[Article Reflection] Exploring gender materialisations in the artwork of pre-teen children

[ORIENT-4] Lecture 4: Presenting Faculty Research - Values, Ideologies and Social Context of Education (VISE)

This lecture introduces to me the work in Values, Ideologies and Social Context of Education (VISE). There are three parts which are about:

• Citizenship and Learning Research Unit.
• Gender Studies Research Unit.
• Psychology Research Unit.

I choose to reflect on the following articles:

Huuki, Tuija (2019). Collaging the virtual: Exploring gender materialisations in the artwork of pre-teen children. Childhood, 26(4), 430-447.

1. Basic information about the research

• Who was observed in the research? 40 children from 10 to 11 years of age in Northern Finland.
• What did the author do? Organize art workshops for children. There were 4 cycles in which students experienced different kinds of art activities and express their thoughts about gender throughout these activities.
• What is the aim of the research? Give insights into how pre-teen children explored and communicated the imaginative potentialities of gender or self-expression via experimental arts-based, creative workshops implemented in a primary school in Northern Finland.

2. My reflection on the research

Firstly, this article is quite different compared to the other two ones that I read in Lecture 2 and 3. The reason is that it relates to Gender Studies Research Group where researchers' work usually relates to methodological, theoretical and philosophical issues (as introduced in the presentation). The author referred to abstractive theories such as Gilles Deleuze’s idea of the virtual, which makes the article a little bit difficult to understand at first. This article took me the longest time to read (in the three articles I chose for my journal). However, when I reach the end of the article, I felt very satisfied and inspired not only by the way the author organized his/her workshops as interesting as an activist and the children's works but also by his writing style: the author used uncommon but precise words to express his points. Although facing some challenges when reading this article, I find it very worthy to dive deeper on the topic of gender especially when related to children.

Secondly, I have opportunities to learn about Gilles Deleuze’s idea of the virtual which is very new and attracting for me. "Life is not simply the actual world, but the actual world and all its virtual potentials", and "the ‘virtual’ is a potentiality that becomes fulfilled in the actual." Deleuze (1994 [1968]). This point is adaptable when it comes to gender because our understanding of gender is usually formed by prejudice in society, therefore we need 'another reality' when we are able to follow our own understanding and imagination about our identity. 

Thirdly, this research emphasizes the importance of art-based activities in school. In the workshops, children took part in drawing, painting, writing, crafting, and photography activities. The author called it "a climate of safety, a playful freedom" which enables students' open discussion and expression about gender. This is the first time I go through a creative and arts-based research setting like this, and I must admit that this kind of research brings many meaningful data to us because art is usually considered a 'universal language' which bring people closer and more open when sharing their deep thoughts.

Finally, my impressions focus on the result of this research. Students' work and their sharing prove that we need to pay more attention to their understanding of gender, their pressure in their daily lives and how children perceive society's perspective of gender. We need to answer the questions for example: Why did the girls in the research show their desire of smooth, flowing gymnastic postures and the boys want to slow down by sitting, standing still? Once again, the pictures of students' work in this research haunt me and evoke many new points in my mind.

A selection of the girls’ Unrestricted me’ collage pieces. Source: the article.

In conclusion, the article helps me to understand people's work in VISE and in the Faculty in general.