Dr Margaret L. Brooks
Senior Lecturer, Faculty of The Professions, School of Education
Qualifications
B Ed (Early Childhood); M Ed (Early Childhood) University of Alberta; PhD (Interdisciplinary degree with the Departments of Art and Design and Elementary Education) University of Alberta, 2002.
Contact
| Email: | mbrooks3@une.edu.au |
| Room: | E7 |
| Phone: | 02 6773 2654 (or +61 2 6773 2654 overseas) |
| Fax: | 02 6773 3363 |
Margaret is a member of the Early Childhood group within the School of Education.
Affiliations
Australian Research in Early Childhood Education
National Association for the Education of Young Children
Early Childhood Australia
Areas of Teaching
Undergraduate
- PDEC 345 Learning in Play Environments
- PDEC 421 Young Children and the Creative Arts
- PDEC 444 Young Children as Problem Solvers
Graduate
I am supervising both PhD and Master Students.
Some areas of study include: What it means to paint; Children's experiences of television; Children's drawing; The Hurried Child; First year rural teacher’s experiences; Reading to children; Young Children's Experiences of Art Making..
Research interests
Funded
URG
Awarded a URG 2006. Project title, ‘Making marks, making meaning: effective strategies for supporting young children’s drawing fluency.’ I am the principle investigator. Funded for $9,947. This is a pilot project that will support applications for external funding.
IRG
Awarded an IRG 2004-2005. Project title, ‘Building bridges between local and wider literacies in an Indigenous and rural community preschool’. I am the principle investigator. It is split 50/50 with my colleague. $1500. In process.
This is a pilot project that supports an ARC application.
CRAMS has provided extra funding so that I can complete the project this year, 2006.
Unfunded
• a project that explores the use of video and visual ethnography as a research method
• a project that examines the consequential progression of drawing experiences of a year one classroom
Personal Approach
I am interested in dialoguing with students and teachers, helping them to appreciate and build upon their experiences, extend their thinking and understanding and to make connections between theory and practice.
Other Achievements
I have fifteen years of experience working in preschools, Kindergartens and Grade 1 in Great Britain and Canada. For nine years I was the Associate Director of the Child Study Centre at the University of Alberta (this is a Laboratory School for Early Childhood Education and a Research Centre for the University of Alberta).
I am also a practicing visual artist and have had solo and group exhibitions in Canada.
Areas of research interest and expertise
My research interests include young children's use of drawing in their learning, socio-cultural learning theories, Project work, visual ethnography, and the teacher as researcher.
My MEd thesis was an interpretive enquiry into young children's drawing processes.
My PhD thesis, 'Drawing to Learn', was a visual ethnographic study that used a Social Constructionist, Vygotskian framework to analyse young children’s use of drawing in their learning. You can view this study, samples of the children's work and video clips of the children working on the Internet on my personal website.
http://www.une.edu.au/Drawing/main.html
This site is best viewed on a high-speed connection using Internet Explorer and a screen resolution of 1042 x 768.
Special projects
Engaging Children's Minds: The Project Approach
I initiated the first Summer Institute at UNE in January 2004. It is run on a biennial basis with the support of our ECE team. Both the 2004 and the 2006 Institute were well attended with very positive reviews. This Summer Institute has brought participants and students from all over Australia and Internationally to UNE. For information about the institute please visit the website: http://www.une.edu.au/pdal/programs/earlychildhood/engagingchildminds/index.php
Art and Early Childhood International Conference 2007
I am convening the second International Art in Early Childhood Conference at UNE on the 5th –- 7th February 2007. Please visit the website for more information:
http://www.artlearn.net/artEC/conference.html
Publications
Refereed Publications
Brooks, M., 2006 Drawing: The consequential progression of ideas, New Zealand Research in Early Childhood Education Journal. Vol. 9, pp. 51 – 66.
Brooks, M., 2005, Drawing as a unique mental development tool for young children: Interpersonal and intrapersonal dialogues, Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood Education. Vol. 6, 1.
http://www.wwwords.co.uk/ciec/content/pdfs/6/issue6_1.asp
Brooks, M., 2004, Drawing the social construction of knowledge, Australian Journal of Early Childhood. Vol. 29 – No. 2, p41 – 49, June, 2004.
