Benefits of Special Programs in

the arts to a student's skill and

knowledge: A Review of the
Literature
#3
Visual Literacy and Art Education: A Review of the
Literature

By

Scott McMaster

Concordia University, Montreal

SUBMITTED BY: ERVAINE JOHN A. LUPOS

ROSETTE P. GOC-ONG

SUBMITTED TO: JOANA MARIE GRIPOAA

Abstract:
Art is a language of visual images that everyone must learn to read.
In art classes we make visual images and we study visual images.
Increasingly these images affect our needs, our daily behaviour, our
hopes, our opinions and our ultimate ideals. This is why the individual
who cannot understand or read images is incompletely educated.
Complete literacy includes the ability to understand, respond to and
talk about visual images (Feldman, 1982, p.5).

Introduction and Rationale:

Visual literacy is under researched, often overlooked and
underestimated in its value to our education and in society in general.
Although the concept of Visual Literacy (VL) is still regarded as
controversial and problematic for lack of an agreed upon definition and
explicit focus, it remains actively pursued as many disciplines strive to
understand and integrate it (Avgerinou and Ericson, 1997; Boughton,
1986). Visual Literacy can be defined as an understanding of imagery
which encompasses all forms of visual media and, "distinguishes
between semantic and syntactic conventions and focuses on those
characteristics that most sharply differentiate visual language from
other modes of communication" (Messaris, 1998, p.70). Hortin(1980)
defined VL more simply as “the ability to understand and use images,
including the ability to think, learn, and express oneself in terms of
images” (p. 169).

In response to the prevalence and influence of visual imagery,

what efforts have been undertaken to analyze and interpret visual
language? What impact is or could visual literacy be having on-
education today? In particular, how are those in the Visual Arts and Art
Education, whose primary concern is imagery, educating students in
visual literacy and visually based communication? What do current
methods of exploration hold for the future of educational design? The
purpose of this literature review is to explore some major issues and
themes surrounding visual literacy’s impact, or lack thereof, on current
paradigms and the fundamental strategies of how we teach and learn.
We are constantly exposed to, and targeted by media on a scale which
may have been unfathomable over a decade ago. Considering the
importance and rapidly expanding influence technology and visual
imagery have, now more than ever, on society, what efforts are being
made to educate students in the production and consumption of our
vast, diagrammatic and increasingly technological world?

Major Issues and Themes:

The literature, which has been constrained to mainly Art and Art
Education related publications show several prominent themes under
the banner of ‘Visual Literacy’ which are discussed in detail; The Rise in
Visual Information and Consumption, The Inseparability of Visual
Literacy and Popular Visual Culture, The Importance of Learning to
Deconstruct our Visual World and The Role of Technologies and New
Media. The major themes are then followed by further discussion on
The Benefits of Visual literacy as well as implication for future study.

The Rise in Visual Information and Consumption of

Images:
 So what makes visual images so important or worthy of our
attention? Our world is increasingly image based and penetrates almost
all aspects of contemporary life; brought to us by a myriad of media and
technological devices which are not bound by the constraints of
physical space and do not meld easily within the ideals of traditional
literacy paradigms. Images permeate our homes, our cars, our streets,
our workplaces even our pockets; for most people images are both
inseparable from and essential for our everyday lives.

Hudson (1987) points out that as far back as 1936 it was assumed
that over 65% of all our information was attained visually. Hudson then
makes the case that with all the advances made in technology and the
supremacy of visual processes he estimates that over 85% of all
knowledge is attained visually (1987). “In spite of this, visual training,
visual language and literacy, have not as yet achieved an equal position
beside the other fundamental literacies-verbal, oral, and numeral” (p.
277). This is more recently supported by others, such as Chung (2005),
who describes the environment we live in as drenched in imagery.

The Inseparability of Visual Literacy and Popular

Visual Culture:
Throughout the literature it becomes increasingly apparent that it
is very difficult to separate the need for visual literacy from the call for
the study of visual culture. At the very center of popular visual culture
is, rather obviously, visual imagery. The media that deliver our films, TV
shows, news, commercials, ads, magazines and websites are now
structured around the images which compose the bulk of what we see
and convey a great deal of information; altering the perspective with
which we interpret the accompanying text or dialogue.

