This article was downloaded by: [University of Kent]On: 05 November 2014, At: 10:06Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

International Journal of Early YearsEducationPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ciey20

What mothers do: everyday routinesand rituals and their impact uponyoung children’s use of drawing formeaning makingKathy Ring aa York St John College , UKPublished online: 22 Jan 2007.

To cite this article: Kathy Ring (2006) What mothers do: everyday routines and rituals and theirimpact upon young children’s use of drawing for meaning making, International Journal of EarlyYears Education, 14:1, 63-84, DOI: 10.1080/09669760500446416

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09669760500446416

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as tothe accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Contentshould not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sourcesof information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoeveror howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to orarising out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

International Journal of Early Years EducationVol. 14, No. 1, March 2006, pp. 63–84

ISSN 0966-9760 (print)/ISSN 1469-8463 (online)/06/010063–22© 2006 Taylor & FrancisDOI: 10.1080/09669760500446416

What mothers do: everyday routines and rituals and their impact upon young children’s use of drawing for meaning making

Kathy Ring*York St John College, UKTaylor and Francis LtdCIEY_A_144624.sgm10.1080/09669760500446416International Journal of Early Years Education0966-9760 (print)/1469-8463 (online)Original Article2006Taylor & Francis141000000March 2006KathyRingk.ring@yorksj.ac.uk

This paper draws upon evidence from a three-year longitudinal study of young children drawingacross home, pre-school and school. The study shows how the belief systems of significant adultsand more able peers/siblings impact upon the child’s access to, use of and beliefs about drawing.Concentrating upon the children when in the Foundation Stage (aged between three and five), thepaper highlights:

● the importance of the mother’s role in organizing the home space, the child’s time and his orher access to materials;

● gendered responses to an environment in which the mother is a constant presence in compari-son with the limited presence of the father.

Introduction

There has been little research conducted which considers the socio-cultural contextin which children use drawing as a tool for making meaning. The tradition of collect-ing and analysing children’s drawings has been dominated, in general, by the field ofdevelopmental psychology. This has mostly involved cross-sectional analyses inorder to develop stage theories of drawing development (Kellogg, 1969; Lowenfeld& Brittain, 1982) or to make links between early figure drawings and measurementsof intelligence (Goodenough, 1926; Harris, 1963). In comparison with researchstudies which focus upon language and literacy development (e.g. Tizard & Hughes,1984; Wells, 1986), little is known about the impact of the home context upon achild’s use of drawing, particularly over any length of time.

*York St John College, School of Education and Theology, Lord Mayor’s Walk, York Y031 7EX,UK. Email: K.Ring@yorksj.ac.uk

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14

64 K. Ring

This paper draws upon data collected as part of a small, qualitative researchproject which took a socio-cultural approach to the study of seven young children’smeaning making through drawing across home, pre-school and school settings.The data were collected between September 1998 and November 2001. Evidenceused to support the analysis and interpretation of data within this paper comesfrom selectively interrogating a much larger data set. The evidence selected is fromthe first year of the study, when all the children were aged between three and fiveyears. In concentrating upon the routines and rituals within the home context thepaper highlights, firstly, the impact upon children’s use of drawing of the role takenby the mother in organizing the home space, the child’s time and his or her accessto materials and, secondly, children’s gendered responses to an environment inwhich the mother is a constant presence in comparison with the limited presenceof the father.

Theoretical framework

Taking a socio-cultural approach to the study of young children’s drawing impliesthat understanding the context in which children draw is the point of departure forunderstanding their drawing actions. Socio-cultural theory, originating from thework of Vygotsky (1978) and developed by, for example, Wells (1986) and Bruner(1996), emphasizes the social origins of mental functioning whereby ways of think-ing are modelled in social relations and activities, before becoming internalized andavailable for more mental thought. Socio-cultural theory recognizes the limits of anindividually focused version of developmental psychology, which has led to anunderstanding of the child developing in regular predictable patterns or stages(Burman, 2001; Edwards, 2004). In contrast to stage theory, it argues for anacceptance of the situated nature of young children’s learning where the context is‘something that shapes and is shaped by those who participate in it’ (Edwards,2004, p. 86).

Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) original ecological model of child development providesa conceptual framework for understanding how young children are situated as learn-ers by the societies in which they live. His framework recognizes the complex interre-lationship that exists between children, parents, educators, community groups andpolicy makers. In relation to research about young children’s drawings, however,Bronfenbrenner’s ‘updated’ model (Bronfenbrenner & Ceci, 1994, p. 571; Smith,2002) (see Figure 1) enables both sociological and psychological issues to bebrought together. The inclusion of the child as a central ‘biosystem’ acknowledgesthe centrality of psychological thinking whilst recognizing that genetic material doesnot produce finished traits but rather interacts with environmental experience indetermining developmental outcomes. It importantly takes account of the individu-ality of new meaning, externalized and constructed by the child within and acrosssocio-cultural settings and responsive over time to fluctuations in a child’s self-esteem, motivations and biological development. It draws attention to particularpatterns of activity, roles, interpersonal relationships and physical features of the

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14

What mothers do 65

environment that impact upon children’s meaning making and which, in turn, facili-tate or constrain their drawing behaviours.Figure 1. An ecological perspective (the child in context), adapted from Bronfenbrenner (1979), Bronfenbrenner and Ceci (1994) and Smith (2002)From a socio-cultural perspective the relationship between adult and child has beenseen as ‘guided reinvention of knowledge’ (Wells, 1986), ‘negotiation of shared under-standing’ (Trevarthern, 1995) or ‘co-construction of meaning’ (Schaffer, 1996). Allare terms which emphasize children not as passive recipients but as interpreting thebehaviour, demands and expectations of adults and other children as they co-constructa repertoire of ways of acting and behaving (Dunn, 1988) and actively select and shapetheir own environment (Schaffer, 1996). The term ‘meaning making’ is used exten-sively by socio-culturalists when considering the child as a learner. Meanings, forBruner (1996, p. 3), ‘have their origins and their significance in the culture in whichthey are created’. Material artefacts, language and actions are seen by Edwards (2004,p. 89) as carrying ‘a multiplicity of potential meanings which are revealed in the inter-actions they call forth’. She sees meaning making as ‘located within the practices whichmake up an activity and in the system in which the activity occurs’.

