In the final season of the Norwegian drama series "Skam" ("Shame") (2015-2017), the protagonist Sana, navigating in a secular, liberal youth culture, is a practicing Muslim wearing the hijab. The series is analysed as an instance of public religious education focusing on the issue of representation. This approach is informed by…

This article offers an update on key developments in research related visual literacy, children's reading and children's literature. Beginning with an overview of the field, we chart several distinctive 'turns' or research trajectories: the aesthetic, the intercultural or empathic, and the ethical. We then consider how questions of power,…

This contribution is intended as a plea for the reappraisal of drawing as a means of active visual inquiry in Visual Literacy. Active visual inquiry is a most adequate concept to describe the first two phases of the sub-domain of 'producing' in the revised Common European Framework of Reference for Visual Competency (CEFR-VC): 'the competency to…

This article focuses on war photography as a cultural phenomenon as used in secondary school history textbooks in the context of post-1989 Poland. It argues that the focus on the Second World War, its military aspects, and the threads previously erased from public memory, was specific to the Polish context. It also proves that the visuality of…

This article challenges an over-reliance on language as the primary means to communicate knowledge by adopting a language"less"ness approach to maker pedagogies and maker literacies. Having conducted makerspace and design-based research for some time, we separately and together noticed a productive relationship between wordless…

Until today, the most accepted notion about the coinage of visual literacy as a concept has been credited to John Debes in the late 1960s. In this paper, the authors describe the use of available digital tools to unearth a history of the concept of visual literacy in education that precedes in roughly 30 years these events. These overlooked years…

This interdisciplinary, conceptual analysis addresses the nature and benefits of artistic processes in learning and work. While recognizing various forms of artistry, the emphasis is on visual-spatial thinking. The benefits of this kind of thinking in academic and professional activities include the simplification of massively complex writing,…

Ample scientific literature recognises the role of visual thinking in the constructive process of ideas and mental images and the function of visual intelligence in the communicative processes. Starting from the sectoral studies, we have turned our attention to the visual communication of the results of scientific research, relating it to some…

This paper addresses some of the theoretical and practical implications of the Common European Framework of Reference for Visual Competency (CEFR-VC), developed through the European Network for Visual Literacy (Envil), in the context of international trends in curriculum design. Empirical application of the Framework is examined through the…

This paper examines the introduction of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) in Denmark and its potential as a pedagogical tool used throughout Danish education culture and particularly in Danish primary schools. The first active Danish users of and trainers in VTS in the country provide purposive qualitative interview data through structured e-mail…

Inclusive education is a global rights-based response to educational exclusion. It is communicated through a range of modalities, but analysis predominantly focuses on discourses constituted in written texts. Systematic research is needed to understand the discursive ensembles constituted by the visual mode. Our interest is in images of inclusive…

This contribution evaluates opportunities and challenges concerning the conception and utilization of visuals in current German geography textbooks from multidisciplinary theoretical perspectives. The designer's point of view, with insights from visual communications, information design, user experience design, and instructional design, will be…

The individuals living in the 21st century have become the consumers of digital innovations and have to adapt, adopt and adapt to the new norm of surviving and thriving in the digital society. Familiarity with the latest technologies is not the only requirement for survival. One also needs to have relevant digital competencies to complete tasks…

In my university classroom teaching, I draw on my interdisciplinary background as both a humanistic scholar and a documentary filmmaker, presenting an approach to learning that integrates scholarship with a digital storytelling practicum. Questions that scrutinize the relationship between written and visual discourses, the possibilities and limits…

Competency in visual literacy (VL) is crucial for effective visual communication, and thus for living and working in a visually saturated environment. However, VL across disciplines is still marginalized in higher education curricula. This tendency is partly caused by the lack of knowledge and agreement on what it means to be visually literate.…