Duncum (1993) through his five functions of the visual arts in

society demonstrates the importance of the visual in both our everyday
lives and as intrinsically connected with popular culture. Duncum claims
that it is crucial to understand the motives which engage children and
adults in the production of imagery and in doing so it will better inform
the place of the visual art’s role in society. Duncum pointed out that in
1993 children are exposed to many more visual narratives than in the
past via TV; this has even more significance to educators today because
of the ubiquity of the internet and access students have to these
narratives. Still Duncum claims there is little focus given to visual
narrative in schools, citing a preoccupation with words.

Allen (1994) suggests that visual narratives and the use of

camerawork portray characters and people in certain ways which can
affect our interpretation and opinions of them. He also includes all
forms of mass media communication (including new media) stating,
“the deregulation of broadcasting and the development of increasingly
cheap and sophisticated multi-media technologies for work and leisure
make it increasingly important that we can handle visual information as
part of a complex package of ideas and ideologies” (p.134). Allen (1994)
further strengthens his argument by pointing out, as does Aguirre
(2004), that although we would like fine art media to play a more
important role in interpreting these narratives, they cannot compete
with the presence of popular mass media as potent visual
artifacts of people’s daily lives, further questioning whether painting,
drawing and printmaking etc. can provide an inclusive education in VL.
Allen (1994) makes a direct link between a critical eye and VL,
suggesting that attaining literacy means knowing and understanding the
source.

Avgerinou and Ericson (1997) point out, giving strength to Eisner’s

(1986) claims, that if it is established that the visual sense is the most
dominant and therefore the most central (they see no evidence not to
believe that to be true) rationality dictates that as teachers we should
focus and develop the visual sense through the fostering and expansion
of visual literacy. Adding to this Avgerinou and Ericson (1997) also note
the ubiquity of visual mass media and the messages contained within
them, reiterating the significance for generations growing up within this
context not be just passive consumers absorbing these messages.

Addison (1999) proposes, similarly to Knight (2010), that VL

has wrongfully been slotted into a textual perspective of interpretation
of imagery which cannot account for the multiplicity of meanings
contained within creatively produced signs/symbols used in our
everyday lives. It is then not too much of a leap to link this idea with
popular visual culture as the dominant force driving and creating these
everyday sign and symbols.The types of things that we read visually on a
daily basis include, body gestures, clothes, posture, facial expressions
and reactions are all visual forms that, Addison suggests, should be built
upon in the curriculum. Just as students interact and create meaning
with each other so do they interact and create meaning with images
and works of art. Addison also cites the rise of multimedia as
challenging verbal dominance, gradually displacing it from its privileged
perch.
 Children and students in school increasingly present a tacit
understanding of media literacy drawing on their regular media
consumption, albeit as consumers rather than producers. All this has a
pressing influence on the school curriculum and educators are posed
the challenge of reflecting these changes (Herne, 2005, p. 7).

Almost everyone sees, immersed in imagery , signs and

symbols most of their waking life (even in dreams) , but, “may rarely
encounter an eight-page essay written in MS Word with an APA
bibliography” (Harris, 2006, p.214) and most people do not do algebra
or physics or encounter equations √ as they walk down the street.
Despite this reality Harris (2006) insists out that few students would
actually be asked to produce an image based essay or to deconstruct
imagery in most programs of study.

Yet even though the average student may not be asked to produce
imagery during their studies Spalter and van Dam (2008) contend that
the ease at which images can be produced, spread, altered and
accessed worldwide, almost instantaneously, makes the interpretation,
production and consumption of our visual world all the more critical.

Spalter and van Dam (2008) state the tremendous rise

in visual communication is due to computer graphics being able to not
only represent our world but allow us to interact and manipulate it.
Spalter and van Dam (2008) note that unlike previous visual innovations
in technology like the printing press, telescope or microscope,
computer graphics and new technologies can be used, manipulated and
altered (as well as disseminated)by just about anyone who can dedicate
the time. They claim that visual perception, contrary to popular belief, is
a complex intertwining of moving, static and contrasting stimuli. Factor
in all these technologies and new media and merge them with the
motives, agendas, placement of everyday images, objects, even
architecture and the distinct principles which we may consciously or
unconsciously associate with them, makes visual literacy all the more
interesting and imperative.

the Importance of Learning to Deconstruct our

Visual World:
The fundamental nature in which we interpret the world around us,
first and foremost is through our eyes, this has both socio-cultural
relevance as well as educational value. How we see, rather than what
we see, determines the views of our surroundings, our social
interactions with other people and how we respond and react to a
world of signs and symbols woven into all aspects of our culture. The
imagery within our environment saturates our neighbourhoods,
institutions and communities; deconstructed, analyzed, reconstructed
and stored in our minds as representations of our reality but is it a
conscious process or are we just passively absorbing this information?

