Early Childhood Art Educators (ECAE) Column: Spring 2023

This edition of the Early Childhood Art Educators Interest Group’s newsletter will serve two purposes. First, I will identify offerings at the upcoming NAEA Convention, April 13–15, 2023, in San Antonio, Texas. (Please see NAEA23 Preliminary Sessions Listings at https://my.arteducators.org/sessions for longer session descriptions). I am looking forward to seeing you at the Convention and the ECAE Business Meeting (all are welcome). Second, longtime member of ECAE, Pamela Krakowski, will share information about her recently released book, Entering a Child’s World, which I am sure many of you will find inspiring, thoughtful, and useful.

NAEA National Convention Offerings of the Early Childhood Art Educators Interest Group:

Thursday 12:30pm–12:55pm
Drawing as a Communicable Language: Nourishing a Pedagogy of Listening in Early Childhood Art Education
Kwang Dae (Mitsy) Chung

Thursday 1:00pm–1:25pm
Rapture, Reveling, and Reflection: Looking at Non-Western Art Objects With Toddlers
Kathy Danko-McGhee

Thursday 4:00pm–4:50pm
Unmaking Myths About Early Childhood Art Education and Children
Heather Kaplan, Shana Cinquemani, Geralyn Yu, Mitsy (Kwang Dae) Chung

Friday 11:30am–12:20pm
Early Childhood Art Educators (ECAE) Business Meeting and Gathering
All NAEA members are welcome.

Friday 2:30pm–3:50pm
Transformative Artmaking and Caregiving With Young Children Through Motherscholarship With the Scribble Squad
Marissa McClure Sweeny, Georgina Badoni, Shana Cinquemani, Brooke Hofsess, Christine Thompson, Lillian Lewis, Hayon Park, Mindi Rhodes, Meaghan Brady-Nelson

Saturday 8:00am–8:50am
Technology and the Reggio Emilia–Inspired Art Classroom
Anna Nardulli

Saturday 2:00pm–3:20pm
Perspectives on Community-Based Art Education for and With Young Children
Shana Cinquemani, Marissa McClure Sweeny

Saturday 4:00pm–4:50pm
Young Children Making Meaning Through Drawing
Sangsook Park

Entering a Child’s World by Pamela Krakowski
Pamela Krakowski, a newly retired clinical assistant professor and K–5 art educator at the Falk Laboratory School, housed on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh, recently authored the book, Entering a Child’s World. The book is about narrative pedagogy—a pedagogy that relies upon intuitive, embodied sensibilities to better understand what children are most passionate about—their interests, stories, ideas, and emotional concerns—and allowing what matters most to them to inform the curriculum. It draws upon the philosophical work of John Dewey—the founder of the very first laboratory school—Parker Palmer; Fred Rogers; Max van Manen; and the pedagogical practices of the preschools from Reggio Emilia, Italy, to name a few. This book, based on Krakowski’s dissertation research, includes vignettes of teaching art to kindergarten, 1st-, and 2nd-grade art classes—the older range of early childhood.

In the book, Krakowski highlights embodied, narrative sensibilities that balance the narrative with the normative. The narrative is the is—what is happening in the children’s lives: their thoughts, feelings, perceptions, passions, and concerns. The normative is the ought—what ought to be happening in the classroom: curricular aims, goals, objectives, and lesson plans. Krakowski embraces both the narrative and the normative from a both-and point of view, a more postmodern approach—not an either-or viewpoint. Both the narrative and the normative are essential to teaching. Both what the children have to say as well as the skills, concepts, and a body of knowledge are important for them to learn.

Krakowski states that this book can appeal to those who teach methods classes in early childhood and elementary art education, preservice art education courses, and in museum education because this study focuses on nurturing and cultivating aesthetic, intuitive, and embodied sensibilities—much needed in the training of future teachers—and not merely focusing on behavioral principles, methods, and techniques. It is available on Amazon. She is currently writing a study guide to go with the book. If you are interested in acquiring the study guide, please contact her at pamkrak@pitt.edu.

Column by:

Heather Kaplan, ECAE President
Email: kgkaplan@utep.edu