Given the lack of research about young children’s use of drawing as meaningmaking, the seminal work of Wells (1986) remains influential. His findings have ledto the growing interest in the concept of ‘meaning making’ across home and educa-tional settings within the field of early language and literacy acquisition. His longi-tudinal study of the language development of 32 pre-schoolers shows children,from birth, learning to be literate by responding to models of speech, reading andwriting that surround them in communities of practice, through interaction withmore experienced others. Wells acknowledges the repetitiveness of the youngchild’s everyday routines and rituals in the home context as a striking feature ofcommonality across all families in his study. He also recognizes, however, the

Figure 1. An ecological perspective (the child in context), adapted from Bronfenbrenner (1979), Bronfenbrenner and Ceci (1994) and Smith (2002)

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14

66 K. Ring

individuality of each child’s experiences and their need to actively make sense ofthem in their own way. He sees ‘storying’ as significant, not only as the way inwhich the mind constructs a mental model of the world but also as a way the child,through a ‘distillation of shared stories’ made up of ‘narratives heard and told, read,or seen enacted in drama or news on the television’ (Wells, 1986, p. 196), canenter a shared world.

Tizard and Hughes’ (1984) observational study of 30 girls across home and schoolsettings, all aged within three months of their fourth birthday, gives further evidenceof the negotiation of shared understanding between people as they constantly actupon and change the world. Of significance for this paper is the recognition byTizard and Hughes of the importance of the extensive range of activities that takeplace in the home, the sharing of a common life, both past and future, and the closeintense relationship between mother and daughter which is based upon ‘deeplyrooted habits’. Tizard and Hughes see learning, for the child, to be embedded in acontext of great meaning where the key adult understands the child and is able tohelp the child make sense of experience.

Recently the work of Dyson (1993), Kress (1997) and Pahl (1999, 2001), has ledto a greater consideration of drawing activity within studies of literacy development.Dyson’s (1993) analysis of children’s use of symbol systems draws upon small-scalestudies of children’s emergent literacy within the American kindergarten system.Her analysis places emphasis upon the situated nature of drawing within a contin-uum of symbolic systems used by young children and builds upon the close relation-ship between narrative, play and art recognized by Vygotsky (Lindqvist, 2001).Figure 2, which sets out Dyson’s analysis diagrammatically, highlights a pattern ofmeaning making which is sequential, cumulative and culturally shaped.Figure 2. The situated nature of drawing within a continuum of children’s use of symbol systems (developed from Dyson, 1993)

APPROX 6YEARS

The child begins to use writing as a mediator, i.e. writing assumessome of the representational and social work of movement, play andtalk

The child begins to use drawing asa mediator, i.e. drawing assumessome of the representational andsocial work of movement, play andtalk

The emergence of writing as aprop or supplement to othersymbolic tools, e.g. drawing

The emergence of drawing as a prop or supplement to other symbolictools, e.g. gesture and speech, sometimes combined in social play

The shaping of symbolic behaviour by social activity

BIRTH Initial exploratory behaviour

Figure 2. The situated nature of drawing within a continuum of children’s use of symbol systems (developed from Dyson, 1993)

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14

What mothers do 67

Kress (1997) innovatively approaches emerging literacy from the field of semiot-ics. Moving away from a construct of children’s literacy that he perceives as inevita-bly dependent upon the written word, he argues for a much wider definition of theterm literacy. He importantly recognizes drawing as ‘sign making’ and as part ofyoung children’s ‘fundamental disposition towards multi-modal forms of text andmeaning making’ (Kress, 1997, p. 154), i.e. continually making new signs in a vari-ety of forms through the interaction of their mind and body with the environment.From his observational study of his own young children in the home context Kresssees an underlying coherence in children’s meaning making as they decode themeanings of the variety of stimuli with which they are bombarded within their every-day environments, both static (pictures, signs, posters) and moving (TV, video,computer imagery). As they move fluently between three-dimensional and two-dimensional representation he draws attention to the dynamic interrelation of theresources available for making meaning and the maker’s ‘shifting interest’ (Kress,1997, p. 22). Household objects, ‘cut-outs’ and drawings become modes for youngchildren’s ‘transformational’ meaning making as they make sense of the world. Incommon with Wells’ understanding of children’s narratives as constructs of a ‘distil-lation of shared stories’ (1986, p. 196), Kress (1997) recognizes that between theages of four and seven, when writing is not yet controlled, children’s narratives are

… hybrid things with language used to indicate action and narrative sequence, and draw-ing used to represent, to display, the people and objects in the story. (Kress, 1997, p. 24)

Pahl (2002a, p. 146) develops Kress’s understanding of children as multi-modal textmakers. For Pahl, the term ‘meaning making’ incorporates children’s visual and oraltexts, narratives, both written and spoken, and artefacts including drawing, modelsand collage (Pahl, 1999). Her ethnographic study of three boys aged between fiveand eight considers the status of children’s multi-modal texts within their homecontexts. Pahl feels that these texts occupy ‘a contested space’ which lies on ‘the cuspof mess and tidiness’ and where ‘symbolic and actual narratives, home meanings andmetaphors and figured and refigured worlds’ coexist (Pahl, 2002a, p. 146).

In recognizing that in the home context both parent and child are connected tothe meaning-making process as they weave in and out of one another’s space, Pahldraws on Bernstein’s (1977) understanding that ways of doing and structuringthings in families can be related to the way in which space is organized. She paysattention to how children’s meaning making moves between ‘bedroom floor to livingroom floor’ and in doing so takes in ‘materials as diverse as prayer beads, paper,glue, modelling material and card’ as well as the cultural resources of stories andnarrative (Pahl, 2002a, p. 147). Pahl (2002a) feels that long-running and sometimeshidden family histories profoundly shape children’s meaning making and that theseongoing narratives provide an internal and external structure to what she terms chil-dren’s ‘world making’ (2001, p. 7). These narrative worlds are recognized by Pahl(2002a, p. 146) as belonging to an ‘ephemeral space, often unrecognised by adults’and generally subsumed by parents under the general heading of play. As such theyoften remain unrecorded.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14

68 K. Ring

Matthews (1998, p. 106), an artist and art educator, supports Kress and Pahl intheir recognition of the importance of the environment in encouraging early meaningmaking. Within his detailed longitudinal study of his own young children drawing inthe home context, he sees early representational action as being ‘very sensitive toinitial conditions’. He recognizes that drawing is influenced by the ‘multiplicity ofdifferent kinds of encounter’ children have, by chance, with objects and situationsand the ‘macro’ and ‘micro’ choices and decisions they make as they investigateobjects and make rapid decisions about ‘actions performed upon materials’. Theaction representations that young children make of their own body movements andthe sounds and movements of objects around them are seen by Matthews to be non-linear systems of representation and expression, ‘located within a family of expres-sive and symbolic actions used fluently by children between three and four years ofage’ (Matthews, 1999, p. 49). Matthews emphasizes the profound effect upon thechild of the attitudes and responses of surrounding people and the crucialinteraction between ‘what is unfolding in the child and what is available within theenvironment’ (Matthews, 1994).

