To Örebro University

Particularly since many children in early childhood education (ECE) (education for children from birth to 8 years) do not yet write, teachers and researchers tend to use children’s drawings to assess their developing science learning. Previous studies show that children’s choices on what to include in their drawings are affected by local cultures of what constitutes a good representation. However, there is a lack of studies that focus on the teacher perspective, in terms of why and how they include drawing activities in their science teaching. Further, there are currently no studies that compare the role of drawings in science teaching across ECE sectors. The study is part of a larger study which aims to to advance our understanding of how to bridge science teaching across ECE sectors (preschool, preschool class, early primary school). Here, our specific aim is to examine how educational cultures of different ECE sectors interact with teacher’s objectives for using children’s drawings in science activities. We use Activity Theory to analyse field data (notes, photos, videos) from science activities that include children’s drawings, as well as recordings from group discussions with teachers. First, we focus on the relation between the purpose of the activity, the tools used, the local educational culture, and the outcome of each activity. Second, we compare our results across ECE sectors. Our preliminary results indicate that the purpose of drawing activities vary across sectors. In preschool, children’s drawings may serve to tell stories, while in early primary school, drawings may serve as a part of observation practice or to display children’s understandings of science concepts. The results are discussed in relation to children’s transitions between educational cultures, and whether teachers should explicitly scaffold scientific drawing in ECE.