Drawing on the Potential of 'Once Upon a Time' - An examination of the effect of a live and interactive storytelling process on subsequent drawings by children in a Reception Class

Written as a series of ‘stories’, this thesis asks ‘Can Stories change Children’s Drawing?’ and investigates this question using qualitative approaches. Part One includes an in depth investigation of what ‘story’ and ‘drawing’ mean, and provides a critical review of the literature on work with young children in ‘story’ and ‘drawing’. The thesis includes a small study of adults’ drawing abilities, which raises the question of how adults bring biased views to their appraisal of drawings, and how children’s drawings are judged against what is seen as the superior model provided by adults’ drawings. In Part two of the thesis, a Case Study approach is used to examine the process of ‘Story/Drawing’ and its apparent effect on individual children. Attention is focussed particularly on an ‘invisible’ child, and a child from a minority ethnic group. Defective ‘Story grammar’ is suggested as a reason the children forgot one story. The thesis includes an examination of the question of if/why children should draw in any particular way, and whether the idea of ‘accuracy’ in drawing is important. The thesis concludes with some possible implications for Early Years practice including how practitioners can include elements of story/drawing processes in the everyday activities of a Setting.