The aim of this edited volume is to provide a more clearly defined understanding of children’s drawings within the context of qualitative research, to demonstrate the distinctive characteristics and autonomy of children’s drawings as a specific type of data, and to highlight their empirical value through exemplary research projects. In addition, the volume presents possible approaches to the analysis and interpretation of children’s drawings.

The book both systematizes a wide range of epistemological perspectives and provides an overview of diverse methodological approaches to children’s drawings. In doing so, it offers an interdisciplinary perspective on how and in which contexts—including educational science, the social sciences, childhood research, and subject-specific didactics—children’s drawings become objects of inquiry, as well as on the potentials and (epistemological) limitations associated with their use.

Prof. Dr. Melanie Kubandt is Professor of Social Pedagogy Didactics at the University of Osnabrück. Her research and teaching focus on gender and diversity in education and upbringing, early childhood education, methods of qualitative social research, researchers’ reflexivity, social pedagogy, and social didactics.

Dr. Mirja Thiel is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Education at Osnabrück University. Her research focuses on primary education, early childhood education, school readiness, children's perspectives, school transitions, qualitative childhood research, and the analysis of children's drawings as research data.