Boughton (1986) advances three concepts (or categories) of VL and

although underdeveloped they do provide some guidance:

 Visual literacy via Communication: The broadest of the three it

encompasses all ‘human made visual signs other than written language’
(p.128), with an emphasis on image making technology.

 Visual literacy via the Artistic: To encode and decode meaning in

various art
forms with an emphasis on unlocking the meaning contained within.

Visual literacy via the Aesthetic: A focus on how we view, respond and
assign meaning and value to aesthetic works, which are discipline
specific.

He concludes that Artistic VL is the most appropriate concept to help

develop literacy and within its boundaries multiple VL needs to be
enacted to span the styles and codes contained across our multicultural
visual world. To be visually illiterate is to potentially be more exposed to
and fall victim of the persuasion and rhetoric of popular media.

Further methods of deconstructing the visual arts are proposed

by Duncum (1993). Duncum lists five functions (categories) of the visual
arts which are helpful both in analyzing specific use of visual art as well
methods of pinpointing the importance of the visual within each
context.

1) Substitution: a need for pleasurable looking and

recreating the world through representation to better understand it.
This dates back to cave paintings (Read, 1954) and ancient Egypt,
images provided concrete examples of reality at the time as well as
records of progress and change, which could be considered the most
primitive form of visual literacy.
 2) Narration: also provides pleasure, it instructs and informs,
creates identity, and helps to construct what is socially acceptable and
dealing with both humorous and serious issues. Both educational and
commercial purposes use this method.

3) Embellishment: “Embellishment provides visual pleasure

and thus enhances the quality of life, but it can also obscure ideas”
(1993, p. 219). Other forms of embellishment include design and
decoration as well as adorning funerals and weapons with pleasing
characteristics in order to disguise their purpose. An example of this
would be fighter jets, sometimes beautifully sculpted aerodynamic
flying machines which children might equate more closely with racing
cars than instruments of destruction. This design makes the
unacceptable purpose palatable and attaches meaning or special
significance to certain events according to Duncum.

4) Commitment/persuasion: “Totalitarian regimes are notorious

for using visual images to suppress dissent, while the history of visual
artists acting as social critics is long and laudatory” (1993, p.221). This
example is especially poignant with the recent events in North Africa
and the Middle East, as the world looks on it is the broadcasting of
images (or in some cases the lack thereof) which have the highest
impact on our consciousness and consciences. Duncum discusses how
-images are used to persuade and reinforce certain ideas and
ideological commitment in societies so that they become the status
quo, the messages within these images becoming second nature or
common sense to us. He states that “Providing students with the critical
skills required to resist attempts at visual persuasion which are not in
the students’ best interests are perhaps the most important skills
formal education can deliver” (1993, p.222). VL in the art curriculum is a
good place to start providing such skills.

5) Personal expression: Although it is often seen as a means

of differentiating an individual from others and promoting ones
uniqueness, Duncum claims that even within these individual forms of
self-expression and personal achievement people are “constrained by
media, available techniques, prevailing ideas, and the pressures and
process of a stratified society. Even the basic notions of individualism, of
personal expression and response, should be seen as social
constructions serving dominant interests” (1993, p.223). This again
relates to the importance of the visual in socially constructing our
realities and making sense of the realities of others. Only by recognizing
what these interests are can we begin to understand how they
influence us.

Although Duncum does not campaign specifically for VL his

examples of the important roles that visual arts and imagery play in
society and our everyday lives, cross culturally and throughout history
certainly support an increased focus and concentration on students
awareness of embodied meaning disseminated by visual media and
ultimately a literacy of images and the media through which they reach
us.
 Aguirre (2004) advocates a ‘trans-disciplinary’ approach noting
that many in the art ed. field are trying to situate their work in a more
interdisciplinary academic context including visual studies and visual
culture including popular culture. Due to this shift she suggests a
dismissal of art education that deals only with the traditional skills of
production and technical ability and a focus more on the interpretation
and decoding of art works leading to the development of visual literacy.
Chung (2005) also urges that art education play a central role in giving
children the critical tools necessary to properly understand what is
being visually conveyed and thereby aid them in making informed
decisions in an “image saturated environment” (2005, p.19).

