This is my country, a study of children’s expressions of nationality and political awareness, is a research project that spans more than 20 years. The work employs children’s drawings to gain insight into their political awareness and perception of citizenship and national identity. Working in the context of elementary and middle school classrooms in two countries, Poland and the United States, and at two different time periods, 1991 and 2018, children ages 9-12 drew pictures in relation to the prompt, “This is America”. The project demonstrates that children have an acute and sophisticated awareness of the political world and are able to express national identity in complex ways.
The data—more than 500 pictures--are available on this site in a searchable database supported by the University of Minnesota’s “elevator” platform. The pictures are arranged by date and by country of origin in the form of collections. Descriptions and keywords are included with each picture, allowing researchers to explore the artifacts from a number of different vantage points.
The research and this database promise to provide benefits to educators and parents who wish to learn more about how children prepare to become active citizens in democratic societies. The work invites the exploration of the way in which contemporary events influence children’s experiences and allows for comparisons over time and place and between genders and rural and urban populations.