A Sociosemiotic Analysis of Projections of Environmental Awareness in Selected Nigerian Preprimary School Children’s Eco-Drawings

This chapter presents a sociosemiotic analysis of 80 eco-drawings of the natural environment by preprimary school children aged 5–6 years. The drawings are semiotic acts visually articulating the children’s level of environmental awareness. The study achieves two purposes. First, it analyses how children use drawings to communicate their understanding of what constitutes the natural environment around them, and then it uses their visual expressions in drawings to reflect on the impact of environmental education programs designed for preprimary schools in Nigeria. Descriptions of subjects’ eco-drawings use parameters outlined in the model of sociosemiotic theory developed by Kress and Leeuwen (Reading images: the grammar of visual design, 2nd edn. Routledge, New York, 2006). Based on the patterns identified, the eco-drawings are visual texts which perform the textual, ideational, and interpersonal functions in the model: information value, contact, framing, salience, and modality. The information from the drawings shows seven categories of elements identified in children’s drawings, namely vegetation, natural landscape, solar system, atmosphere, animals, and artificial objects. Although the visual placement of elements varies, frequencies show that represented participants with greater salience are centralized and are predominantly artificial objects such as houses, cars, televisions, and computers. Furthermore, visual elements are predominantly projected in discontinuous frames separated by empty spaces. The modality of the eco-drawings as visual ideations of the natural environment is not realistic because the majority of the items drawn by the subjects are artificial objects. The preference for artificial objects over natural elements blurs the children’s understanding of what constitutes their natural environment. Their perception reflects the deficits observed in the environmental education curriculum for preprimary education, wherein environmental themes are limited to personal hygiene and keeping the children’s surroundings clean. The chapter further concludes with recommendations for improvement and areas for further research.