Children’s participation in documentation processes in local outdoor spaces

Abstract

This article describes a study that aimed to investigate how children perform and document Land Art in local places near their kindergarten and the visualization of their experiences through their drawings back in the kindergarten. Documentation is important for a kindergarten’s planning and evaluation of pedagogical practices and activities. Studies have shown that using visual methods, such as drawings and photographs created by children themselves, to provide information related to children’s perspectives, actions and attitudes is a way for children to communicate and make meaning of their experiences. Encounters with the natural world through the performance of Land Art offer children the opportunity to directly sense, interact with and know ‘the world of materials’. Children’s interactions correspond with natural materials and the environment. Participatory observation was used, following a group of twelve children, aged four and five years in a year’s period to their trips near a shoreline. Data consists of photographs, voice recordings, video, drawings, and narratives to explore ways children interact with and make meaning of place by performing Land Art. The results show that children’s photographs and drawings are ways to ‘communicate’ with their experiences and engage with, pay attention to and visualize their perspectives. The findings might have implications for new approaches to documenting children’s voices and experiences through performing Land Art and drawings.