Doodling in the Air: Introducing Innovative Technology to Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Children’s Art Practice to Support Self-Identity
Abstract
With an increase in the focus on STEM education (Rosen-O’Leary & Thompson, 2019) and jobs in the technology and digital realm, the need for integrating arts that emphasize creative, innovative, and divergent thinking with other school disciplines becomes essential (Land, 2013). This interdisciplinary approach, STEAM (STEM + Arts), requires professional, curricular, and pedagogical development for arts and nonarts educators in school education. As a response to these needs, the main goals of this project were to create an experience with children and new materials that examines emerging tools for children’s art activities, such as 3D pens, and their adoption into a STEAM curriculum to allow children to engage with new technology in creating art, and how 3D pen art practice can empower culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) children’s awareness of their social relationships in their community and reflection on their self-position within the dominant society.