What is Visual Literacy?

Visual literacy is the ability to read, negotiate, and interpret the visual environment; to construct meaning from what we observe (images, gestures, and symbols); to critically analyse our observations, question, and then communicate our understanding with others.

Let’s explore visual literacy and how it can be applied to reading picturebooks and then how we can support children in developing their visual literacy skills in the classroom.

The back story…

Although the term ‘visual literacy’ may be a new concept for some, humans have been negotiating their visual environment from the beginning. The phrase however, was first introduced in 1969 by John Debes, the founder of the International Visual Literacy Association. In 1972, Debes and Fransecky published a document titled – Visual Literacy: A Way to Learn — A Way to Teach. The intention was to assist teachers in understanding the concept and provide examples for practical application with students.

They identified a gap in visual knowledge due to the rise of television, advertising, and billboards and found that young people developed confidence with viewing images from the increased exposure; however, it did not necessarily translate to skilled viewing; the onslaught of images from multiple sources made “…objective thinking and thoughtful, critical response to media messages confusing and difficult” and insightfully stated that the visual age requires the teaching of visual skills (Debes and Fransecky, 1972:9).

Fast forward… 

Fast forward from 1969, not only are we currently bombarded with visual images from billboards, advertising, and television, now we have computers, tablets, and smart phones. We have to ask, are students sufficiently equipped to think and respond critically? Do they possess the visual literacy skills necessary to navigate their digital world? Did we close the gap that Debes and Fransecky identified?

Why explicit visual literacy instruction?

Rapid and continuous technological advancement alongside constant exposure to increasingly complex and sophisticated images in our environment has heightened the need for visual skills; being visually literate means we need to learn to view, interpret, identify, read, comprehend and create and produce images to be able to effectively communicate now and in the future, important twenty-first century skills (Callow, 2005). We need to teach critical viewing. Children will benefit from learning to question and analyse the images they view. Current research suggests we have not closed the gap.

Visual literacy is now a broad field of study that encompasses many different disciplines, such as, linguistics, social sciences, art and design, and science and technology (Michelson, 2017). Since 1969, technology has changed the learning landscape tremendously. Students research on tablets, use digital texts, and compose on computers. More recently, the worldwide Coronavirus experience has completely flipped our perspective on what a learning environment is or can be. Perhaps even more important – what it will become.

If we want a definition, where do we search?

Although, I am primarily concerned with teaching visual literacy using picturebooks, it would be very limiting to exclude other disciplines and focus entirely on the field of education. Serafini (2014) suggests educators explore other fields beyond education to expand their knowledge of visual literacy and discover new strategies from other well-established disciplines that will provide them with working knowledge to teach students how to view, understand, navigate, analyse, and critique the sophisticated images they will encounter.

To acquire and read through all the research, tease out all the different definitions, and then form a working definition specific to viewing picturebooks would take an enormous amount of time. Serafini (2014) spent ten years researching visual literacies across multiple perspectives and suggests it is impractical to require teachers to master the extensive multitude of information available. There is an urgency to acquire information quickly. Teachers need useful and practical information and examples for immediate application. Fortunately, much of the work has been done and continues by researchers and educators, including the work of Serafini.

Common Themes

Avgerinou and Pettersson (2011, cited in Avgerinou 2001 a&b) reviewed visual literacy literature from 1969 to 1999 and found many common themes referred to in the many definitions:

• Visual and verbal language parallel each other;

• Visual literacy draws from the affective domain as well as a cognitive ability;

• “Ability”, “skill”, and “competency” have been used interchangeably to describe visual literacy;

• Specific skills associated with visual literacy are (a) to read/decode/interpret visual statements, (b) to write/encode/create visual statements, and (c) to think visually;

• Visual literacy skills are learnable, teachable, capable of development and improvement;

• Visual literacy skills incorporate other sensory skills;

• Visual literacy is inextricably linked to Visual Communication, Visual Thinking, and Visual Learning;

• Visual literacy’s main focus is intentional communication in an instructional context;

• Visual literacy has accepted and incorporated theory from other disciplines.

