Editor’s Note: Selected Readings 2018

The International Visual Literacy Association, popularly known as IVLA, celebrated fifty years as an organization for visual literacy educators, scholars, and practitioners. 2018 is a milestone for IVLA members — celebrating fifty years — especially for those who are involved with the organization in its early beginnings.

Almost all annual IVLA conferences produce an edited book called The Book of Selected Readings (TBSR). The publication provides opportunities to those who presented at the yearly conference independent of their involvement in the field of visual literacy. The edited book contains a collection of papers that showcases scholarly activities focusing on visual literacy research and practice.

As the TBSR senior editor, I feel relieved that the edited book is now accessible online after several challenges in the editing and publication processes. I am in my second year to have the opportunity to review the works of experienced colleagues, mentor those interested in scholarly writing for this field, and collaborate with a diverse group of peers as editors and reviewers.

This year’s publication received support from an editorial team of Xiaoning Chen, Ricardo Lopez- Leon, Patrick Hickey, and Sarah Christensen. All of us are very proud of this year’s collection of writings from a diverse group of authors. After multiple reviews and revisions, the editorial team accepted eleven manuscripts for publication grouped into three sections: Reading the Visual, Experiencing the Visual, and Crossing Disciplines. Dreams and Inspirations are words chosen as part of the edited book’s title to acknowledge the theme of presentations and contributions from the annual conferences in Chicago (2018), Boston (2017), and Montreal (2016). There were many presentations made at those conferences. Still, the reality of time and other commitments prevented many individuals from translating their ideas into proposals and finally into manuscripts for publication consideration.

Reading and Experiencing the Visual, and Crossing Disciplines

READING THE VISUAL section included three chapters with a connection to visuals in children’s picturebooks, graphic novels, and photographs. EXPERIENCING THE VISUAL part focuses on visual literacy practices in various educational settings. The final section, CROSSING DISCIPLINES, focuses on the integration and teaching of visual literacy in diverse environments and content areas (e.g., arts-based curriculum, creativity, communication, information design).

Each chapter in this edited book includes different perspectives yet similar goals of improving learning, be it in a classroom, clinical setting, or in the community. It offers different strategies of teaching visual literacy to include inquiry-based, content-focused, process-oriented activities to improve the understanding of how we learn about things around us through images, visuals, illustrations, photographs, videos, or multimedia devices.

READING THE VISUAL section opens with Chapter 1, Engaging with Endpapers: A Visual Literacy Experience Upon Opening a Picturebook authored by Geri Chesner. The chapter reports on a study done of the endpapers in eighty-five picturebooks published in 2016. Chesner used two endpaper typologies based on the works of Sipe and McGuire (2006) as well as Duran and Bosch (2011). She found that the theme as a story element prevailed in the books studied.

Chapter 2, Using Graphic Novels to Illustrate Empathy, written by Lee Okan. She described and discussed how graphic novels could be used as teaching tools, and help students think critically about personal experiences. In analyzing graphic novels, Okan believes that “readers learn compassion through the medium.”

The last chapter in this section, Discourses of Power in Historical News Photographs: Bain News Service and Representation in the Age of Imperialism, by Denitsa Yotova investigated “visual discourses of power in early twentieth-century news photography.” At the end of the chapter, the author argues that “news photographs …. promoted a sense of nationalism and exceptionalism in the age of empire.”

Focusing on integrating visual literacy practices in teaching and learning contexts, the EXPERIENCING THE VISUAL section starts with Chapter 4 by Margaretha Häggström titled Visual Genealogy of Portraits, Self-Portraits, and Selfies: Same Phenomenon, Different Phases of History. She describes her examination of the genealogy of three types of portraits — portraits, self-portraits, and selfies. Using the four resources model by Freebody and Luke (1999) in her analysis of the portraits, she also discussed the concepts of visual code-breaking, visual meaning- making, visual use, and visual analysis. The ideas, mentioned earlier, supported the interpretation of her findings.

