Traces of hope in the shadow of war: an exploration of preschoolers' meaning-making processes of the war concept through visual and verbal narratives

Abstract

Despite increasing global exposure of young children to war and conflict, there is limited understanding of how preschool children perceive and make sense of such complex and emotionally charged phenomena. This gap limits educators' ability to recognize children's emotional expressions, support their meaning-making processes, and develop trauma-sensitive, peace-oriented pedagogical practices. This study aimed to examine how preschool children (n = 556; aged 4-6 years) in Turkey conceptualize war through drawings and narratives, and to explore the symbolic, emotional, social, and experiential dimensions embedded in these expressions, with the broader goal of informing educational approaches that foster emotional literacy, empathy, and resilience in early childhood contexts. Framed by an interpretive-descriptive qualitative design, visual and verbal data were treated as a single integrated corpus, open-coded, and organized inductively into themes. Trustworthiness was enhanced through data triangulation (drawings and narratives), expert review, and intercoder agreement exceeding 90%. Five overarching themes were identified. Children primarily conceptualized war through concrete visual and symbolic elements (weaponry, authority figures, and national symbols), extended it to physical, ecological, and life-related destruction (damaged homes, burned environments, displacement, and hunger), and depicted pronounced emotional and psychological responses (sadness, fear, pain as well as captivity and helplessness). Social relations and interactions were depicted as marked by violence, chaos, and loneliness. In contrast, children articulated peace, solidarity, and healing through symbols such as suns, hearts, rainbows, nature, play, and acts of kindness, signaling resilience and moral imagination. Together, these findings indicate that even young children engage in sophisticated, multilayered meaning-making processes related to war, drawing simultaneously on emotional, social, and hopeful dimensions. The findings highlight the pedagogical value of art- and dialogue-based approaches for emotional literacy, trauma-sensitive practice, and nature- and play-anchored restorative learning in early childhood education.