Visual thinking has been neglected with the increasing emphasis on verbal and analytical skills. There is a need to provide balance in curriculum content and instructional evaluation related to visual imagery skills. In order to draw upon students' diverse talents and thinking capacities, educators must honor and respect alternative thinking and learning styles. Support and encouragement of visual thinkers is needed from preschool through adult years. The study of material culture as a context for both visual and verbal language learning is important in social studies and the fine arts. A review of literature provides an overview of what researchers in education, anthropology, psychology, and art education have found most significant regarding visual thinking. The issue can best be explored from a cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary perspective. The power of art and community to present symbols and metaphor is explored from a philosophical and biological viewpoint. Research suggests that shapings are the key to understanding child art, and that the human brain spontaneously comprehends visual stimuli. Differences between scientific and artistic approaches to qualitative research are enumerated. Photography provides a means of gaining insight into material culture and the relationships reflected by that culture. An exploration of visual thinking in three different cultures through a qualitative research methodology is proposed. Preschoolers and adult artists from Navaho, Pueblo, and Anglo cultures would be observed, interviewed, and photographed for a year. The research project would seek to discover how each creator arrives at individual meaning within the cultural context. (Contains 22 references.) (DK)