Interpretation of visual materials in scientific research

The paper is intended to constitute a voice in a discussion about visual culture in general, and about selected methods of analysis and interpretation of visual materials in particular. In the first part of the article the author discusses the issues of changes in contemporary culture with emphasis on its visual aspects. In the second part, the author takes a closer look at two research methods, which can be used for discovering new areas of education, namely Kress and Leuven visual-verbal analysis method and Schratz and Steiner-Loffler photoevaluation method. The brief outline of a theoretical framework for research methodology on interpretation of visual materials by Gillian Rose closes the paper. Visual methods referred to in this article have strong theoretical roots in ethnography, especially visual ethnography, which is a reflective and subjective way to tell social stories by the use of pictures, accompanied or not by the text