Drawing on Education:
Using Drawings to Study and Change Education and Schooling

Students’ drawings of their teachers, learning and classrooms have
considerable power to illuminate educational practice. Drawings may
also promote reflection on the educational ecology of classrooms and
schools. Through a generous grant from the Spencer Foundation, we have
initiated a major research project to explore and document the use of
student drawings both to study and to change education and schooling.
The project will collaborate with interested schools in exploring how
drawings can be used to document and improve teaching an learning (see
invitation below).

Background

Since the 1983 report A Nation at Risk, interest in reforming
education in the US has grown termendously. Several themes in the
education reform movement have taken root:
o Education in the US must be improved dramatically to meet the needs
of both society and the increasingly diverse population of students in
our nation’s schools.
o Teachers within schools must become reflective practitioners if they
are to become successful in meeting the needs of increasingly diverse
student populations.
o Outcomes such as indicators of student learning should become the
standard for judging the success of reform efforts. Yet at the same
time,
o Educational research and assessment must become more useful in
improving educational practice.

The Drawing on Eduation study builds on these themes as it investigates
and documents the use of drawings as a means of both studying education
and schooling and changing educational practice.

Recent Work
Although drawings are a rarely-used form of inquiry in educational
research, in a variety of small studies undertaken over the past four
years we have found that student drawings are a powerful method of
inquiry and research. Drawings have allowed us to efficiently and
effectively document aspects of education and schooling that are
otherwise expensive and extremely time-consuming to document.
Preliminary work suggests that features depicted in student drawings can
be coded reliably. Features appearing in drawings also seem to have
some validity as indices of differences between schools as well as
changes in individual schools over time. More importantly, we have
found student drawings to be a far more engaging form of inquiry for
reflection and change than more commonly employed quantitative and
qualitative research methods.

Current Work
In our study, extending from summer 1998 to August 2000, researchers at
Boston College’s Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation, and
Educational Policy (CSTEEP) will collaborate with teacher researchers in
elementary and middle schools (and other investigators) to explore and
document the utility of student drawings as a useful mode of inquiry and
spur to educational change. Specifically we will study the manner in
which drawings can be used in large scale research to document the
educational ecology of schools and student understandings of learning,
and in action research to spur reflection and change on the part of
teachers and students.

During the first year, collaborating researchers from both Boston
College and from the study schools will make small scale pilot inquiries
using alternative prompts for student drawings and alternative means of
summarizing and interpreting results. In the second year, the most
promising methods of using drawings will be tested in multiple sites in
a coordinated manner. We will hold one or more conferences to bring
collaborating researchers together to discuss their experiences in using
student drawings and alternative means of analyzing and using drawings
to promote reflection and change, and to plan ways to share our learning
with other teachers and researchers in 2000 and beyond.

Invitation for Schools to Participate
Elementary and middle schools are invited to participate in this
research project, either as collaborating research sites or as
affiliated schools.
Collaborating Schools: Our grant from the Spencer Foundation will allow
us to provide limited funding to six collaborating schools. To become a
collaborating research site, the school's involvement must be endorsed
by the principal and a teacher researcher must be designated as the
school's research coordinator. The teacher researcher must be an active
email user, have been involved in professional development and have a
record of writing successfully about her or his work as a teacher. The
collaborating school must agree to undertake at least six drawing
exercises over the first year of the project, to engage at least three
other teachers in interpreting and using drawings, and to make drawings
available to the project for use in documenting the research.
Affiliated Schools: The research project cannot provide funding to
affiliated schools, but neither will the project hold out explicit
requirements for affiliated schools. Instead, such schools will be
considered friends of the project. We will suggest ideas to them and
keep them informed of our progress. In exchange we ask simply that
affiliated schools let us know of their experiences in using drawings as
a means of educational inquiry and research.

To learn more about Drawing on Education, visit the project’s web site
at URL

If you are interested in becoming a collaborating research site or an
affiliated school, please email, call or write

Walt Haney, Lisa Jackson, or Mike Russell
Drawing on Education Project
Center for the Study of Testing
Campion Hall
Chestnut Hill, MA 02167
617-552-4521

drawoned@bc.edu

Past Participants in Drawing Research
Please feel free to contact those listed.

Trudy Sack
Lincoln Public Schools
Hanscom School
Ballfield, MA 01731
274-6178x272
(used drawings in research with beginning teachers)

Lois Huntley/ Richard Clement
Uncas Elementary School
280 Elizabeth Street Extension
Norwich CT, 06360-6612
860-823-4208

Mary Louise Martin
Wilson Academy of International Studies
3838 Orange Ave.
San Diego, CA 92105-1093
619-280-1661
619-280-6437 (F)
(used student drawings in school wide improvement effort involving all school staff)

Rosaena Garza
Director of Academics
Corpus Christi Independent School District
PO Drawer 110
801 Leopard
Corpus Christi, TX 78403-0110
512-886-9023
512-886-9013 (Fax)
(coordinated use of drawings in student surveys in all middle schools in Corpus Christi)

Carol Pelletier/Fran Loftus
Director/Asst. Director of Practicum Office
Boston College School of Education
Campion Hall, Room 135
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
(used drawings to encourage reflection and promote discussion with student teachers)