ABSTRACT
The arts are articulated as one subject in early childhood education and as one field of research and learning in Norwegian national curricula, with the subject defined as a learning area named ‘Arts, culture, and creativity’ encompassing music, drama, and visual art. This constructed unity of arts disciplines includes challenges and implications in a Bachelor of Arts Education aimed at early childhood education. Framed by Cultural Historical Activity Theory and inspired by the concepts of boundary objects and artefacts, this research aimed at answering the question: How can the concept of boundary object be used as a thinking tool to identify common grounds for music, drama, and arts and crafts in arts education in early childhood education? This chapter considered a case study of a multimodal arts project, ‘Playing with Light,’ conducted by early childhood education students to make a one-day toddler festival for 500–600 toddlers. The case exhibited three categories of common grounds for arts instruction in early childhood education, defined in this study as possible themes for teaching inspired by the concept of boundary objects: 1) techniques and technical tools, 2) the room as a stage for arts pedagogy, and 3) aesthetic principles.