Although little significance would seem to have been placed upon genderedrelationships within the previous studies (i.e. Tizard & Hughes, 1984; Wells, 1986;Matthews, 1994; Kress, 1997; Pahl, 2002b), the possibility of differing parentingpractices in relation to boys and girls is raised in the findings of the EffectiveProvision of Pre-School Education Project (EPPE) (Sammons et al., 2002, p. vii). Inrelation to cognitive progress the report states:

… on average the home learning environment and care of boys were somewhat lowerthan those of girls, suggesting possible gender differences in parenting practices.

… as a group girls had higher attainments at entry to pre-school in most areas studied inthe (EPPE) project … (Sammons et al., 2002, p. vii)

It is recognized (Bailey, 1993; Skelton & Hall, 2001) that, within the homecontext, socializing agents, such as the number of adult males and females in theirlives and the roles they model, and the impact of TV and other media images, havea strong effect on children as they construct understanding of themselves asgendered beings. Whilst children seek evidence of what it means to be a boy orgirl, a man or woman, by relying on characteristics such as ‘differing physicalhabits, clothing and behavioural play patterns’, adults are seen to give gender-specific reinforcement through verbal interactions, physical handling, disciplinarymeasures and clothing and toy selection (Bailey, 1993, pp. 117–118). It is to beexpected, therefore, that children’s drawings, as texts that reflect ‘life as it is lived’(Pahl, 2002b), would give evidence of their experience of what it is to be a boy orgirl, man or woman.

Research design

The aim of the research project (Ring, 2003; Anning & Ring, 2004) was to explorethe impact of the cultural contexts and the views and beliefs of significant others

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14

What mothers do 69

across both home and pre-school/school settings upon the young child’s meaningmaking through drawing, model making and small figure play. The present articlefocuses upon the collection and analysis of data in the home context during the firstyear of the study.

A qualitative, interpretive and emergent approach was taken to the researchdesign. The validity of the study rested on gathering ‘field-sensitive’ evidence withthe aim of offering ‘as sound a representation of the field of study as the researchmethods allow’. The use of case studies allowed a variety of data sources to build ‘arobust picture of events through a process of triangulation’ and enabled thecomplexities and interrelationships of the situated nature of the children’s use ofdrawing to be revealed (Edwards, 2001, p. 124). The seven case studies provided adetailed snapshot of each of the seven participant children using drawing for mean-ing making across the socio-cultural contexts of home, pre-school and school.Parents and practitioners collected evidence of the children’s meaning makingthrough the month of October, each year, for three years. The researcher collecteddata each year across home and educational settings over a two-month period, whichbegan half way through the month of September. Given the necessity of a smallsample, in order for the research to be feasible, the emphasis within the project wason particularization, rather than generalization. Attention is drawn, however, withinthis paper to particular commonalities across the cases in respect of the role of themother within the home context.

Participants

Purposive sampling was used to identify one boy and one girl in each of threesettings within two Local Education Authorities in the North of England. Thesesettings were chosen firstly because they represented the range of provision availablefor four year olds in England and secondly because the researcher had either devel-oped a good working relationship with the key practitioner in another aspect of herwork or because the setting had already been involved in a previous researchproject. The children who took part in the research project were to be those nearestto four years old at the start of the school year. In one setting, however, the practi-tioner had already gained permission from parents for two boys to take part; there-fore the extra boy was retained. In another setting the manager was concernedabout the ability of parents to be able to fulfil the research requirements, withoutadditional stress being placed upon some very difficult home circumstances. ‘Abilityto cope’ therefore became a further criterion for selection and led to the inclusion ofyounger children within the sample. At the start of the study the children’s agestherefore ranged between three years and five years. All the practitioners (teachersand nursery nurses) were female. Although mothers and fathers of all the childrenwere included in all correspondence with parents, it was the mothers who wereapproached by practitioners to take part in the project, as they were in daily verbalcontact with the pre-school and school settings. Table 1 lists the characteristics ofthe seven children.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14

70 K. RingT

able

1.

Cha

ract

eris

tics

of

the

seve

n ch

ildre

n

Chi

ld

Luk

eD

onna

Jake

Sim

onH

olly

Edw

ard

Lia

nne

Age

3 ye

ars

0 m

onth

s3

year

s 8

mon

ths

4 ye

ars

0 m

onth

s4

year

s 1

mon

th4

year

s 6

mon

ths

4 ye

ars

9 m

onth

s5

year

s 0

mon

ths

Sib

lings

One

you

nger

br

othe

rO

nly

child

One

old

er s

iste

rO

ne o

lder

sis

ter

One

you

nger

br

othe

r an

d si

ster

One

old

er

sist

erO

ne o

lder

bro

ther

Occ

upat

ion

of m

othe

rP

art-

tim

e su

perm

arke

t ch

ecko

ut o

pera

tor

Ful

l-ti

me

mot

her

(pre

viou

sly

bar

wor

ker)

Par

t-ti

me

liter

acy

supp

ort

teac

her

Ful

l-ti

me

mot

her

(pre

viou

sly

radi

ogra

pher

)

Ful

l-ti

me

mot

her

(pre

viou

sly

nurs

ery

assi

stan

t an

d na

nny)

Che

ckou

t op

erat

orC

lass

room

ass

ista

nt

in s

choo

l att

ende

d by

Lia

nne

Occ

upat

ion

of f

athe

rL

ong-

dist

ance

lo

rry

driv

erS

caff

olde

rR

efra

ctor

y en

gine

erS

ales

man

(M

otor

fac

tors

)P

roce

ss o

pera

tor i

n ch

emic

al in

dust

ryE

ngin

eer

Ski

lled

tech

nica

l w

orke

rS

etti

ng

atte

nded

Day

-car

e se

ttin

g (c

alle

d a

Fam

ily

Cen

tre)

