Peer-reviewed article
Exploring a child's representations of the sea through drawings and narratives
Anne Grethe Baustad, Josephine Deguara ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This study looks closely at three connected drawings of the sea made by one six-year-old child in a Norwegian coastal early childhood education and care setting. It treats drawing as a way of making meaning, not as a test of what a child knows. Data were collected through participatory, image-based methods and analysed with a reflexive thematic approach. The drawings show a developing story about how living things depend on each other, how vulnerable they are, and how human disruption such as waste and obstruction affects them. The study argues that drawing can give children a space to take part in imagining sustainable futures.
Key points
- The study focuses on one six-year-old child's three interconnected drawings of the sea.
- Drawing is treated as a relational and multimodal act of meaning-making, not a measure of knowledge acquisition.
- The drawings explore interdependence, vulnerability and human disruption, from storms and food chains to obstruction, waste and cosmic disturbance.
- Animals are shown acting and using strategies but remain vulnerable to environmental disruption; human infrastructure and pollution are shown as morally consequential.
- Fantasy is described as a resource for engaging with environmental uncertainty, not as escapism.
Limitations
The study is based on a single child in one Norwegian setting, so its findings cannot be generalised to other children or places. The abstract does not describe the sampling, the number of sessions or how the child's views were checked, and it does not evaluate an intervention.
Abstract
Early engagement with marine sustainability in early childhood education and care (ECEC) can nurture ethical awareness, shared responsibility and a sense of ecological belonging. ECEC settings offer spaces where children explore environmental questions and begin to see themselves as active participants in ecological communities whose interpretations and experiences matter. Aligned with the aspirations of Sustainable Development Goal 14, which calls for the conservation and sustainable use of oceans and marine resources, this paper situates children's drawings of the sea within contemporary debates that move beyond developmental framings. Focusing on one, six-year-old child's three interconnected drawings of the sea, this study reconceptualises drawing as a relational and multimodal act of meaning-making rather than a measure of knowledge acquisition. Drawing on social semiotic, socio-cultural and ecological theory, it examines how ecological understanding, emotion and imagination unfold in process. Data were generated through participatory, image-based methods in a Norwegian coastal ECEC setting and analysed using a reflexive thematic approach. Across the drawings, an evolving ecological narrative emerges in which interdependence, vulnerability and human disruption are explored across scale: from storms and food chains to obstruction, waste and cosmic disturbance. Power is depicted as relational and unstable; animals act and employ strategies, but remain vulnerable to environmental disruption. Human infrastructure and pollution are rendered morally consequential. Fantasy operates not as escapism but as a resource for engaging with environmental uncertainty. The study argues for recognising drawing as a dialogic space where ecological knowledge, affect and ethical positioning converge, enabling children to participate meaningfully in imagining sustainable futures.