Apparel design as a threshold of boosting Egyptian Children's nationalism

Art is the bridge connected with a child's feelings and emotions. Through art we can address a child's mind and feelings. Since the middle childhood is an ongoing educable development stage; therefore, the present research aims to create and executing apparel designs for the children aged between 6 and 9 inspired by the deep-rooted Egyptian civilization to enhance the children's sense of belonging to their identity as Egyptian and their love for their country when they put on such clothes while participating in national celebrations. The present research is crucial in attempting to enrich the field of child apparel design through creating innovative designs which reflect the majestic Egyptian civilization.
The researcher created a character inspired by the shape of pyramids and the colors of the Egyptian flag with human emotions. The character is drawn in a manner attractive to the middle childhood stage. It is then applied as a motif on 10 apparel designs appropriate to the middle childhood, in a way which boosts the children's sense of belonging and nationalism to Egypt. As an assessment to the designs' ability to achieve the purpose of the research, two questionnaires have been created; one addressed to specialists, while the other is addressed to mothers. The results of the statistical analyses show that both specialists and mothers chose Design No. 8 and Design No. 2 which averaged 98% and 97% respectively, while Design No.5 achieved the least arithmetic average according to specialists at 94%. And Design No.3 reflected the least arithmetic average by mothers at 91%.
1- Introduction
The present era is an age of exposure and a massive information revolution, which may fill a child withawe and amazement. This may lead the child to imitate what he/she sees and have his/her sense of belonging negatively affected. And since middle childhood is an ongoing educable development stage, it is selected to be the age where a child's nationalism, sense of belonging and love for their country are boosted by the hands of art. Art is the bridge connected with a child's feelings and emotions. Through art, a child's mind and emotions may be addressed and through art a child's energy for creativity can be directed towards the right path. Since apparel design is a form of visual arts, it is utilized to be threshold for enhancing the Egyptian children's sense of belonging. For that purpose, an innovative character inspired by the pyramids shape and the colors of the Egyptian flag with human emotions was created. the character was applied as a motif on innovative apparel designs drawing their inspiration from the basic elements of the ancient Egyptian civilization, in a way which boosts the children's sense of belonging, nationalism, and love for their country when they put on such clothes. The research problem can be addressed by the following questions:

How to benefit from designing apparel which enhances the Egyptian children's sense of belonging and nationalism?
How to benefit from the basic elements of the ancient Egyptian civilization in designing apparel which boost nationalism among children?

 
Research objective
The research aims to:

Create apparel designs for middle childhood children that are inspired by the deep-rooted Egyptian civilization to enhance the children's sense of belonging to their identity as Egyptian.

-          Create a character inspired by mixing the basic elements of the Egyptian civilization (the pyramids’ shape and the colors of the Egyptian flag) and drawing it in a manner reflecting the drawings of children at that stage. The created apparel designs are to be used in boosting the children's sense of belonging and nationalism to Egypt.
Research limitations
-          To design t-shirts for children aged between 6 and 9.
-          The colors of the Egyptian flag – the shape of the pyramid.
Research methodology
Research follows the descriptive analytical method and an application research.
Research Tools
A questionnaire to evaluate the design, followed by statistical analysis was used.
Results
The research results were achieved through the design 10 t-shirts for the children aged between 6 and 9 years old. two questionnaires were constructed to evaluate the suggested designs' ability to achieve the purpose of the research; one is addressed to specialists, and the other to mothers and the statistical analyses were made through SPSS.
The validity of the questionnaire was evaluated through Kendall's Coefficient for the purpose of validating the concurrence of both specialists and mothers, and then the validity of the content was evaluated by Pearson Correlation.
The consistency of the questionnaires of the mothers and specialists was tested by Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient and their reliability was tested through Spearman-Brown Coefficient's formula.
Data analysis, rates, duplications, and the arithmetic average of the questionnaires of the mothers and specialists were performed using SPSS. The mothers' questionnaire and the specialists' questionnaire were then compared using the T-Test for the Independent Samples T-Test to determine the difference between the average aggregated opinions of mothers and specialists.
A statistical description of the responses of the participants was made to identify the best proposed designs according to specialists and mothers by using (arithmetic average, and ratio significance). The results of the statistical analysis showed that both the specialists and the mothers chose Design No. 8 and Design No. 2 which averaged 98% and 97% respectively, while Design No.5 achieved the least arithmetic average according to specialists at 94%. And Design No.3 reflected the least arithmetic average by mothers at 91%.
Conclusion
The results confirm the achievement of the research’s aims in the creation of a character inspired by mixing the pyramids’ shape and the colors of the Egyptian flag in an attractive way, and the creation of the design of children's t-shirts for the age 6 – 9 that enhance the children's sense of belonging to their identity as Egyptian and their love for their country when putting on such clothes while participating in national celebrations.