Nur

sery

cla

ss o

f in

fant

sch

ool

Par

alle

l rec

epti

on c

lass

es o

f pr

imar

y sc

hool

Loc

atio

n of

se

ttin

gIn

ner-

city

are

a ch

arac

teri

zed

by

high

leve

ls o

f po

vert

y,

unem

ploy

men

t an

d po

or-q

ualit

y co

unci

l hou

sing

Lon

g-es

tabl

ishe

d sc

hool

on

the

outs

kirt

s of

a c

ity

but

clas

sed

as ‘i

nner

cit

y’. H

ousi

ng p

redo

min

antl

y pr

ivat

e w

ith

larg

e ol

der

prop

erti

es b

eing

con

vert

ed b

y yo

ung

fam

ilies

. Man

y es

tabl

ishe

d lo

cal f

amili

es. C

omm

unit

y m

ade

up o

f a m

ixtu

re o

f pro

fess

iona

ls, s

kille

d w

orke

rs a

nd

thos

e w

orki

ng in

ser

vice

indu

stri

es. T

wen

ty-f

ive

per

cent

of

chi

ldre

n ar

e of

eth

nic

min

orit

y

Inne

r su

burb

s of

larg

e ci

ty. N

ewly

bu

ilt s

choo

l in

a m

ixed

pri

vate

and

co

unci

l hou

se a

rea.

Com

mun

ity

mad

e up

of m

ainl

y yo

ung

fam

ilies

w

ith

pare

nts

in s

kille

d w

ork

or

serv

ice

indu

stri

es

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14

What mothers do 71

Data collection

There were three primary sources of data collection used in the home context duringthe first year of the study: scrapbooks of collected and annotated drawings andphotographs; semi-structured interviews; and observations.

Given the visual focus of the study, it was appropriate for the collection of imagesto be a key feature of the research design. Parents and practitioners were providedwith both a scrapbook and an instant camera and asked to collect evidence of anychild-initiated meaning making that occurred across the one-month data collectionperiod. They were asked to annotate any collected drawings and photographicimages with direct quotes from the child as well as their own interpretations of thepurpose and meaning of the child’s activity and the context in which meaning wasconstructed. Although the instructions and the process of keeping the booklets werekept as simple as possible, it was anticipated and accepted that participants woulddiffer in their ability to collect data consistently.

Informed by Pahl’s (1999) understanding of young children’s drawings and three-dimensional models/arrangements of materials as narratives or texts, through whichthey communicate their understanding of their world, the drawings and photographscollected were used within the research project as a key way of conveying the ‘voice’of the child. Unusually the booklets served a dual purpose, as both a data source andalso as a vehicle for eliciting the views of participants, both children and adults.

Hall (1997, p. 9) emphasizes that research using visual images is bound to beinterpretive given that ‘there is no single or “correct” answer to the question “Whatdoes this image mean?” or “What is this image saying?”’ The validity of the meaningof the drawings was strengthened within the study in two ways. Firstly, by seekingmeaning across a series of drawings completed by an individual over a period of time(Cox, 1997) and, secondly, by including detailed contextual evidence alongside theimages. The use of words alongside an image is seen by Collier (2001, p. 38) to makethe image ‘analytically intelligible’ and a reliable source of cultural information, andby Prosser (1998, p. 1) to ‘enhance understanding of the human condition’.

The focus of the research project was made clear to all the participants by theresearcher and the children came to recognize the researcher as ‘the lady who isinterested in your drawings and what you play with’. The use of visual imagery,particularly circulated as electronic rather than hard copy, is a sensitive issue inrelation to the meaning of anonymity, informed consent and children’s rights asparticipants in research. This is particularly true in relation to photographs in whichchildren might be identified. Permission from both children and parents for the useof such images was requested and gained and the passing of time has given addi-tional anonymity to the children, given the rapid developmental changes that willhave already taken place.

The second primary source of data was the semi-structured interview. An initialinterview was conducted with each mother in the home context, prior to theirinvolvement in collecting data for the scrapbooks. The focus of the interview was thedaily routines within the home, including how space was organized and the child’s

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14

72 K. Ring

access, use and preference for particular materials when playing. A second interviewwas conducted following completion of the scrapbooks, which utilized the collectedevidence of children’s activities as a stimulus for dialogue.

The ethical sensitivity of working with parents in their home contexts was recog-nized within the research design. The researcher, in acknowledging the personal andmoral relationships she was entering into with the participants, worked hard to buildrelationships with participants, both adults and children, which were not character-ized by ‘disparities of power and status’ (BSA, 2002, p. 3). As fathers were rarelyavailable at the times chosen by the families for the interviews to take place, theresearcher drew upon her understanding of young children as a mother, as well asan educator, in order to co-construct understanding and develop rapport with themothers. Through the commonality of shared experience the researcher movednearer to Kvale’s (1996, p. 30) understanding of an interview as a specific form ofconversation or ‘inter-view’ where the interviewer and the interviewee act in relationto each other and reciprocally influence each other. As recognized by Kvale, this wasan opportunity for the mothers, as interviewees, to have the sole attention ofsomeone who was interested in, sensitive towards, and sought to understand as wellas possible, another’s experiences and views on a subject (Kvale, 1996, p. 36). Inthis case the shared interest was in the individuality of their child’s actions anddevelopment.

The researcher was aware, throughout the collection and analysis of interviewdata, of the impact of her own ‘values, interests and beliefs that might interfere withjustice and fairness in the research endeavour’ (Grieshaber, 2001, p. 144). Theemphasis upon gaining ‘thick description’ (Geertz, 1983) and of validating both theinterviewee’s meaning and the interviewer’s interpretation was reflected in the inclu-sion within interview schedules of transcriptions and tentative codings of previousinterview data. These were used as prompts for further discussion and enabled theinterviewees to revisit, authenticate and develop their own values, beliefs and under-standings.

