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Negotiating grasp : embodied experience with three-dimensional materials and the negotiation of meaning in early childhood education

Fredriksen, Biljana C.
Book, Doctoral thesis, Peer reviewed
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URI
http://hdl.handle.net/11250/93056
Date
2011
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  • Doktoravhandlinger / Doctoral theses [64]
Original version
Fredriksen, Biljana C. (2011). Negotiating grasp: embodied experience with three-dimensional materials and the negotiation of meaning in early childhood education. [Oslo]: Oslo School of Architecture and Design.  
Abstract
Abstract:

Recent international acknowledgement of young children as competent active

individuals raises questions about what their competences are, and what

significance embodiment has for their learning. This thesis has two primary

objectives: 1) to explore and clarify young children’s competences (ages 3-5),

and 2) to uncover how children negotiate meaning through embodied

experiences with physical and social environments.

Building on the theories of John Dewey, Elliot Eisner and Arthur Efland, this

thesis adopts an understanding that cognition is closely related to children’s

experience with 3D-materials’ affordances and resistance. More specifically,

this thesis examines what happens during aesthetic learning processes when

children experience and explore materials’ affordances and resistance

through art-based activities in early childhood educational contexts.

This empirical, interactionist study was conducted in one Norwegian early

childhood education centre, inspired by arts-based educational research and

ART-ography. As such, the researcher gained access to the complex

processes of children’s experiencing and expressing through interactions with

children during visual art activities with 3D-materials. Two children took part

in each of the activities and a total of nine educational contexts (cases) were

filmed and analyzed. The data were analyzed using cross-case methods, and

five selected cases were analyzed contextually. The software NVivo was

used, and multiple case study methods were applied throughout the crosscase

analysis.

The following four findings emerged from the cross-case analysis:

1. Through their embodied experiences and physical activities the

children explored the 3D-materials’ qualities, simultaneously as they

explored the possibilities of their own bodies.

2. The embodied experiences and verbal language mutually supported

each other. The children connected earlier and new experiences

through imagination and metaphor development, and negotiated

personal meanings.

3. The materials’ resistance initiated problem-solving activities and

engaged creativity. Unique solutions and new meanings emerged in

form of micro-discoveries.

4. What was possible to learn was highly dependent on the quality of

inter-subjective relations between the teacher and the children. The

researcher’s choices of materials and tools structured what was

possible to negotiate meanings about, but her attitudes (expressed

though body language, tone of voice etc.) were as important.

The close focus on children’s actions and expressions lead to an insight that

negotiation of meaning is a complex process that interweaves material,

individual, and social phenomena, and where imagination, creativity, and

metaphor play essential roles. The contextual analysis uncovered materials’

resistance as a significant source of motivation to self-initiated problem

solving. The thesis discusses young children’s imaginative connections

between past and present experiences and suggests that their microdiscoveries

are the essence of creativity.

The findings in this thesis contribute to understanding children’s holistic

learning strategies and exemplify how aesthetic experiences can support

cognitive activities. The thesis promotes a holistic view on learning, but also

problematizes the tensions between the embodied and linguistic nature of

learning, which is a significant tension in many educational systems. It

further suggests that the present international educational testing race

demands extensive discussions about what quality of education is, how it is

measured, and what quality of early childhood- and school education should

be.
Publisher
Oslo School of Architecture and Design
Series
CON-TEXT / Thesis;50

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