Moving From Theories of Visual Literacy to Instructional Practices
Moving From Theories of Visual Literacy to Instructional Practices Literacy education has been dominated by written language and the medium of the printed text to the exclusion of visual images and design elements. If children are to understand how images represent and construct meaning, they need knowledge of the visual meaning-making systems used in their production. Bearne (2009) states, “children deserve to be given the key to translating their inner text making into coherent communications by explicit discussion of variations in the structures, purposes and effects of multimodal as well as written texts (p.99). As theories for interpreting visual images and multimodal texts continue to evolve, instructional approaches in literacy education need to evolve as well. Selecting the essential aspects of the vast array of theories of visual literacies and multimodality to build a foundation for pedagogical approaches can be a daunting enterprise. The purpose of this article is to offer a