The final primary source of data collection within the home context was observa-tion of the child. It was recognized from the outset of the study that there was atension between the importance of high-quality observational evidence within thecase study and the ethical sensitivity of gaining evidence from young children withinthe home. It was expected that the researcher would not be a background observerduring home visits but would be foregrounded as a ‘visitor’ and, as such, would beinvolved in interaction with the mother and child. Observations were thereforerecorded in the form of field notes, written immediately after each visit. Althoughtwo visits were planned to each of the home contexts when the child was present,only one visit of approximately 40 minutes actually took place. This visit was veryuseful in that in all cases the child was observed in context, using play materials andinvolved in interaction with his or her mother. In most cases the child was veryhappy to show the researcher where he or she played and where materials werestored. Going through this process more that once seemed, however, to put bothmother and child under unnecessary pressure, given that behaviours were most

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14

What mothers do 73

probably distorted by the researcher’s presence. Observational data, collected ontwo visits to the pre-school and school settings, were therefore more detailed incomparison, given the researcher’s deliberate low-key presence.

Greater emphasis across the subsequent years of the study was placed upon devel-oping techniques for talking with children about their drawings and using digitalimages to keep a visual record of the contexts in which the drawings/images werecollected.

Data analysis

The analysis was overall data driven, taking the children’s activities as the startingpoint. The initial influence of the researcher’s beliefs about the focus of the studymust be recognized, however. The validity of Kress’s (1997) analysis of his own chil-dren as meaning makers and users of drawing was recognized by the researcher inrelation to her own childhood experiences of drawing, and her experiences of ‘settingout’ environments for young children as an early years teacher and as a mother.‘Combing the evidence’ (Edwards, 2001, p. 132) resulted in category labels beingassigned to images, their accompanying narratives and to the transcribed interviews.Following the first phase of data collection, these categories put the children’s draw-ings to the fore. These initial categories were gradually subsumed, however, underbroader headings. This gave a greater focus to the contextual characteristics of thedrawing episodes and made the growing complexity of the process of data analysismore manageable. As the research progressed there was a need to constantly refer-ence backwards and forwards between the detail of an individual case and the casesas a whole. Scanning key images for each child, across one phase, onto one pageensured that the visual images remained central to the analysis. The final domainsfor the analytical framework were:

● observed/recorded child behaviours;● distinctive features of the environment;● values and beliefs of significant others;● adult styles of interaction;● adult views of the children’s behaviours;● children’s views of their behaviours.

Across the research project further triangulation was achieved via the involvement ofanother experienced researcher. This was particularly important in relation to theanalysis of data.

The importance of a mother’s routines and rituals for the child’s meaning making within the home context

Evidence of the impact upon children’s drawing behaviours of the socio-culturalcontext of the home and the psychological features of children’s relationships withsignificant others was characterized by its complexity and its individuality.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14

74 K. Ring

It was evident that the ability of the seven children in the study to create newmeaning, as they combined and transformed their thoughts and ideas throughinteraction with their home environment, was supported by the recognition of theimportance of playfulness by ‘more able others’. Whilst fathers’ infrequent involve-ment in their children’s play was usually characterized by direct intervention or co-construction, the mother’s role in structuring meaning making through the ‘layingdown’ of rites, routines and rituals had particular influence upon the child’s develop-ment of a playful disposition and a mastery orientation towards meaning making.

The mother’s role included her tolerance of what Pahl calls ‘purposeful mess’(1999, p. 104), her organization of space and time, her control over the availabilityof cultural objects and artefacts, including the watching of television and videos,and, importantly, her recognition of children’s need to have some time relatively freefrom adult direction. The mothers in the study who accepted and encouraged achild’s imaginative interweaving of reality and myth, answering his or her questionswith warmth and good humour and responding uncritically to the products of theirmeaning making, encouraged their child to experiment and communicate openlywhilst de-emphasizing the need for him or her to be perfect. Within the study amother supporting a playful approach to meaning making led, in relation to drawing,to a child acting unselfconsciously, without fear of criticism.

All but one of the mother’s of the children in the study allowed their young childto ‘take over’ a large part of the main living area of the house as a play space. As canbe seen from the images and commentary that follow, Lianne, Holly and Jake’smeaning making evolved from the materials which were readily available to them.Lianne’s mother, as a teaching assistant, understood her daughter’s fascination withher new reception class context and was readily co-opted in supporting her daugh-ter’s ongoing need to be ‘in role’ (see Figure 3). The materials available to Hollyreflected a household in which there were three children under five and where hermother had a relaxed and confident approach to parenting, drawing upon her recol-lections of her own mother’s practice and her own experience as a nursery nurse (seeFigure 4). Jake’s mother, a primary school teacher, was concerned to ‘tune in’ to her

Figure 3. Lianne—‘teaching dolls’

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14

What mothers do 75

son’s interests and his need for external stimuli to support what she saw as hisstrongly scientific approach to learning. She made sure a wide range of materials was‘to hand’ (see Figure 5).Figure 3. Lianne—‘teaching dolls’Figure 4. Holly—‘party for dolls’Figure 5. Jake—‘magic spells’The impact of the access or lack of access to particular materials upon a child’sability to make meaning could be seen when Holly visited her Nanna’s house eachSunday after church (see Figure 6). Here paper, rather than toys, was in plentifulsupply and was stored in the same place for ready access. There was little adult inter-action surrounding these episodes of drawing, apart from the occasional word ofpraise when a child brought a drawing to their attention. All visiting grandchildrenwere initiated by their older cousins into the routine of drawing and, importantly, norestrictions were placed upon the amount of paper that could be used. Each Sunday,Holly produced a series of drawings that, in common with her three-dimensionalrepresentations, were often topological in nature.Figure 6. Holly—‘Sunday school’

Figure 4. Holly—‘party for dolls’

Figure 5. Jake—‘magic spells’

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14

76 K. Ring

For pre-school children, their mother’s control over the opportunities to integratethree- and two-dimensional activity was dependent upon both their organization ofspace and the child’s position within the family. In this study, where the pre-schoolchild had younger siblings, drawing was likely to be confined by the mother to thekitchen table, rather than taking place alongside other forms of play in, mostcommonly, the living room. For these children the importance that Kress (1997)and Pahl, (2001, 2002a) place upon the mixing of drawing materials, toys andeveryday objects was largely unrealized. As in the cases of Jake and Simon, a pre-school child with an older sibling was not only more likely to have a regular modelfor drawing behaviour but also had paper, pencils and completed drawings morereadily ‘to hand’.