The Role of Technologies and New Media:

Viewing visual literacy in a contemporary context it becomes
self-evident that consideration must be made as to the placement and
integration of new media and technologies. As Kurzweil (2005) predicts
we are moving exponentially towards a technologically dependant
society where technology is not only essential to our daily lives but
where we might begin to merge with these technologies. If we take this
rather overwhelming predication into consideration, even if at less than
face value, technology’s influence on visual media needs to be
examined under VL.

Boughton (1986) clearly describes the importance of the use and

understanding of what he calls visual technologies, citing that
technology and the media have a tremendous influence on children and
that the proper use of these tools can be motivational for students.
Boughton (1986) claims that VL is learning to use these technologies
skillfully to communicate information and ideas, thereby expanding
other literacies.

Hudson (1987) takes this idea even further by asserting that the
interpenetration of art and technology within communicative systems is
carrying on briskly and regrettably the results, as witnessed in the
media, are often appalling, because practitioners and patrons are
equally aesthetically underdeveloped and functionally visually illiterate.
Hudson maintains, “We now have new needs stemming from a wealth
of ideas, languages, systems, information-communication disciplines
and technologies, new concepts, the information explosion, and
technical change may leave traditional education in disarray unless we
recharge and redirect it” (p. 272). Duncum (1993) under his fifth
function of the visual arts remarks that society is driven by utilitarian,
economic as well as what he calls a ‘technological omnipresence’
(p.222). Allen (1994), supporting Boughton’s (1986) aims, views VL as
being able to use these new image making technologies to express
ideas, citing the ubiquity of new media technologies as comprising an
important part of how we conceive and convey complex information.

As evidenced by much of the literature technology and visual imagery

have an intimate and intricate relationship which one might call
symbiotic. It seems that in order to fully understand one you cannot
discount the other, instead it may be the best course of action to
explore the two simultaneously
The Benefits of Visual Literacy:
Besides the numerous rationale mentioned already some may
still ask why visual images or visual literacy deserves such attention,
what are the more palatable benefits outside of understanding pictures
better? Well some of the literature, in addition to supporting the crucial
role visual images play in our daily lives also stress that visual language
and communication play an essential part in our cognitive development
and can increase our capacity to learn in all subject areas.

Eisner (1986) makes a case for the role of the senses in the
interpretation of our environments and our ability to build versatile
concepts and translate them from abstract perception to concrete
experience; arguing that words such as justice, category, nation or
infinity are “meaningless noise or marks on paper unless their referents
can be imagined” (p. 59). The visual arts are in a prime position for the
handling of these abstract concepts as they have been our chief form of
representation since the dawn of civilization and intuitively linked with
our senses. Among these senses and forms of representation the visual
clearly dominates “In the beginning there was the image, not the word”
(p.60), however Eisner also notes the importance of transferring ideas
between the senses for which, he claims, we invented analogies.

Duncum (1993) suggests, evidenced in his five functions, that the

visual arts are rooted in the very nature of human cognition and
societies. Although this idea is not absolute he contends it is a certainty
that in our society children, even the very young, are motivated
instinctively to create images for motives which closely correlate with
the role of images in our society. This supports closer study of the links
between images and literacy as well as the effects images have on
human cognition, development and perception.

Avgerinou and Ericson (1997) point out that Ausburn and Ausburn’s
(1978) list of potential benefits of developing Visual Literacy are just as
pertinent in the 1990s:

1. Increase in all kinds of verbal skills

2. Improved self-expression and ordering of ideas
3. Increase in student motivation and interest in subjects of all types
and at all levels,
4. ‘Reaching’ students not being reached in traditional ways. Students
such as the educationally disadvantaged, the truant, the socially
underprivileged, the emotionally disturbed, the intellectually
handicapped, the ethnic and bilinguals, the dyslexic, the deaf, those
with speech pathology problems—all respond and have been helped in
terms of both interest and achievement,
5. Improved image of self and relationship to the world
6. Improved self-reliance, independence, and confidence

Last but not least, the authors emphasized that the development of VL
will also result in increasing the ability to better comprehend today’s
world (p. 295).

This list continues to have relevance thirty years after it was

written maybe even more so today with ever advancing technologies
and as noted above not only does VL help the average student in
cognitive and perceptual ways it can also improve the learning of those
who have difficult learning in traditional (textual) ways. This idea is
further supported by Gardner’s (1982) Multiple Intelligences Theory, in
particular Visual-Spatial learners. A prime example of this is the life of
Temple Grandin, an autistic woman who learned in a primarily visual
way and was able to overcome many of the hurdles autistic people face
by embracing her visual way of learning and using it creativity (Grandin,
2010). Harris (2006) is also aware that visual information can benefit
those whose primary mode of communication may not be verbal or
written, stating that it can aid people learning with dyslexia, hearing
impairments and functionally illiterate adults.