Brooks, M., 2003, Drawing to Learn. Young Children: Beyond the Journal, September, 2003. http://www.journal.naeyc.org/btj/200309/
Brooks, M., 2003, Drawing, thinking, meaning,
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ac/tracey/thin/brooks.html
Brooks, M., 2001The Lived Experience of Drawing From Life, Textorium.
http://www.phenomenologyonline.com/articles/brooks.html
Refereed Publications in press
Brooks, M., 2006, Visual Ethnography in the Primary Classroom, Journal of Australian Research in Early Childhood Education.
Brooks, M. & Power, K., 2006, Local Literacies in Indigenous and Rural Early Childhood Communities. Journal of Australian Research in Early Childhood Education.
Papers under review
Brooks, M., 2006, What can Vygotsky tell us about young children drawing. International Journal of Education through Art.
Amadio, K., Brooks, M., Collins, A., Power, K., 2006, More than one Bridge is Built: The benefits of an academic research project in a rural preschool. Journal of Australian Research in Early Childhood Education.
Published Conference Papers
Brooks, M., 2005, ‘Bringing a Vygotskian socio-cultural lens to young children drawing: engaging, collaborating and communicating’. (paper presented) International Art and Early Childhood Education Conference, London, UK. July, 2005
Brooks, M., 2003 Graphic thinking. (Plenary paper), Unpacking Meaning Making: Provocations from Reggio Emilia in Australia, Macquarie University, Sydney. August 2003.
Brooks, M., 2003 Drawing to Learn, (Paper), Early Childhood Australia, Hobart. July 2003.
Brooks, M., 2003 Drawing, thinking, meaning. (Paper), Nga Waka* Conference, Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Art Educators. April, 2003.
Brooks, M., 2003 Visual Ethnography in the Classroom. (Research Symposium Paper), Nga Waka Conference, Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Art Educators. April, 2003.
Conference Presentations (selected)
Brooks, M., 2005, ‘The social construction of knowledge through drawing.’ (paper presented) International Society for Cultural and Activity Research (ISCAR) conference, Seville, Spain. September, 2005.
Brooks, M., 2005, ‘Visual Ethnography in the Primary Classroom’, (paper presented) Australian Research in Early Childhood Education, Melbourne. January, 2005.
Amadio, K., Brooks, M., Collins, A., Power, K., 2005, ‘More than one
Bridge is Built: The benefits of an academic research project in a rural preschool’. (paper presented) Australian Research in Early Childhood Education, Melbourne. July, 2005.
Brooks, M, 2004, ‘Intrapersonal drawing dialogues’. (paper presented)
Australian Research in Early Childhood Education, Melbourne. January, 2004
Brooks, M., & Power, K., 2004, ‘Local Literacies in Indigenous and Rural Early Childhood Communities’. (paper presented) Australian Research in Early Childhood Education, Melbourne. January, 2004.
Other Publications such as Creative or Artistic Work
2001 Drawing Cristina, Solo art exhibition at FAB Gallery, Edmonton.
1998 Life Drawing, Group show in FAB Gallery, Edmonton.
Other Research efforts and service commitments
ARC
February/March completed and 2005 submitted an ARC Discovery grant. Project ID: DP0665692
Project title, Mapping local strengths and solutions: Bridging gaps between rural and Indigenous community meaning making at preschool and literacy at school.
I am researcher number two, with a 50/50 split with my colleague.
Requested $107,192 over three years. Unsuccessful.
February/March completed and 2004 submitted an ARC Discovery grant.
Project ID: DP0559114
Project title, Bridging literacy gaps between home and preschool for rural and Aboriginal young children.
I was researcher number two, with a 50/50 split with my colleague. Requested $132,858. Unsuccessful but good reviews encouraged us to apply again.
Service Editorial and referee panels
I am on the referee panels for:
- The Journal of Australian Research in Early Childhood Education.
- Australian Journal of Early Childhood