We invite abstracts for an edited collection investigating the theoretical, empirical and instructional aspects of what can be envisioned as visual pedagogies, offering classic, creative, and contemporary re-workings of these paradigms. The book will be divided into three complementary sections with an editor in charge of each.

 

Submission guidelines:

The book will be designed for an academic audience, however, we also invite creative and novel approaches that challenge and take risks including troubling traditionally accepted concepts such as literacy, learning, teaching, skills and so on. Contributors are asked to write in a manner accessible to readers outside of their respective fields. We encourage the use of images, mixed media, and externally linked or referenced material. Thus, we encourage provocations and novel ways of integrating image, diagram, illustration and other modalities, within and through the book’s pages. To build this book collaboratively and speak across chapters, we will share material, peer edit and discuss contributions within respective sections. In addition, each chapter will undergo rigorous double blind peer-review.

Key dates:

  • Abstracts of 500 words (theoretical framework, methods and focus) plus a 100 word biographical statement: February 25, 2019

  • Invitations for full chapters sent to authors: March 26, 2019

  • Full chapters (6000-7000 words including references) submission: September 10, 2019

Please email submissions and queries to the relevant section editor (see emails in the beginning of each section description).

 

Section 1: Conceptualizing Visual Pedagogies

Section editor: Carolina Cambre, Concordia University, Canada.

E-mail: carolina.cambre@concordia.ca

This section explores visual pedagogies theoretically through a collection of papers that reach into and beyond traditional understandings of both terms “visual” and “pedagogy.” In his 1648 landmark book on didactics, John Amos Comenius set out some enduring fundamental principles for teaching and learning, including what might seem an almost too obvious observation that “all learning happens through the senses” and thus this book refuses to relegate its consideration of the visual in pedagogy to the purely eye-dependent. In other words, we avoid visual essentialism by understanding that the visual is already irretrievably embedded in other sensory awareness. Similarly, we consider pedagogy by pluralizing it and positioning it beyond what might be seen as institutional pedagogical understandings and approaches by looking to de-link it from strict notions of being situated in schooling and within certain age-ranges. Instead, these conceptually oriented papers consider pedagogies in the sense that these approaches can take multiple, non-linear, and situated approaches whether collective or individual that can encompass diverse spaces. Thus the official space of the classroom is one amongst many pedagogical spaces that can include ceremonial, artistic, public, mediated, athletic, informal, community-based and work-related arenas.

Chapters in this section will re-think what visual pedagogies involve: including foregrounding the social nature of pedagogy and asking: What does it mean to look together, and deliberately attend to something in a process of desire and possibility?  Visual pedagogies are by nature nomadic and do not separate the how of educating from the what. What does this mean? First it means recognizing that “Pedagogy is never innocent,” and that it “carries its own message” (Bruner 1996: 63). Visual pedagogies respond and are actualized within the cultural contexts in which they are working, yet they are not “wed to a context but are taken up in unpredictable ways across various contexts” (Masny & Waterhouse 2011: 291 emphasis in original). As visual pedagogies gain momentum across fields, the need to navigate visual environments both digital and offline in ways that enhance sensibility and awareness of how/what to observe, analyze, criticize and reflect on in any given moment continues to grow.

Section 2: Case Studies of Visual Pedagogies in Education

Section editor: Edna Barromi-Perlman, University of Haifa, Kibbutz College of Education, Israel. E-mail: edna.barromi@smkb.ac.il

Reading and interpreting the visual worlds in which we live, work, teach and educate has emerged as an important feature in educational environments. Educational practice is influenced and maneuvered by continual flows of visual imagery, which manifest across multitudes of platforms and modalities. This section of the book will collect case studies based on empirical fieldwork, that reflect on forms of developing knowledge in visual pedagogy and how this knowledge might affect academic or other educational practices, societies, communities and educational systems. This section thus invites case studies of research/action research conducted in this field. The case studies will explore different paradigms and discuss the empirical manifestation of visual pedagogies in the field.

The case studies will build on current theories and address diverse audiences as well as diverse learning institutions on a global level. The selection will aim for an international and cross-cultural scope, so that each case study will present challenges specific to its country of origin. The research will encompass fieldwork in formal and informal educational settings as well as digital practices, educational media, online material and printed material and will be open to work that explores various, alternative visual platforms in educational institutions and beyond.

Section 3: Visual Pedagogies in Practice

Section editor: Joanna Kedra, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland.

E-mail: joanna.kedra@jyu.fi

This section explores visual pedagogies in classroom related contexts by immersing readers straight into the concrete examples of educational practices. In a world saturated by images and digitally and visually mediated communication, visual competency has come to the forefront in the 21st century. Subsequently, the need for skills in visual interpretation, image creation, evaluation and usage has demanded increased attention in education. Today’s students are assumed to be fluent in digital and visual technologies, mainly, due to their perpetual immersion into visually and technologically mediated communication. However, recent studies that examine visual literacy of young adults, mainly visual interpretation, but also abilities in visual production and image use, indicate that the assumption of today’s learners being technologically and visually savvy is mistaken. Thus, there is a pressing need for relevant visual pedagogies. However, practical teaching tools that may assist in developing students’ visual competency are still lacking, along with in-depth reflection on visual teaching practices.

At the core of this section lies a desire to introduce and critically evaluate models for teaching-learning interactions with various types of visuals. Visual pedagogies are understood as educating ‘with’ or ‘about’ visuals as well as a group of practices toward development of learners’ visual literacy.  Contributors of this section examine visually oriented practices, modes and models and reflect upon them. This section will provide fresh scholarly perspectives within an area of pedagogy that calls for more substantive reflection and practice-based approaches.