Dr Gai Lindsay
Visual Arts in Early Childhood Education: Expanding Possibility, Participation, and Pedagogical Imagination.
This post Wollongong 2025 IAEC conference edition of the International Art in Early Childhood Research Journal articulates a powerful collective message: visual arts pedagogies are not an “extra” in early childhood education. Rather, they are a transformative force; shaping identity, belonging, agency, and the very conditions of learning. The papers in this edition illuminate how arts‑based pedagogies open spaces for participation, beauty, cultural connection, professional growth, and deeper understandings about children and educators alike.
Kathy Cologan’s contribution sets a compelling tone by positioning inclusive artmaking as a site of anti‑ableist pedagogy. This study demonstrates how children’s voices are expressed through touch, rhythm, gesture, experimentation, memory, and laughter, highlighting that participation is inherently multimodal and relational. By beginning with a presumption of capability, rather than adaptation, Cologan illustrates how the arts can remake pedagogical spaces into places of belonging for all children.
From inclusion to aesthetics, Lea Mai and Samantha Silby explore how beauty shapes educational experience. Their case study of The City School in Bangkok reveals that intentionally designed environments and visually rich projects do more than please the eye; they positively impact the quality of relationships and elevate a central value for aesthetic learning experiences. They propose that a focus on beauty can be pedagogical and cultivate attentiveness, care, and shared meaning.
Clare Murray extends the conversation into the public sphere, examining how children develop ‘museum habits of mind’ in a context where museum engagements with and for children are an emerging construct. Murray’s finding that adults in Paraguay are shaping children’s early ‘museum habits of mind’ by presenting museum visits as safe, guided, and novel experiences, reveals how cultural expectations influence how children learn to engage with museums. Murray’s work reminds us that arts participation is learned, contextual, and deeply influenced by adult expectations.
Patricia Ong’s paper brings us back to place, identity, and cultural narrative. Through place‑based, arts‑rich inquiry in Aotearoa New Zealand, she shows how the arts help children to express identity, affirm diverse cultural narratives, and develop a sense of belonging. This paper underscores the arts as a bridge between local histories, ecologies, and the lived experiences of learners.
Georgia Freebody’s exploration of process art and within a Therapeutic Art Play program deepens our understanding of art as relational practice. Through consultation, mindful material sourcing and reflective reporting, Freebody reveals how nomadic artworking supports agency, emotional attunement, and embodied learning; positioning the arts as a pathway into wellbeing and co‑creation.
Professional learning takes centre stage in the study by Julie Rosten, myself, and Paul Gardiner. Our research shows that targeted visual arts professional learning can shift educator confidence, strengthen pedagogical content knowledge, and foster richer visual arts experiences for children. Yet, it also highlights systemic barriers such as staff shortages and inadequate pre‑service preparation, reminding us that strong arts pedagogy requires sustained investment.
Finally, Joke Den Haese’s “Traces of Meaning” paper returns us to the everyday, showing how students and educators in the Erasmus Brussels University of Applied Sciences and Arts Bachelor programme Pedagogy of the Young Child (PJK) learn to see the artful in the everyday. Through the ‘growing through art’ experiences, educators develop cultural identity, tolerance, and appreciation of diverse artistic languages.
Together, these papers affirm that the arts are a vital, generative force in early childhood education; shaping not only what children learn, but who they become, how they belong, and how educators imagine their practice.
Dr Gai Lindsay (Convenor 2025 International Art in Early Childhood conference and Lead Editor of the 2026 IAECRJ post-conference edition)
Disclaimer: The views in this journal do not necessarily reflect the views of the editors
| Article 1 | Kathy Cologon |
Anti-ableist pedagogy through the arts: Portraits of Inclusive Artmaking with Children and Families
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| Article 2 | Georgia Freebody | How to be Led into Play: Tuning-in to Transient Process art with Nomadic Artworking, a Therapeutic Art Play Practice. |
| Article 3 | Joke Den Haese | Traces of Meaning |
| Article 4 | Lea Mia & Samantha Silby | How beauty affects education: a case study of educators and children’s engagement with the aesthetic projects and environments of an international kindergarten and elementary school |
| Article 5 | Clare Murray | Playing it ‘safe’ and culturally contouring museum habits of mind in Paraguay |
| Article 6 | Patricia A. L. Ong | Place, Pedagogy and Possibility: Nurturing Identity and Belonging in the Young through Arts-based Approaches |
| Article 7 | Dr. Juana Maria Reyes & Kristin Brizzolara Vazquez | Cultivating a Learning Space for Preservice Early Childhood Teachers: Methods, Materials, and Inquiry-based Learning in an Early Childhood Lab |
| Article 8 | Julie Rosten, Dr Gai Lindsay & Dr Paul Gardiner | Eighteen Months Later: Empowering Early Childhood Educators Through Professional Learning in Visual Arts Pedagogies |
For more information about the International Association of Art in Early Childhood and our teaching resources, please contact us.