Gender and Preferred Content in Children’s Drawing among Selected Primary School Children in Zaria Metropolis, Kaduna State

Abstract

This study sought to establish the relationship between gender and preferred Content in children‟s drawing. A total of 220 pupils stratified into 110 males and 110 females drawn from eleven randomly selected primary schools in Zaria metropolis were used for the study. Four research questions were raised and four null hypotheses were generated. A narrative adopted from Tuman‟s (1999) study, was validated by experts in the department of Fine Art Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria Kaduna state of Nigeria and used as a major tool for data collection. Chi-square (ײ), cross tabulation, ANOVA and t-test were used for the analyses related to the null hypotheses. A histogram was also used for the distribution of the scores explaining the scores on formal characteristics used by the subjects in the study by sex. The results revealed that none of the four null hypotheses was retained; all the hypotheses were rejected. However, the results revealed that there were significant differences in the drawing content chosen by boys and girls. It also showed that there were significant differences between the way boys and girls use lines, colour, shape, texture, space and composition; there were inter-relationships in the forms and content of drawings of boys and girls and there were significant differences between the drawings of boys and girls in terms of gender characteristics. The findings revealed that girls exceeded the boys in the use of elements of art. It is recommended that provision be made for tests and activities that would allow pupils to think and ask questions that would lead to discoveries and motivate learners to create drawings outside their gender characteristics.