Collaborative drawing: A creative tool for examination of infant–toddler pedagogical practices

Evidence was gathered from an Australian long day care project ‘Educators of babies and toddlers; developing a culture of critical reflection’. A cultural–historical theoretical approach was sensitively interwoven with visual methodology. The innovative combination of visual methodology and cultural–historical theory involved the creation of three Collaborative Forums. The Collaborative Forums aimed for participants to collectively unravel their pedagogical knowledge. The visual methodology involved research tools such as video observations, images, collaborative drawings and group interview transcripts. The research tools of mapping promises and collaborative drawing provided opportunity to imagine and map educators’ pedagogical practices. The act of collaborative drawing was an improvised and imagined activity that strengthened understanding of the multiplicity of educators’ promises. The collaborative drawing elicited discussion that created an expansive collective agenda. Collaborative drawing offered an innovative research tool with ongoing capacity to generate expertise for imagining ideal practices for infant–toddler research. The findings suggest that collaborative drawing with educators is a creative and imaginative tool for expanding the infant–toddler research agenda.