what_ is _citz/docs/Citizenship%20Europe.ppt Convery, A. (1997) Pupils’ Perceptions of Europe. London: Casell Educational Series. Fulková, M. (2006) Kydyž se žekne. Identita v moderním a postmoderním kontextu. Výtvarná výchova 46,č, 2, str. 8-11. Giddens, A. (2003) Modernity and identity revisited. ESRC Identities and Social Action Research Programme Launch, London: Royal Society of Arts. 14 April Houser, N 2005 Art aesthetics and citizenship education. Democracy as experience in a postmodern world, Theory and Research in Social Education33 (I) 45-52 Kress,G. & VanLeeuven,T . (2001) Multimodal discourse: The modes and media of contemporary communication London: Arnold Halrcha J ?? Images perceptions and questions: Europe through the eyes of children in England (On line search children’s perceptions of Europe) Kerr. D. (2004) Education for European Citizenship Council of Europe Report of Regional Studies of Citizenship and Europe.Strasbourg Council of Europe. Mason, R. (2008) Contemporary art as a site for identity research in Mason and Eca (Eds) International Dialogues in Visual Culture, Education and Art Bristol: Intellect Books pp? Matorosso, F. (1997) Use Ornament? The Social Impact of Participation in the Arts.:?? Moura, A. e Cachadinha, E. (2007) A arte como instrumento de educação social e de desenvolvimento cívico. In Oliveira M (Ed) Arte Educação e Cultura. São Paulo ( Bauru) SP-Editora Edusc, pp 197-214. Nasman, E. & Ross, A. (Eds) (2002) Children’s Understanding in the New Europe. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books. Painter, J. ?? Multi-level citizenship Identity and regions in contemporary Europe In Anderson J Ed Transnational democracy. London: Routledge. Papoulia-Tzelepe, O.; Hegstrup, S. & Ross, A. (Eds) (2005) Emerging Identities among Young Children: European Issues. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books. Ross, A. (2008) A European Education: Citizenship Identities and Young People.. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books. Steers, J. (2002) The curriculum, cultural identity and creativity. Rotterdam: Cultuurnetwerk Nederland.

Author Information

Rachel Mason

Roehampton University, London

Education

London

Anabela Moura

Escola Superior de Educacao Viana do Castelo Portugal

Marie Fulkova

Univerzita Karlova Prague Czech Republic

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