The above list contains several key words related to viewing picturebooks with young children such as, affective, cognitive, sensory, verbal, create, and teachable. The last point is also important if we view the picturebook not as the end game, rather, the starting point. For example, visual literacy vocabulary and concepts borrowed from Digital Media or Art History will provide children with the language needed to express themselves and support designing or composing of their own artefact. 

So, what is visual literacy?

The easiest answer is … it is reading pictures or images. In 1972, Debes and members of the National Conference on Visual Literacy agreed to a comprehensive definition that capture many of the themes listed above:

Visual literacy refers to a group of vision-competencies a human being can develop by seeing and at the same time having and integrating other sensory experiences. The development of these competencies is fundamental to normal human learning. When developed, they enable a visually literate person to discriminate and interpret the visible actions, objects, and symbols natural or man-made, that he encounters in his environment. Through the creative use of these competencies, he is able to communicate with others. Through the appreciative use of these competencies, he is able to comprehend and enjoy the masterworks of visual communications.

(Debes and Fransecky, 1972: 9)

There are many definitions, some are very simplistic, and others incorporate aspects missing from Debes’ definition such as the next step – creating an artefact in response to viewing. We can refresh Debes’ definition to reflect the skills and themes of twenty-first century learning to ensure all important concepts are covered.

Visual Literacy & Picturebooks

The following definition captures the essence of visual literacy using picturebooks with early primary children;

The visual is what we see, observe or view (objects, gestures, images, symbols) and literacy is the skill or ability to make meaning (understand, interpret, analyse, articulate, create) from what we view in concert with other senses (turning pages, listening to stories) and the affective domain (feelings and emotions).

(Nurse, 2018: 6)

The definition or understanding of visual literacy is meant to help teachers approach teaching and learning with a broader understanding of what it means to learn to read, to teach reading. Traditional reading and writing skills are important; however, equally important and arguably a necessity, visual literacy needs a place within those traditional skills. The challenge for teachers will be to find a way to meet the current demands of education while incorporating explicit visual literacy instruction for their students.

What next?

A definition helps us understand the what, it does not provide the how. There are many frameworks available to help with the how of visual literacy. Jon Callow’s The Shape of Text to Come and Frank Serafini’s Reading the Visual: An Introduction to Teaching Multimodal Literacy are two very good books that provide teachers with a framework and practical examples to help with planning lessons. Early primary teachers may need to adapt some of the information and vocabulary from these sources.

Coming soon…

I am currently working on a post that will provide teachers with sample lessons and texts to use with early primary children. I provide my framework as a tool to help teachers embed visual literacy instruction alongside traditional teaching methods. Bookmark my website and stay tuned for more…

REFERENCES

Avgerinou, M. and Pettersson, R. (2011) ‘Toward a Cohesive Theory of Visual Literacy.’ Journal of Visual Literacy, 30: 1-19. 10.1080/23796529.2011.11674687.

Callow, J. (2005) ‘Literacy and the visual: Broadening our vision.’ English Teaching: Practice and Technique, 4(1): 6-19.

Debes, J. L. (1969) ‘The Loom of Visual Literacy.’ Audiovisual Instruction, 14(8) pp. 25-27. (Article based on speech given before First Annual National Conference on Visual Literacy in Rochester, New York, March, 1969).

Fransecky, R. B., and Debes, J. L. (1972) Visual Literacy: A Way to Learn – A Way to Teach. AECT Publications: Washington, D.C.

Michelson, A. (2017) ‘A short history of visual literacy: the first five decades.’ Art Libraries Journal, 42(2): 95-98.

Nurse, D. How Can Explicit Visual Literacy Teaching Improve Literacy Learning? 2018. University of Glasgow, MEd Dissertation.

Serafini, F. (2014) Reading the Visual: An Introduction to Teaching Multimodal Literacy, New York: Teachers College Press.