Using visual art as a Pedagogical Tool in Preschool : A Qualitative Investigation of Teacher Practice

The main purpose of the study is to increase the understanding of preschool teacher’s use of the visual art as a teaching method, how visual art can be used a pedagogical tool. What tools are needed to make visual arts a subject of development and exploring. Qualitative interviews have been conducted with three preschool teachers. The result shows that visual art is used as a tool in planned activities like picture by picture talks, with themes where the children are encouraged to process their personal experiences with visual art but also to visualise their experiences independently through their own creating of visual art. Preschool teacher's role also appears as central in the results, where preschool teacher selection to control and guide the children in different grade can have consequences in work with visual arts. Preschool teachers believe that children can learn and develop different ways to see, speak, feel, think and communicate through the use of visual art. The teachers believe that there is a need for a more available and visible environment to make the teaching method more explorative, where the children can use different materials and techniques for exploring and also interacting with an educator who can pose challenging questions