News and Media
Learning, Connecting and Communicating Through Art: The Radical Idea of Art as a Visual Language
Article Source: https://www.campaustralia.com.au/blog/learning-connecting-and-communicating-through-art-the-radical-idea-of-art-as-a-visual-language
“All people – and I mean scholars, researchers and teachers, who in any place have set themselves to study children seriously – have ended up by discovering not so much the limits and weaknesses of children but rather their surprising and extraordinary strengths and capabilities linked with an inexhaustible need for expression and realisation” (Malaguzzi, 1998, p.78).
The quote above, written by one of the foundational teachers from the world-renowned educational project in Reggio Emilia in Italy, has inspired my 30+ year career as a teacher, researcher and academic and my passion for arts education. My research focuses on the visual arts skills, knowledge and self-efficacy of the adults who teach and care for children. I aim to better understand educators’ confidence to plan for and implement quality visual arts experiences with children so that children can be well supported to engage in, make meaning and communicate through rich visual arts experiences. My research confirms that even though educators generally believe visual arts experiences are educationally valuable, children potentially miss out on opportunities to express their ideas through the ‘languages’ of visual arts when the adults in their lives lack the confidence and knowledge required to support them (Lindsay, 2016, 2021).