Implications for Future Study:

In the pursuit of VL it has been revealed that visual learning,
unfortunately, often takes a backseat to the privileged and dominant
stature of textual learning and literacy. VL learning even when it is
present, too frequently must conform to the standards and
methodologies of text (Hudson, 1987; Addison, 1999; Aguirre, 2004).
Allen (1994) and Sinker (2006) advocate for a multi-disciplinary
approach to undertake the issues of VL and extend visual education to
embrace other disciplines, creating a cross curricular concept of VL
which can accommodate multiple interpretations according to culture.
Allen states that, “new studies of literacy emerge ‘at the interface of
anthropology, cultural studies, social linguistics and literary theory”
(1994, p.141).

Much of the literature tends to be in agreement with that statement.

Visual literacy should not be isolated within Art; we need to draw from
other disciplines to develop a more comprehensive paradigm for
learning visual imagery. VL is not ours to claim as our own, although we
do have a much higher stake in visual imagery visual arts and art
education do not have a monopoly on its use, imagery is and should be
an integral part across the disciplines (Eisner, 1986; Duncum, 1993;
Allen, 1994; Prensky, 2001; Aguirre, 2004) and partnerships need to be
formed to exploit a variance of perspectives and creatively explore VL.

Throughout this literature, the majority of which is art based,

there is an almost alarming absence of visual imagery. How are we as
art educators to thoughtfully investigate topics like VL without a
thorough look at images? Goin (2001), a geographer, has also noticed
the exclusion of images (photos) in social science journals. His appeal
for the inclusion of photographs is also a plea for the understanding of
fact and fiction in imagery by implementing VL.

It has also become apparent that there appear to be significant gaps

in the ‘hands-on’ study of images and how students create and
deconstruct them. More effort needs to be put into the teaching and
classroom application of VL to draw on student’s lived experience,
framed within popular visual culture, to observe how they handle and
react to the production and interpretation of imagery as Chung (2005)
and Harris (2006) have done.

We need a unified front to undertake the interpretation and

creative production of imagery as it is an ostensibly crucial yet
underdeveloped and underemployed component of learning. This
means cross-curricular collaboration and an expansion of VL, rather
than a narrowing down, to include all visual imagery; moving, still or
otherwise and an additional focus on sub-structures like media literacy
(Duncum, 1993; Prensky, 2001; Herne, 2005; Harris, 2006; Spalter and
van Dam, 2008) to include the examination of popular visual culture. By
doing so I believe that educators and students will eventually be able to
properly define, implement and garner the benefits of visual literacy.
References:
Abrahmov, S.L. (2008). Media Literacy: Reading and Writing Images in
a Digital Age. Educating Artists for the Future, Learning at the
Intersections of Art, Science Technology and Culture. Intellect Books /
University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

Addison, N. (1999). Who’s Afraid of Signs and Significations?

Defending Semiotics in the Secondary Art and Design Curriculum.
Journal of Art and Design Education, 18(1), 33- 39.

Aguirre, I. (2004). Beyond the Understanding of Visual Culture: A

Pragmatist Approach to Aesthetic Education. Journal of Art and Design
Education 23(3), 256-269.

Avgerinou, M. and Ericson, J. (1997). A review of the concept of Visual

Literacy. British Journal of Educational Technology, 28(4), 280–291.

Allen, D. (1994). Teaching Visual Literacy – Some Reflections on the

Term. Journal of Art and Design Education, 13(2), 133-143.

Ausburn, L. J. and Ausburn, F. B. (1978). Cognitive Styles: Some

Information and Implications for Instructional Design. Educational
Communication and Technology, 26(4), 337-354.

Boughton, D. (1986). Visual Literacy: Implications for Cultural

Understanding through Art Education. Journal of Art &Design
Education, 5(1-2), 125-142.
Chung, S.K. (2005). Media/Visual Literacy Art Education: Cigarette Ad
Deconstruction. Art Education, 58(3), 19-24.

Delacruz, E. (2009). Old World Teaching Meets the New Digital Cultural
Creatives. Journal of Art and Design Education, 27(3), 261-268.