Show me : developing a broader view of visual literacy in education

Visual literacy has become increasingly important when what it means to be literate in the twenty-first century is considered. The challenge of providing effective, engaging and meaningful visual literacy practices relies on the conceptual and theoretical assumptions and foundations that have been laid about visual images and literacy theory generally. The papers in this portfolio focus on the development of visual literacy in educational contexts, both from a theoretical and from a pedagogical viewpoint. From a theoretical perspective, the portfolio explores the contemporary influence of a linguistically-based framework for understanding visual images, and proposes a broader conceptualisation. The implications of this broader view are then considered in classroom contexts, where the questions of what metalinguistic skills students might bring to the classroom, and what benefits the explicit teaching of a metalanguage provides, are addressed. The portfolio promotes the importance of providing sound pedagogical strategies for teaching visual literacy. Drawing on current best practice in the more traditional literacies of reading and writing, it is argued that visual literacy is best combined with purposeful and enjoyable learning contexts in the classroom. The issue of student engagement, particularly with students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, is explored where the use of visual images, in and of themselves, provides engaging pathways for learners in the context of meaningful and integrated learning contexts. The culmination of the portfolio brings together the previous areas by arguing for a broadened conceptualisation of visual literacy, enacted through an assessment framework which includes engaging pedagogy and systematic metalinguistic understandings