The team of Pamela Wicks and Meg Bero investigated how college students learned how to create a three-dimensional artifact using a software application. In Chapter 5, Papers, Pencils, and Crayons: A Case Study in Building Visual Literacy Skills for College Students, they shared a case study that documented how theory and practice worked when using digital tools.

Chapter 6, Introducing Graphic Facilitation and Recording, presents graphic facilitation (GF) and graphic recording (GR) for those interested in expanding visual literacy in the workplace. Sharlene Kennedy, the author, included in her discussions “a curated history, sample exercises and examples to illustrate the benefits of and similarities and differences between graphic facilitation and graphic recording.” She believes that reading this chapter can enhance the understanding of GF and GR, and appreciation of “its potential impact on learning, growth, and communication for individuals, groups, and organizations.”

Chapter 7, Funny feeling – Introducing a Performance Art Approach towards Visual Literacy, written by Elke Mark, provides a unique perspective on connecting visual literacy and performance art. Mark describes “an experiential attempt to access the underlying complex tactile experience and the Gleichgewichtssinn (sense of balance) and translate it into a perceptible interactive experience. Given the background, the author “introduces the example of a reading practice which acknowledges bodily experience, and opens visual literacy beyond usage and design.”

The last section focuses on CROSSING DISCIPLINES, where researchers and practitioners identified areas that visual literacy knowledge and skills would be useful and helpful in learning discipline-specific content or material. In Chapter 8, Constructing Arts-based Literacy Practices through Kwame Alexander’s “The Playbook”, by Anne Katz, describes the experience of using targeted reading, writing, discussion, and arts-based literacy projects with public middle school students. Also, the author explored how the experience can increase “pre-service educators’ commitment to their field and expand their learning.”

For Chapter 9, Surveying Visual Literacy Guidelines for Information Design Application, by Randy Howe discusses how professional information designers make design decisions. In this chapter, he also describes the process undertaken in creating a “more comprehensive and informed list” from fifty guidelines and rules found in the literature.

Phillip Gallagher wrote about “pedagogical change toward designing these artifacts in technical communication” in Chapter 10. His chapter titled Design: Changing Zeitgeist, Changing Communication also examined how “cultural attitudes affecting teaching practices” including the trend in communication instruction “towards visual, design-based methods for training technical writers.”

Finally, Chapter 11, Creativity and the Development of New Ideas: The Generative Potential of Visual Literacy, by Brad Hokanson, discusses that becoming visually literate includes the “capability to create and think using visual media.” The chapter addresses the creative process, “whether internally through visualization or externally through distributed means” such as informal drawing, sketching, thinking pictures, etc.

A Million Thanks

The editorial team (Xiaoning, Ricardo, Patrick, and Sarah) and I appreciate all those who made this book of selected readings a reality. The chapter authors deserved a lot of kudos for the quality of their work. As senior editor, I believe that these chapters can be useful to those interested in promoting visual literacy — whether as a new teacher, faculty member, researcher, scholar, or, practitioner. Also, I hope it will inspire experienced as well as beginning visual literacy scholars to study ideas and practices with courage and a sense of adventure given the rapidly changing visually-rich world.

The edited book has become a reality due to numerous individuals, from those who initially proposed, authored manuscripts, and acted as peer-reviewers, and multiple contributors. The editors would like to thank them all for the accomplishment. On a personal level, I would like to acknowledge a good friend, Cristine Goldberg, who cheered and provided sage advice “when things got tough,” while making this dream a reality. Also, a big thank you to Michelle Wendt, 2019 IVLA president, for her support. Finally, the editorial team and I hope that you will enjoy reading the book chapters as we did, and will be inspired to do more teaching, learning, and research related to visual literacy soon.

We look forward to your participation in IVLA annual conferences and submissions to future books of selected readings.

Sincerely,