Aesthetic learning in early childhood education : Perspectives from ECE teachers in two Nordic international schools

Aesthetics in early childhood education (ECE) provides a unique approach to the development of young children that is being adopted in schools across the world. Whereas a traditional approach to ECE focuses primarily on intellectual development, aesthetic education aims to develop a child intellectually, socially, emotionally and physically. Studies on aesthetics in ECE explore the way children learn through the senses, experiences, imagination, play, performance and creativity. While there are multiple terms used by ECE scholars that link to the overall concept of aesthetics in education, this thesis focuses on aesthetic learning (AL). The research aim of this research-based thesis is to explore how ECE teachers in two Nordic international schools understand AL in an ECE context and apply it in the classroom. The more practical aim is to improve ECE teachers’ understanding of AL and how it can be applied in the classroom. Through a web-based survey, nine ECE teachers from Copenhagen International School (CIS) and International School Helsinki (ISH) offered their own interpretations of AL as a pedagogical concept and gave examples of how this is used in their teaching. I used interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to gain insight into how these teachers made sense of AL as it applied to their teaching. The findings show that although these teachers did not directly use the term aesthetics or aesthetic learning (AL) in practice, they thought AL was a suitable overall concept for their understanding of aesthetics in ECE. The teachers indicated that they valued AL and made regular use of it in the classroom. However, overall their understanding of AL incorporated a mix of AL-related concepts and approaches that have been studied in ECE literature