While it is widely acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic has created disruptions in children’s learning trajectories, the literature suggests that there is little empirical research to support th... What is already known about this topic: Learning is associated with better life outcomes.Home and school environments provide children with a variety of learning opportunities.The COVID-19 pandemic...

Children’s drawings have been analysed in research for several decades, frequently using a narrative style. This article introduces an innovative methodological tool to analyse young children’s drawings. Taking a social semiotics perspective, the aim of this tool is not to replace narrative analysis but to complement it. The study was conducted with three 4-year-old children who were encouraged to draw freely at home and at school. The discussion begins by examining how the form of the drawing, that is, the type and quantity of the modes children used, was analysed; this is followed by an analysis of the content, that is, the type and quantity of the themes, the children drew. Consequently, a data cross-grid was developed, where a total of 223 drawings were plotted across three separate data cross-grids – one for each child. Once all the drawings were plotted, the three grids provided a different way of looking and interpreting the drawings. While noting the limitations of the study, it is concluded that the data cross-grids provide an instantaneous graphical impression of each child’s preferred semiotic (modes) and configuration (themes) styles, which reflect each child’s unique personality and identity as a drawer. Ultimately, such a tool could be used by practitioners and researchers to understand the children’s preferred ways of drawing. It can also be adapted and modified to analyse other modes children use such as playing, drawing, and movement.

War and conflict have always been an integral part of humankind, posing significant threats to humanity. This article investigates young children’s conceptualisation of war and peace through their drawings. Taking a qualitative, interpretive research paradigm, eight five‐year‐old children who had never experienced war first‐hand were invited to draw pictures depicting their understandings of war and peace accompanied by their narratives. The drawing and talk processes were video‐recorded. Drawing on the theory of social semiotics, this study considers drawing as a multimodal visual artefact and metaphorical representation to analyse the content as illustrated by children. Employing a phenomenological approach, the analysis centres on the meanings, feelings, and constructs of war and peace that the participant children communicated through 25 drawings. The findings indicate that children used visual elements like lines, colours, symbols, and narratives to convey multilayered meaning‐making, where five overarching themes were identified as the children’s conceptualisations of war: concrete depictions and symbols of war and warfare such as weapons and soldiers; descriptions of identifiable actions of war to include fighting, shooting, and killing; the negative consequences of war including dead people and animals, sadness and homelessness; conceptualising peace as the end of war and as a happy, safe place with beautiful nature; and reflections on war and peace including the dichotomy between the two. The findings show that while children who do not have first‐hand experience of war, struggle to fully comprehend its complexity, they still exhibit a basic understanding of the trauma of war. The findings also emphasise the importance of giving voice to children to communicate their understandings and emotions through drawing.

The COVID-19 pandemic enforced the immediate closure of schools, demanding schools to offer remote teaching to children who were isolated in their homes. However, not all schools and educators were ready, skillful and motivated to meet the challenges of the shift to online modes of teaching and learning. As a result, families were affected unequally, and existing educational inequalities became wider and more pervasive. Children from lower-educated and socio-economic backgrounds were the most affected as they had less access to technological resources and less support from their parents. In this regard, the aim of this study was to explore the educational inequalities that were amplified by the pandemic as experienced by children aged 0 – 11 years, from their parents’ perspective. Quantitative data was gathered through two questionnaires which were conducted in September 2020 and 2021 about school closure. This study analyses the different inequalities experienced by children when schools shifted to remote teaching, including the different levels of responsiveness and support provided by schools. Data shows that children and their families experienced inequalities in the provision of online teaching and support provided by schools, which resulted in disengagement and learning loss. Keywords: educational inequality, equitable education, parents’ perspectives, remote teaching, pandemic DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-12-02 Publication date: April 30^th 2023