Eva Alerby, Associate Professor

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Eva Alerby, Associate Professor

• Luleå University of Tecnology

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To catch experiences

• Experiences can be expressed in many different
  ways,
• and I want to stress the humans ability to use
  many forms of languages.

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Polanyi talk about tacit knowledge

• Spoken or written language alone may not be
  enough to represent our total knowledge.
• One way to evoke some of what lies hidden in the
  tacit domain of our knowledge is to use
  different forms of visual representations
• - for example drawings.

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But what can a drawing tell?

• A picture can be regarded as a sort of language
  which can be interpreted.
• van Manen (1990) argues that an object of art can
  be seen as a text.
• Dewey (1991) emphasises that language includes
  much more than oral and written speech, and he
  mentions for example paintings and visual
  pictures and illustrations.

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• It is advantageous, in a study about experiences,
  to use more forms of expression than only verbal
  or written language.
• Therefore we let the children express their
  experiences of school in drawings.
• While making the drawings, reflection also takes
  place, for example by deciding what is to be
  depicted, and why.

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• The children had to reflect on their experience,
  but instead of putting their experiences into
  words they were asked to make a drawing depicting
  what came to their minds.
• The children were told that it was not important
  how skilful they were at making drawings.
• The important issue was to elucidate ones
  experiences, and to do this they had to use paper
  and pencils, crayons or watercolours.
• The children also had the opportunity to give
  oral comments on the experiences that they had
  given form to in the drawings.

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• The analysis of the drawings tried to elucidate
  the meaning of the experiences.
• Each drawing was viewed as a unit where patterns
  and structures were noticed.
• The patterns and structures were then combined in
  different themes, taking the central and common
  characteristics as the point of departure.

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Social relationship
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• ... anything consciously employed as a sign
  is, logically, language. (Dewey, 1991, p 170)