Understanding corruption through freehand drawings: a case study of undergraduate business students’ visual learning in the classroom

Interest in the role of visual literacy within education has grownsignificantly over the last 50 years. Many scholars maintain thatliving in an image-rich culture in the twenty-first century requirespreparing visually literate graduates who are capable of a criticalreading and understanding of visual texts, as well as constructingimages through critical thinking. However, nowadays, discussionabout visual learning and development of visual literacy competenciesof students studying business and management remainsquite limited. This paper presents a case study of a visual learningactivity introduced to 1st year undergraduate students which areoften referred to as ‘digital natives’. This activity aims to developstudents’ visual critical thinking about a complex social phenomenonof corruption through their engagement with a non-digitalactivity such as freehand drawing