Abstract
This study focuses on young children's autonomous photographic activities and aims to clarify how children generate meaning through these activities and how such processes influence kindergarten teachers’ perspectives and reflections. Based on this aim, the study adopts the generative view of culture and conceptualizes children's photography as a form of cultural practice, using Photo-Elicitation Interviews (PEI) as a methodological approach. The research was conducted with five-year-old children who freely used tablet devices to take photos and videos in their everyday lives. Data were collected and analyzed through dialogues between children and teachers, as well as semi-structured interviews with teachers. The findings highlight that children’s creation and sharing of photography rules facilitated their autonomous meaning-making. Furthermore, reviewing the photos and videos together enabled children’s narratives and interpretations to emerge, prompting teachers to recognize children as active agents of meaning-making and to deepen their own reflections. The study concludes that ICT tools function as cultural resources that support reciprocal meaning-making between children and teachers.