Attempts made by the parents in the study to direct the drawing activity instead ofresponding to the child’s requests or drawing initiatives seemed to contribute to chil-dren developing a ‘helpless orientation’ (Dweck, 1986) towards drawing and therejection of drawing as a mode of spontaneous meaning making. Pahl’s (1999,p. 103) observation that ‘adults often want to structure children’s work and deter-mine an outcome even before the children begin’, is particularly apposite within thecontext of this study. The over-direction apparent in the some of the interactionsbetween Simon and his mother (see Figure 7) had some negative consequences,despite the mother’s good intentions in her attempts to be supportive. Surroundedby the products of more experienced drawers, i.e. his father and his older sister,

Figure 6. Holly—‘Sunday school’

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14

What mothers do 77

Simon had been encouraged by his mother to copy their work in order to achievewhat she termed a ‘pleasing effect’. Simon’s mother and his nursery practitionerboth reported that Simon was unable, in either his home or nursery setting, to begindrawing without a great deal of adult support.Figure 7. Simon—‘flowers’Within this study’s small sample of four boys and three girls, mothers of boysspoke of the extra effort they made to build into their daily routines time to ‘workwith’ their sons in order to meet their perceptions of what their sons needed. Incontrast, daughters were seen by their mothers to be busy, engaged in acceptableactivity and having little regard to the television, which might be a backgroundaccompaniment.

Jake’s mother’s recognition of Jake’s interest in ‘what it is to be a boy’ led to familyvisits to, for example, castles with dungeons. Such visits, accompanied by muchlively discussion, was seen as quenching Jake’s thirst to know ‘how things work’ andalso satisfy his imagination and sense of the dramatic. These experiences were subse-quently re-presented by Jake in the home context through his enthusiastic physicalaction, verbal narrative and transformations of materials and objects to hand, adapt-ing his meanings in mind to the nature of his resources (see Figures 5 and 8). Incontrast, Simon’s mother’s worry that he was spending too much time watchingtelevision or videos led to an emphasis upon what she perceived to be more educa-tionally worthwhile programmes and activities. She made her dislike of the adven-tures of TV superheroes very clear. Luke’s mother successfully used the television asa stimulus for further physical activity and a re-playing or extension of narrative butwas unable to support Luke in making meaning through drawing. Encouraged by

Figure 7. Simon—‘flowers’

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14

78 K. Ring

practitioners in her son’s pre-school setting, she seemed to overemphasize the draw-ing of people with facial features, arms and legs so that Luke turned away fromdrawing as a self-chosen activity.Figure 8. Jake 4—‘superjet’

Gendered responses to an environment in which the mother is a constant presence in comparison with the limited presence of the father

Overwhelmingly, in this study, one of the key features within the home context wasgender roles and the impact of the constant presence of the mother, in contrast tothe limited availability of the father. As recognized by Vygotsky (Vygotsky, 1932, inIvic, 1989), it is through relationships with ‘more knowledgeable others’, whilstengaged in everyday activities, that young children become ‘encultured and knowl-edgeable’ about the social practices of their community. Whilst mothers spoke offathers and older siblings being involved in short episodes of direct physical play withthe child, they were more constantly available either in the background of children’splay or as resources, giving support when the child requested it.

All three girls in the study observed and absorbed the everyday routines and ritu-als of their mothers ‘playing out’ their female nurturing role within the family. As aconsequence, ‘culturally defined ways of talking, behaving, thinking and feeling’(Woodhead et al., 1998, p. 1) were replicated in the peopled worlds of the girls’ ownindependent domestic role play and, as can be seen from the quotations whichfollow, found ready acceptance within the expectations of their mothers:

Before breakfast she took all the dolls out and built a little wall. We had to climb overthe kitchen. After breakfast and shopping she played in the square or in the garden witha girl friend of the same age with dolls. She had dinner and was straight back to whatshe was doing before with the dolls. (Lianne’s mother)

I can see a lot more of me in Holly because I always wanted to do jobs with our mam,offer to make beds and wash up … Holly wants to be a mam when she grows up …(Holly’s mother)

The girls merely accommodated their father’s style of playfulness, which seemed tohave little impact upon their own ongoing internal narratives.

For the boys, however, the attraction of their father as a male role model was moreintense within the short periods of time they spent together. The objects used within‘joint involvement episodes’ (Schaffer, 1992) therefore had particular significancefor the boys when their father was absent:

He wants to build with his dad … It’s always ‘Will you make me this?’ ‘Will you buildme that?’ (Edward’s mother)

My husband is arty. He did a lot of drawings, which we stuck on the wall at home (for achurch art club run by Simon’s mother and father for part of the summer holiday). Inmy husband’s absence Simon copied them … It was lovely because he was doing thesame as daddy was doing. (Simon’s mother)

He’s strongly attracted to dad’s activities … his dad is an engineer, he has a similarpersonality—a loner with good concentration. He plays everywhere. He has a playroom

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14

What mothers do 79

and toys in the bedroom. In the kitchen is water, paints, food technology and dough. Heloves boxes. We bought boxes for toys and he tipped the toys out to play with theboxes—imagined vehicles, castles. He role plays what he observes, what he thinks boysshould be doing and he’s got quite into guns and swords and things. (Jake’s mother)

Jake’s mother ensured that the play rules and the ‘shared imaginings’ (Trevarthen,1995, p. 93), constructed between Jake and his father, were maintained in thefather’s absence. In relation to Jake’s passion for three-dimensional model making,his mother resisted her own urge to ‘keep everything in its little box’ and follow themanufacturer’s instructions in favour of her husband’s instructions: ‘shove it all inone box, you tip it all out and you make something’. For Jake, the act of modelmaking seemed to have had several outcomes. It built upon his dyadic interactionswith his father, was ‘social in essence’ (Scribner, 1990) and, according to hismother, was both emotionally satisfying and a context for learning.

Through repeated dyadic exchanges, where the availability and use of both thematerial and symbolic tools of culture or society are seen by Schaffer (1996) toshape and make possible particular ways of thinking, all the children in the study hadbegun to construct identities which were meaningful for them. Given that gender is a‘central defining feature of society’ (Skelton & Hall, 2001), it is unsurprising thatthey were responding to the expectations and subtle but powerful pressures of signif-icant adults to behave in gender-appropriate ways.

