Visual Arts Education for Young Children In Aotearoa New Zealand

Visual art education plays a significant role in fostering young children’s learning, thinking, and communicating. In New Zealand, approaches to early childhood visual art education have developed in response to international educational theories and trends, which, over the years, have often resulted in changes to pedagogy and practice in this domain. Currently, the national early childhood curriculum Te Whariki includes references to visual art education in many of its learning strands. Whilst the curriculum has a strong sociocultural orientation to learning and teaching, approaches to early childhood visual art education are diverse. A brief historical overview of early childhood visual arts education in New Zealand is presented and, to conclude, three examples of current, innovative art projects are discussed.