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  • Publication
    Listening to Children's Voices Through Art: Communicating Experiences and Understandings in Mosaic Research
    (International Association of Art in Early Childhood, 2018)
    Young children are able to express their experiences, understandings and thoughts by communicating through the use of the creative arts media with which they are comfortable and confident. My PhD study employed a qualitative Mosaic approach, so I was able to witness the way creative arts empowered children to make their often marginalised voices heard by: parents, educators, other researchers and policy makers. The study involved children aged two to five years within a long daycare service who were research participants and who became researchers themselves. A range of creative arts responses provided ways for children to: explore their experiences at home, express feelings about these events, share their desires for different experiences and create solutions for better outcomes. Children were also able to discuss each other's art responses and some were able to validate research themes. As researchers, using disposable cameras, the children were able to record happenings in their lives that were important as well as personal and cultural artifacts that had special meaning within the research themes. Parents were able to photograph the children guided by the children's instructions, so in effect, they directed data collection. The study presented ethical moments that required researcher reflexivity, including: ownership of data, educator involvement, management of activities and data collection. The study promoted an increase in the abilities of the children to verbally express emotional issues that were affecting them.