Within the homes involved in the study, it was evident that both boys and girlswere supported in their ability to make meaning by ‘storying’. Combined narrativeand action was used as a tool in constructing their identity and answering the ques-tions ‘Who am I?’ and ‘How should I behave?’ Girls were drawn to the family storiestold by mothers, particularly those which validated their inner storying by referenc-ing their current activity and preoccupation to incidents from their mothers’ child-hood. Holly’s mother commented ‘She’s always asking questions. She loves to knowstuff about when I was young.’ The boys sought support for their interest in adynamic world beyond the immediate home context. Limited by their fathers’prolonged absences and their mothers’ focus upon the home and family, they wereparticularly stimulated by television and video cartoon images. The actions, move-ments, explosions and demonstrations of power that characterized the fantasy worldof superheroes were notably captivating, confirming Pahl’s (2001, 2002b) recogni-tion of the importance of popular culture, particularly involvement in the figuredworld of, for example, Supermario and Pokémon, for boys’ identity formation andsense of self. Whereas the girls’ storying was extended through the drawing of staticand increasingly detailed and decorative female figures, boys, when they did chooseto use drawing, often explored their internal narratives as dynamic extensions oftheir whole-body movement as the drawing tool ‘hit’ the page. Matthews’ (1999)recognition of young children’s use of action representation is exemplified by Jake’sdrawing of the sounds, movement and power of a superjet taking off (see Figure 8).

In the study, the role taken by the mothers and the fathers and the culturalmessages given by the parent to the child as to what was appropriate representationalbehaviour for a boy and girl impacted upon the children’s use of symbol systems.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14

80 K. Ring

The girls seemingly progressed steadily through Dyson’s (1993) continuum ofsymbol systems (see Figure 1). All the mothers of girls in the study spoke of theirdaughters being happy to play independently for long periods of time. As evidencedin Figures 3 and 4, they were supported by the dolls and soft toys, which ‘peopled’their constructed worlds and the cultural artefacts that surrounded them. Theirdrawings emerged from and supported their social play and their internal narrativesand transformed the people in their three-dimensional world into a two-dimensionalversion (see Figure 6). Figure 9 is Lianne’s response to the ‘bear’ who writes to herreception class from his ‘home’ in the stock cupboard and is an example of Lianne’sgrowing ability to communicate through the two-dimensional symbol systems ofdrawing and writing. Although influenced by the growing emphasis upon writing inher reception setting, she was able, across both home and school settings, to adapther meaning making to gradually incorporate this new skill, whilst retaining controlover how and when she used it.Figure 9. Lianne—‘bears and letters’In contrast, the boys’ development of drawing as a symbol system in this studywas influenced markedly by their prolonged preference for three-dimensional activ-ity and, unless regularly modelled by a key male figure, drawing was a generallyunderdeveloped background activity. In readiness for their move into the receptionclass, most of the boys’ mothers involved their sons in practising letter writing. Jake’smother was aware that if she did this for a short while each day Jake would copeeasily with the writing tasks set in his reception class. Just as she promised him, if hecompleted his writing quickly but satisfactorily, it ensured that he could then returnto playing and his own choice of three-dimensional activity. Apart from Simon, whocame from a home context that prioritized drawing, these boys’ progress from three-dimensional activity to writing was prompted by the need to prepare for and fit intoan educational system which seemed to prioritize writing over drawing and separatethe two symbol systems far too quickly.

Figure 8. Jake 4—‘superjet’

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14

What mothers do 81

Conclusion

This socio-cultural study of young children’s drawing behaviours demonstrates howstrongly drawing, as a mode of meaning making, is influenced by the particularqualities of the environment in which it takes place. The children’s self-initiateddrawings, completed by pre-school children in their home contexts, were character-ized by their vigour, by the concentration that accompanied their production and bytheir meaningfulness for the child.

The home context proved to be of particular importance in creating opportunitiesfor the participant children to use drawing, as one of a range of modes of meaningmaking. The routines, rites and rituals, established by the mother as she organizedthe pattern of the day, supported or constrained children’s opportunities to combinematerials and make connections in their thinking. Rather than direct involvement inplay, the mothers’ valuing of children’s playful activity and their use of storying, tohelp children make sense of their experiences, was linked to children’s own develop-ment of the narratives which underpinned their meaning making. Whilst the girls,secure in their mother’s availability as a role model, seemed to move effortlessly intoincluding drawing as an activity alongside their ‘mother and baby’ role play, for theboys it seemed more difficult. Development of drawing as a symbol system was, forthe boys, dependent upon its modelling by a significant male. In most of the homesvisited during the course of this study, however, it was some form of three-dimen-sional construction activity which took priority in joint involvement episodesbetween father and son and, in the absence of the father, boys turned to the superhe-roes of television and video culture in their need for action and adventure. This

Figure 9. Lianne—‘bears and letters’

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14

82 K. Ring

initial gendered choice set a pattern of activity as boys moved into pre-school andturned to both construction activity and their male peers as they made meaning inthe absence of an adult male role model.

As the participant children moved between home, pre-school and school, theorganization of the environment, the provision of materials, and the role modellingof behaviours by significant adults, older siblings and same sex-peers shaped chil-dren’s learning dispositions and their self-images as ‘artists’, communicators andpupils. Environments which encouraged the child to explore, which sustained thatexploration by tuning into the child’s interests and valued the child as a partner orco-constructor in the process of learning also encouraged positive dispositionstowards the activities in which they were taking part and a ‘mastery’ orientation tolearning (Dweck, 1986). In contrast, an early need to conform to stereotypical oroverly rule-bound conventions resulted in children either rejecting the activity as oneof choice or needing support (often unavailable to them in educational contexts) in‘measuring up’ to perceived adult expectations.

The project highlights the individuality of these young children’s journeys as theywere supported and constrained by the routines and rituals of the home environmentin gaining the competencies recognized by Dyson in her symbolic continuum (seeFigure 2; Dyson, 1993). Its findings also further illuminate some of the gender issueshighlighted by the Effective Provision of Pre-School Education Project (EPPE)(Sammons et al., 2002). In comparison with the EPPE research findings, this small-scale project, focusing on socio-cultural influences upon drawing, allows a view ofthe home environment through a very different lens. Girls are generally seen to havegreater confidence and independence and a certainty about their role as a female,just as their mothers model a certainty about meeting their daughters’ needs. Thiscontrasts with boys’ ‘searchings’ in relation to what it is to be male and the verydifferent practices of individual mothers as they try to tune into what they perceiveto be their son’s needs.

References

Anning, A. & Ring, K. (2004) Making sense of children’s drawings (Maidenhead, Open UniversityPress/McGraw-Hill Education).

