Tailor-made for children. Designing a pictorial questionnaire to explore eating habits, lifestyle, and body perception

Abstract The article presents the results of a classroom-based research within the use of a pictorial questionnaire. The quanti-creative study has investigated the body perception, eating habits and lifestyles of a sample of Italian children attending the primary school. Data were analysed to explore how with this technique the researcher can overcome existing problems related to both purely quantitative and creative approaches to elicitation, offering broadened analysis to obtain collective (measurable) and individual (perceptions, emotions) information embodied in children’s life courses and promoting active participation. The pilot study presented, therefore, aims to open the discussion on how art-based research can also involve quantitative methods to support educational interventions on classroom basis, offering adequate tools to observe children’s degree of reflection, awareness and learning. The findings showed how pictorial questionnaire frames the classroom-based research by identifying and containing moments of tension, activating an appropriate and engaging learning experience and ensuring the integrity of the knowledge produced.