Children's drawings can provide vital insight into their understanding and awareness of important issues that might not otherwise be articulated in an interview. Researchers have used drawings to measure children's knowledge and attitudes about environmental issues, revealing that children are conscious of environmental issues and often sympathetic toward nature. However, few studies have examined children's representations of the urban environment and how they relate to sustainability goals.
The researchers in this study sought to explore how children relate to sustainability and urban environments. The researchers selected 104 fourth- and sixth-grade students from a town in northern Greece, which is surrounded by a diverse physical landscape. The participants were evenly distributed between fourth and sixth grade, and there were equal numbers of boys and girls. To explore children's perspectives of the ideal urban environment, and how consistent those views are with sustainable development efforts, the researchers asked students to draw two pictures of their town: one as it is currently, and one as if the town were made “better for living” in the future. All participants completed both drawings within one two-hour session.
The researchers then identified key elements in each of the students' drawings and compared them to a predefined set of sustainability indicators in the categories of environment, economy, and society. The researchers also looked for significant differences between each students' pre and post drawings to see if any sustainability elements were added in the improved version of their town. Finally, the researchers looked for differences between the fourth and sixth-grade students' drawings to see whether age influenced the students' perceptions.
The researchers found that the greatest total number of indicators represented in the drawings came from the environment category. The most popular environmental indicators were plants, animals, and the sun. Many students also represented air pollution and waste in their drawings of the current state of their town. The greatest total number of students included elements from the society category, and the most popular social indicators were roads and cars. The most popular economic indicators were residential buildings.
The student drawings did not include depictions of sustainable energy production or local economic development, such as agriculture or industry. In general, older students (the sixth graders) included more sustainability indicators than younger students (the fourth graders), and younger students included more apartment buildings, while older students focused on single-family houses, which are less resource efficient. These results suggest that students see clean air and clean streets as representing elements of “better living,” but may not recognize the nuance of sustainable energy generation and waste disposal.
The Bottom Line
Children's drawings related to the environment and environmental issues can convey aspects of their knowledge and perception, while also reflecting cultural dimensions and trends. Depending on the prompt, drawings may reveal children's understanding about the local context, notions of human/environment interactions, and aspects of a desired future state. Educators and practitioners might, therefore, consider using drawing exercises to understand what children know and think about environmental issues, as well as how children might envision a desirable future. Such exercises could help educators and practitioners identify ways to further communicate how sustainable development can address local community needs.