Please Sit Down: Children’s Creative Expression within the Boundaries of a Structured Early Childhood Education Classroom

Abstract

The early childhood education classroom space is intrinsic to developing localized youth culture. Through a four-month-long qualitative research project in a space that focused on meeting the most rudimentary child needs due to staffing and fund restrictions, young children’s creativity through the arts was stunted. In a classroom setting focused on structure and strict routine at the forefront, children’s creative expression was observed through independent action and creative twists on order, instead of through activities deliberately designed to nurture creativity and expression. Since the children at the site did not seem to regularly participate in any kind of art making, or unstructured creative expression, my focus instead became the fundamentals of creativity and how young children in the classroom demonstrated choice making and agency. The objective of this study was how to understand the space from a child-centered approach to better project how to include art making, creative education, and creative expression within early childhood education sites that do not currently employ it in their curriculum. This chapter aims to situate how young children created a culture of creative expression within the boundaries of a structured early education classroom when top-down teacher interaction was at a minimum, and open-ended, non-directive materials were provided.

Citation

Martin, K. (2020), "Please Sit Down: Children’s Creative Expression within the Boundaries of a Structured Early Childhood Education Classroom", Sriskandarajah, A. and Bass, L.E. (Ed.) Rethinking Young People’s Lives Through Space and Place (Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, Vol. 26), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 139-154. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1537-466120200000026009