Five Ways of Integrating Arts and Science: A Framework for Planning and Analyzing Arts–Science Education in Early Childhood

Abstract

This article seeks to provide a framework for recognizing and realizing the pedagogical potential of arts–science integration in early childhood. Herein, I present five ways of positioning arts vis-à-vis science and associate them with different learning opportunities. I have analyzed if and how these positionings come into play in teachers’ documentation of arts–science projects conducted in eight Swedish preschool groups (children aged 1 to 5 years). These teachers positioned arts and science as disciplinary distinct (associated with acquiring and communicating knowledge in the respective subjects), as multifaceted (producing multidimensional knowledge), and as entangled (empathizing with human and nonhuman others). In addition, I discuss if and how teachers can position arts and science as inquiry oriented (investigating and identifying patterns) and disciplinary transcendent (solving problems in transdisciplinary ways). I suggest that teachers draw on these findings to plan and analyze integrated arts–science education in practice.