Bailey, K. R. (1993) The girls are the ones with the pointy nails (Ontario, Althouse Press).Bernstein, B. (1977) Class and pedagogies: visible and invisible, in: J. Karabel & A. H. Halsey

(Eds) Power and ideology in education (New York, Oxford University Press), 511–535.British Sociological Association (BSA) (2002) Professional standards: statement of ethical practice

(Durham, BSA). Available online at: http://www.britsoc.org.uk/publichtm (version current at23 September 2003).

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979) The ecology of human development: experiments by nature and design(Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press).

Bronfenbrenner, U. & Ceci, S. J. (1994) Nature–nurture reconceptualized in developmentalperspective: a bioecological model, Psychological Review, 101(4), 568–586.

Bruner, J. S. (1996) The culture of education (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press).Burman, E. (2001) Beyond the baby and the bathwater: post-dualistic psychologies for diverse

childhoods, European Early Childhood Educational Research Journal, 9, 5–22.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14

What mothers do 83

Collier, M. (2001) Approaches to analysis in visual anthropology, in: T. Van Leeuwen & C. Jewitt(Eds) Handbook of visual analysis (London, Sage), 35–60.

Cox, M. (1997) Drawings of people by the under-5s (London, Falmer Press).Dunn, J. (1988) The beginning of social understanding (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press).Dweck, C. (1986) Motivational processes affecting learning, American Psychologist, 41, 1030–

1048.Dyson, A. H. (1993) From prop to mediator: the changing role of written language in children’s

symbolic repertoires, in: B. Spodek & O. N. Saracho (Eds), Yearbook in early childhood educa-tion: language and literacy in early childhood education (vol. 4) (New York, Teachers CollegePress), 21–41.

Edwards, A. (2001) Qualitative designs and statistical analysis, in: G. MacNaughton, S. Rolfe & I.Siraj-Blatchford (Eds), Doing early childhood research: international perspectives on theory andpractice (Buckingham, Open University Press).

Edwards, A. (2004) Understanding context, understanding practice in early education, EuropeanEarly Childhood Education Research Journal, 12(1), 85–101.

Geertz, C. (1983) Local knowledge (New York, Basic Books).Goodenough, F. (1926) Measurement of intelligence by drawings (New York, Harcourt Brace and

World).Grieshaber, S. (2001) Equity issues in research design, in: G. MacNaughton, S. Rolfe & I. Siraj-

Blatchford (Eds), Doing early childhood research: international perspectives on theory and practice(Buckingham, Open University Press).

Hall, S. (1997) Introduction, in: S. Hall (Ed.) Representation: cultural representations and signifyingpractices (London, Sage).

Harris, D. B. (1963) Children’s drawings as measures of intellectual maturity (New York, HarcourtBrace Jovanovitch).

Ivic, I. (1989) Profiles of educators: Lev S. Vygotsky (1896–1934), Prospects, XIX(3), 427–436.Kellogg, R. (1969) Analysing children’s art (Palo Alto, CA, Mayfield).Kress, G. (1997) Before writing: rethinking the paths to literacy (London, Routledge).Kvale, S. (1996) InterViews: an introduction to qualitative research interviewing (London, Sage).Lindqvist, G. (2001) When small children play: how adults dramatise and children create mean-

ing, Early Years, 21(1), 7–14.Lowenfeld, V. & Brittain, W. L. (1982) Creative and mental growth (7th edn) (Macmillan, New York).Matthews, J. (1994) Helping children to draw and paint in early childhood (London, Hodder &

Stoughton).Matthews, J. (1998) The representation of events and objects in the drawings of young children

from Singapore and London: implications for the curriculum, Early Years, 19(1), 90–109.Matthews, J. (1999) The art of childhood and adolescence: the construction of meaning (London,

Falmer Press).Pahl, K. (1999) Transformations: meaning making in nursery education (Stoke-on-Trent, Trentham

Books).Pahl, K. (2001) Children using popular culture at home: artefacts, drawing, multi media, paper

presented at the BERA Conference, Leeds, 2001.Pahl, K. (2002a) Ephemera, mess and miscellaneous piles: texts and practices in families, Journal

of Early Childhood Literacy, 2(2), 145–166.Pahl, K. (2002b) Texts as artefacts crossing sites: a multi-modal approach to the home/school

transition, paper presented at the BERA Conference, Exeter, 2002.Prosser, J. (Ed.) (1998) Image-based research: a sourcebook for qualitative researchers (London,

Falmer Press).Ring, K. (2003) Young children drawing at home, pre-school and school: the influence of the socio-

cultural context, unpublished doctoral dissertation, School of Education, University of Leeds.Sammons, P., Sylva, K., Melhuish, E., Siraj-Blatchford, I., Taggart, B. & Elliot, K. (2002) The

Effective Provision of Pre-School (EPPE) Project: Technical Paper 8a—Measuring the impact of

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14

84 K. Ring

pre-school on children’s cognitive progress over the pre-school period (London, DFEE/Institute ofEducation, University of London).

Schaffer, H. R. (1992) Joint involvement episodes as contexts for cognitive development, in: H.McGurk (Ed.) Childhood social development: contemporary perspectives (Hillsdale, NJ, LawrenceErlbaum Associates), 99–129.

Schaffer, H. R. (1996) Joint involvement episodes as a context for development, in: H. Daniels(Ed.) An introduction to Vygotsky (London, Routledge), 251–279.

Scribner, S. (1990) Reflections on a model, The Quarterly Newsletter of the Laboratory.Skelton, C. & Hall, E. (2001) The development of gender roles in young children: a review of policy and

literature (Manchester, Equal Opportunities Commission).Smith, N. (2002) Transition to the school playground: an intervention programme for nursery

children, Early Years, 22(2), 129–146.Tizard, B. & Hughes, M. (1984) Young children learning: talking and thinking at home and at school

(London, Fontana).Trevarthen, C. (1995) The child’s need to learn a culture, Children and Society, 9(1), 5–19.Vygotsky, L. S. (1978) Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes, M. Cole, V.

John-Steiner, S. Scribner & E. Souberman (Eds and Trans.) (Cambridge, MA, HarvardUniversity Press).

Wells, G. (1986) The meaning makers (Portsmouth, NH, Heinemann).Woodhead, M., Faulkner, D. & Littleton, K. (1998) Cultural worlds of early childhood (London,

Routledge).

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f K

ent]

at 1

0:06

05

Nov

embe

r 20

14