Call for Chapters: Art, Drawing, Emotional Expression, and Overcoming Challenges in Early Childhood Education

Editors

Maria Athanasekou, Frederick University, Cyprus, Hellenic Open University, Greece

Call for Chapters

Proposals Submission Deadline: July 26, 2026
 Full Chapters Due: September 27, 2026
 Submission Date: September 27, 2026

Introduction

Early childhood is a crucial period for the development of emotional awareness, social competence, communication, creativity, and resilience. Young children experience a wide range of emotions and social interactions as they learn to understand themselves, relate to others, and navigate everyday challenges. Art and drawing offer powerful, developmentally appropriate ways for children to express feelings, build social connections, communicate experiences, and develop a sense of belonging. Creative activities such as drawing, painting, and visual storytelling support not only emotional expression but also social interaction, empathy, collaboration, and relationship-building. Through shared artistic experiences, children learn to listen, cooperate, respect different perspectives, and participate in supportive communities. Art can also help children process difficult experiences, including transitions, loss, anxiety, exclusion, trauma, and other personal or social challenges. Phenomenological perspectives further enrich this field by focusing on children’s lived experiences, embodied perceptions, relationships, and meaning-making processes through artistic engagement. Understanding how children experience emotions, social interactions, and creative expression from their own perspective can deepen educational practice and research. This edited volume seeks interdisciplinary contributions that explore the emotional and social dimensions of art and drawing in early childhood education, as well as their role in helping children overcome challenges and strengthen well-being, resilience, inclusion, and connectedness.

Objective

Objectives This volume aims to advance theoretical, empirical, and practical understanding of how art and drawing support children’s emotional and social development, well-being, resilience, and ability to overcome personal, interpersonal, educational, and environmental challenges. The book specifically intends to: Examine how artistic expression fosters emotional literacy, self-awareness, empathy, and social competence in young children. Explore drawing and visual arts as tools for communication, collaboration, relationship-building, and social inclusion. Investigate how art-based practices support children facing adversity, trauma, exclusion, bullying, disability, anxiety, or social-emotional difficulties. Highlight phenomenological approaches that illuminate children’s lived emotional and social experiences through art. Present innovative pedagogical practices, classroom strategies, family-based approaches, and community initiatives that integrate art into early childhood education. Strengthen dialogue among researchers, educators, parents, therapists, artists, and policymakers working in the fields of education, mental health, arts, and child development. Contribute to current research on creativity, emotional and social learning, inclusion, mental health, and holistic child development.

Target Audience

Target Audience This book is intended for a broad audience of academics, professionals, and caregivers interested in the emotional and social well-being of young children through art and creative expression. The volume is particularly relevant for: Early childhood educators and preschool teachers Researchers and scholars in education, psychology, arts education, childhood studies, and social sciences Teacher educators and university faculty Graduate and postgraduate students Educational psychologists, counselors, and mental health professionals Art therapists and creative arts practitioners Museum educators and cultural practitioners Professionals in inclusive and special education Curriculum developers and educational policymakers Parents and caregivers who wish to support children’s emotional, social, and creative development through artistic activities and meaningful interaction The book aims to serve both academic and practical audiences by offering research-based insights alongside applicable strategies for educational settings, homes, and community contexts.

Recommended Topics

The book welcomes, but is not limited to, chapters addressing the following topics: Art and emotional development in early childhood Art and social development in early childhood Drawing as a medium of emotional and social expression Social-emotional learning through visual arts Creativity, resilience, and social connectedness Arts-based approaches to overcoming emotional and social challenges Art and children’s mental health and well-being Emotional regulation and social skills through drawing and creative practices Trauma-informed and socially responsive art education Inclusive and special education through the arts Art, empathy, cooperation, and peer relationships Children’s drawings as expressions of lived emotional and social experience Phenomenological perspectives on children’s artistic and social expression Phenomenological approaches to understanding children’s drawings and relationships The lived experience of emotions, friendship, belonging, and community through art Embodiment, perception, and social meaning-making in children’s creative practices Phenomenological research methods in early childhood arts education Children’s voices, identities, and social worlds through visual narratives Relational and intersubjective dimensions of artistic expression Art, identity, diversity, and social inclusion in multicultural contexts Arts-based research methodologies in education and social sciences Museum education, community engagement, and social-emotional learning Family, parenting, and children’s artistic expression at home Parent-child art activities and emotional bonding Digital drawing, collaboration, and creative technologies in early childhood Teacher and parent experiences of supporting emotional and social expression through art Assessment and interpretation of children’s drawings in educational and social contexts Art, play, imagination, friendship, and emotional growth Cross-cultural perspectives on art, emotions, and social development Arts interventions for vulnerable, marginalized, or socially excluded populations Visual arts, community, and sustainable well-being in early childhood education

Submission Procedure

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before July 26, 2026, a chapter proposal of 1,000 to 2,000 words clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors will be notified by August 9, 2026 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines.Full chapters of a minimum of 10,000 words (word count includes references and related readings) are expected to be submitted by September 27, 2026, and all interested authors must consult the guidelines for manuscript submissions at https://www.igi-global.com/publish/contributor-resources/before-you-write/ prior to submission. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-anonymized review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.

Note: There are no submission or acceptance fees for manuscripts submitted to this book publication, Art, Drawing, Emotional Expression, and Overcoming Challenges in Early Childhood Education. All manuscripts are accepted based on a double-anonymized peer review editorial process.

All proposals should be submitted through the eEditorial Discovery® online submission manager.

Publisher

This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global Scientific Publishing, an international academic publisher of the "Information Science Reference", "Medical Information Science Reference", "Business Science Reference", and "Engineering Science Reference" imprints. IGI Global Scientific Publishing specializes in publishing reference books, scholarly journals, and electronic databases featuring academic research on a variety of innovative topic areas including, but not limited to, education, social science, medicine and healthcare, business and management, information science and technology, engineering, public administration, library and information science, media and communication studies, and environmental science. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit https://www.igi-global.com. This publication is anticipated to be released in 2027.

Indexing Information for Prospective Authors

IGI Global Scientific Publishing meets the criteria for inclusion in major indexing services such as Scopus; however, it is important to note that all indexing decisions are made independently by these services. IGI Global Scientific Publishing books are selectively indexed by the indexing organization after publication. Indexing cannot be guaranteed for any book prior to publication, and the indexing organization has complete control over the final selection and timeline.

Important Dates

July 26, 2026: Proposal Submission Deadline
August 9, 2026: Notification of Acceptance
September 27, 2026: Full Chapter Submission
November 1, 2026: Review Results Returned
November 29, 2026: Final Acceptance Notification
December 6, 2026: Final Chapter Submission

Inquiries

Maria Athanasekou
Frederick University, Cyprus, Hellenic Open University
m_k_athanasekou@yahoo.com
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