Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries Using Senses and Experiences: 

An Introduction

Danilo M. Baylen

University of West Georgia

A book, edited or not, is never finished. But at a certain point, the writer has to put the pen down or turn off the laptop to end the work that has been a big part of his daily activities for almost a year. As I put the finishing touches to this book of selected readings — a collection of writings on visual literacy based on conference presentations and responses to invitation — I believe that this body of work contributes to more scholarly activities and engagement in visual literacy research and practice.

As the senior editor, I feel relieved and exhilarated at the same time now that the work is done. Relieved that finally the book can be released for online public access, and I do not have to stay until almost midnight for weeks at my office, have decent meals, and more hours to sleep. Exhilarated by the experience of serving in a position that provided opportunities 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.

The Book of Selected Readings (TBSR) is not my first editorial experience. I completed another edited book three years ago. But there are still lots of lessons to be learned from dealing with authors and reviewers to managing a team of assistant editors. However, I believe that the previous experience encouraged me to embrace the challenge of working again on another edited text. Definitely, I felt that the years of serving as a reviewer, editorial team member, associate and lead editor has prepared me for this role. It is an honor to work with the next generation of visual literacy scholars in producing the annual book of selected readings for the International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA).

TBSR has almost a fifty year history. For more years than I can remember, the book of selected readings is the venue for the writings of those who presented at the annual conference. However, not all presenters submit a manuscript at the end of each conference, and this made my predecessors decide to welcome submissions outside of the annual conference that contribute to the emerging scholarship relevant to visual literacy. As the current editor-in-chief, I am still trying to find a balance in dealing with this challenge.

I feel confident with this year’s editorial team of Xiaoning Chen, Ricardo Lopez-Leon, Patrick Hickey, and Tinatin (Tiki) Baghashvili. All of us are very proud of this year’s collection of writings from a diverse group of authors. After multiple reviews and revisions, we as editors accepted ten manuscripts for publication that were grouped into three sections: Senses, Experiences, and Crossing Disciplines in the edited book. Senses and Experiences are words we chose as part of the edited book’s title to acknowledge the theme of presentations and contributions from the annual conferences in Montreal (2016) and Boston (2017). There were many presentations made in those conferences but the reality of time and other commitments prevented many individuals from translating their ideas into proposals and finally into manuscripts for publication consideration.

Given this challenge, as editor-in-chief, I advocated for more support to would-be authors to write, revise and complete their manuscripts. We created a review process involving two levels of feedback in improving content, scholarship, and impact of one’s writing. Instead of rejection, we provided opportunities for revision as long as the author/writer is willing to meet the expectation set by the editorial team. At the end, time became everyone’s big hurdle to complete and some manuscripts were recommended for more mentoring and publication consideration in the next year’s volume.

Senses, Experiences, and Crossing Disciplines

Ten chapters are included in this edited book and categorized into three sections. The first section on SENSES included three chapters with connection to digital symbols, tools, and applications. The second section on EXPERIENCES focuses on visual literacy practices in various school settings. The last section on CROSSING DISCIPLINES focuses on the integration and teaching of visual literacy in diverse settings and content areas (journalism, art therapy, architecture, and graphic design).

Each chapter in this edited book includes different perspectives yet similar goals of improving learning be it in a classroom, clinical setting, or outdoors 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.

The SENSES section opens with Chapter 1, Emoji Literacies: Read & Write, Translate, Montage authored by Ernesto Leon De La Rosa-Carillo. He explored emojis as “a particular brand of digital visual literacy through three distinct lesson plans. The instructional activities from different contexts focused on the expressive potential of colorful pictographs. The emoji lessons trace a map that is not meant to quantify and exhaust emoji use in everyday conventional communication but to expand emoji literacy beyond the reaches of the written word and render it capable of fashioning its own poetic, creative and expressive dimensions that can only be fully interrogated within the art classroom. De La Rosa-Carillo’s writing was selected as this year’s editors’ choice award.

Chapter 2, Twentieth Century Virtual Reality Education Reprise: Stereographs to Google Cardboard written by Veronica I. Ent described and discussed the historical context of virtual reality in the classroom.  She wrote about the stereoscope in early 1900s, and then identified parallelism with the use of smartphone as virtual reality devices in the classroom similar to the Google Cardboard.

