Collaborative cognition: Co-creating children’s artwork in an educational context

Abstract

Based on a wider research project which critiqued the centricity of cognitivism in research investigating children’s drawings this article explores the relationship between social interaction and materiality. Case studies are presented to systematically analyse a range of naturalistic data collected from art classes held in two Staffordshire primary schools. Use of a multi-level analysis demonstrates the ways in which materiality (space, tools, and materials) work as enabling constraints which shape discursive interaction. Concurrently, photographs of artwork created in the lesson examine how interaction guides the creation of material objects—child art. The analysis demonstrates that the creation of child art is not an individual endeavour and questions the assumption that artwork is a mirror to the child’s mind. Instead, it is inextricably bound to the discursive and material contexts it is created in. Thus, ethnography is presented as a useful tool for examining interactions between discursive and material practices.