In Chapter 3, Creating Connections: Teens, Art, and Engagement, Isabelle Guillard explores in her writing how contemporary artists can play in student learning in secondary school art education. She discussed the idea of having artists come to the classroom as a highly motivating educational strategy. She wrote about teens’ interests and how her strategy pushes the boundaries of traditional teaching methodology to incorporate the critical notions of identity, belonging, dialogue, and community.

Focusing on the teaching and learning, the EXPERIENCES section starts with Anne Katz who shared strategies for cultivating visual literacy in students from Pre-Kindergarten to 8^th grade. In Chapter 4, Cultivating Visual Literacy among Preschool through Middle School Students: Strategies and Applications, she described the approaches used such as family literacy workshops, literacy-through-art curriculum, and visualization/technology applications through creative writing among middle school students in an urban school setting.

The team of Xiaoning Chen, Mark Newman, and Vito M. DiPinto investigated how six middle and high school science teachers used what they learned in their teacher preparation programs and professional training to implement visual literacy practices to facilitate student learning. In Chapter 5, Teachers’ Visual Literacy Practices in Middle and High School Science Classrooms, they shared a case study that documented snapshots of the teachers’ visual literacy practices. They also discussed their findings on how their participants viewed visual literacy, used practices shaped by the curricula of their teacher preparation programs and their school context.

Chapter 6, Applying Visual Literacy to Pedagogy in Secondary Curriculum Design, for this section reported the process and preliminary outcomes of an action research study. Teresa A. Farrell studied how secondary pre-service teachers apply visual literacy (VL) integration into their own curricular design. She discussed the initial results that showed students’ purposeful integration of theory, and efforts in practicing VL abilities. She argued that these actions could potentially influence the application of VL abilities in curricular design and increase the VL ability to create meaning.

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 7, Evaluating Visuals: Increasing Visual Literacy with Infographics, the team of Dana Statton, Melony Shemberger and Leigh Landini Wright studied undergraduate journalism students’ understanding of the visual elements and textual content of infographics. They reported that teaching students specific evaluative and creative criteria is a critical part of an infographic assignment.

For Chapter 8, Aesthetic Empathy and Art-based Learning: Pedagogical Scaffolding in Art Therapy Education, Denise Malis presented a case study of a graduate art therapy course, Art Therapy for People with Severe Mental Illness (ATPSMI). She believed that creating art during class helped students develop an empathetic relationship via aesthetic and reflective self-awareness. She argued that visual literacy provided students with a means to develop their visual voice through numerous empathetic encounters. Such encounters allowed students to negotiate perceptions of self and other students, as well as their perception of the lived experience of persistent mental illness.

Carl Rogers and Chad Hunter wrote how visual literacy plays a crucial part in the work of landscape architects. In Chapter 9, Reading the Landscape, the authors utilized as a clarifying lens to research and gather information, analyze and develop graphics, and engage the community and stakeholders. They described this process as active visual learning through drawing and creating in deepening one’s understanding of places encountered. Through a community trail assessment case study, the chapter described and discussed how visual literacy strategies strengthened the design process, the value of the information gathered and the communication of the work.

The final chapter, Visual Awareness and Other Consequences of Promoting Visual Literacy through Photography, for this section focuses on how photography develops visual literacy skills. Ricardo Lopez-Leon asked his students to complete visual reports after watching audiovisual content. Assignments used were designed to develop visual literacy but research findings show that students also practiced a skill portrayed as visual awareness, a perception mode in which a designer observes the world with different eyes, being able to identify and convey meaning to everyday objects using a photographic camera. Findings from the study provided an opportunity to explore other ways to guide students in achieving visual awareness and visual literacy.

Thanks for a Million Things

The editorial team (Xiaoning, Ricardo, Patrick, and Tiki) and I really 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.

 This 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 what has been accomplished. At 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, and Rhonda Robinson for my initial immersion to visual literacy at Northern Illinois University. 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 in the near future. We look forward to your participation with IVLA annual conferences and submissions to future Book of Selected Readings.

Sincerely,

Editor, Senses and Experiences: The Book of Selected Readings
Carrollton, Georgia  30118  USA

November 1, 2018