Both events of the online book launch of “Visual Pedagogies in Higher Education: Between Theory and Practice” were a great opportunity to share the work included in the volume. It was wonderful to see many colleagues attending these events, asking questions and discussing. I was happy to see those of you who I know and have been collaborating with on various occasions, and many persons who I did not know before but who were intrigued by the work related to visual pedagogies. Let’s the ideas around visual pedagogies continue to evolve into new and further collaborations!
A visual summary of both events was captured visually by Iryna Molodecky, one of the contributors to the volume. She kindly agreed for this image to be shared here. In case you want to know more about her work, check Iryna’s website (of course, in addition to her chapter in “Visual Pedagogies”).
Come and get inspired by the ideas on how to implement elements of visual pedagogies in university education
Two events, on November 16th and 22nd, are organized to launch newly published book “Visual Pedagogies in Higher Education: Between Theory and Practice” which I edited. Each event will start with a short overview of the book (by me) and will follow by the introductions to four chapters (by the contributors). There will be time for questions, exchange of ideas and discussion.
You are welcome to attend both events or to choose one, based on your schedule and interest. Sign up HERE to get the Zoom link.
On 16th November at 2:00 – 3:00pm (EET / UTC+2) we will hear introductions to the following chapters:
As Visual as Possible: The Pedagogy of Visual Research Methods in a Finnish University (by Joanna Kędra and Rasa Žakevičiūtė)
Discipline-Led Thinking through Cultural Collections and Art (by Olivia Meehan)
Photomedia Literacy in Ruins? Student Attitudes toward Digital and Analog Photomedia When Creating an Archive for the Future (by Gary McLeod and Tad Hara)
Learner-Generated Video: Video Creation Process for Developing Visual Competencies (by Pınar Nuhoğlu Kibar)
On 22nd Novemberat 3:00 – 4:00pm (EET / UTC+2) we will hear introductions to the following chapters:
Teaching Photography Theory to Art Students: Three Case Studies (by Marianna Michałowska)
Using Visual Art Practices to Enhance Educators’ Professional Growth (by Karen F. Tardrew)
How Drawing Enhances Learning for Business Students (by Iryna Molodecky)
The Use of Freehand Drawing as a Means of Teaching Research Methods in a Business School (by Gyuzel Gadelshina)
My edited book “Visual Pedagogies in Higher Education: Between Theory and Practice” is already in the production process! The publication date is set up for October/November 2022, so very soon. It has been a great learning process for me and I am grateful to all contributors who make it possible to open the topic of visual pedagogies from so many different perspectives.
And here comes the table of contents for this volume:
Introduction: Visual Pedagogies in Higher Education Joanna Kędra
Part I:
Visual Pedagogies in Research Methods Courses
Chapter 1
As Visual as Possible: The Pedagogy of Visual Research Methods in a Finnish University Joanna Kędra and Rasa Zakeviciute
Part II:
Visual Pedagogies in Business Studies
Chapter 2
How Drawing Enhances Learning for Business Students Iryna Molodecky
Chapter 3
The Use of Freehand Drawings as a Means of Teaching Research Methods in a Business School Gyuzel Gadelshina, Rob Wilson, Paul Richter and McKenzie Lloyd-Smith
Part III:
Visual Pedagogies and Object-Based Learning
Chapter 4
Discipline-led Thinking Through Cultural Collections and Art Olivia Meehan
Part IV:
Visual Pedagogies in Photography Education
Chapter 5
Photomedia Literacy in Ruins? Student Attitudes toward Digital and Analogue Photomedia when Creating an Archive for the Future Gary McLeod and Tad Hara
Chapter 6
Teaching Photography Theory to Art Students — Three Case Studies Marianna Michałowska
Part V:
Visual Pedagogies in Teacher Education
Chapter 7
Learner-Generated Video: Video Creation Process for Developing Visual Competencies Pınar Nuhoğlu Kibar
Chapter 8
Using Visual Art Practices to Enhance Educators’ Professional Growth Karen F. Tardrew
Concluding Note: Measuring Success in Visual Pedagogies Joanna Kędra
The 54th Annual Conference of the International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA) will be organized at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland on 10-12 August 2022. It will be hosted by the Department of Language and Communication Studies in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in collaboration with the MultiLEAP (Multiliteracies for social participation and learning across the life span) profiling area of the University of Jyväskylä.
I am in charge of chairing the Local Organizing Committee. The call will be out in January 2022. Here is an overview of the conference theme (from almost ready CFP):
Connecting & Sharing – Envisioning the Futures of Visual Literacy
The past two years of ongoing restrictions caused by the worldwide pandemic have shown the importance of the visual in the everyday. Our lives have become more visual than ever before – from intense visual-sharing practices with relatives and friends, video conferencing and online education, to the visual presence of pandemic contexts in cityscapes, artistic practices in local communities, media feeds including charts and graphs, and creation of remixed images as a commentary to the crises. It has become clear that we increasingly need visual literacy in terms of image creation, reception and visual thinking. Therefore, in these current unpredictable (visual) times, we aim for the impossible – to envision the futures of visual literacy. We invite scholars, educators, students, and practitioners from all over the world to discuss theoretical insights and to share research, artistic, and educational practices around the concept of visual literacy and/or in dialogue with multimodality, multi-sensory experiences and multiliteracies. The concept of visual literacy has been used for over five decades in education, art, museum studies, information design, photography, and new literacies research, but currently we have reached the point when we need to (re)build and (re)discover the (new) connections between the variety of theories, disciplinary traditions and educational practices in visual literacy and beyond.
The view on the Jyväsjärvi Lake in the center of Jyväskylä with Ylistönrinne Campus in the background (photo source: Jyväskylän kaupunki promotional materials).
This is a book that I have been long waiting for to work on. For the past few years I have had different concepts about it and rather than sitting down and thinking about it – I kept engaging in other publication projects (some successful and some not).
Now came the time when I got really excited about this book, and thus, I can also picture it (finally!) in my head. This will be an edited collection with the working title “Teaching Visually: A Guidebook to Visually Immersed Higher Education”. Excellent contributions from more than ten authors, with various teaching experiences (nationally, culturally and subject wise) will form its core. This will be complemented by an extended Introduction, in which I will elaborate on the key concepts related to visual education in the university context. The book is to be completed with a year, by December 2021, including two review rounds (one of which will hopefully be a publication workshops with all involved authors). The book is contracted with Brill/Sense for their series “Advances in Teaching and Teacher Education”.
I learnt a lot. I made some mistakes that now I know could have been avoided if I would have had at least some editorial experience that I have now, when the process is over. Nevertheless, I am very proud that we both, i.e. me and my friend and colleague, Rasa Zakeviciute, made it to this point. Editing this (double) special issue of the “Journal of Visual Literacy” was a true adventure. Starting with issues with the Editorial Manager that we tried to solve when we both were on holidays in different countries; including looking for reviewers across academic context (and thus getting to know when they all have holidays); up to hours of editorial meetings along with long evening phone-calls trying to solve disciplinary disagreements between communication studies (me) and social sciences (Rasa) paradigms.
At the same time we experienced a lot of academic freedom in the editing process from Maria Avgerinou, editor-in-chief of the journal. We did not simply put the papers together, but we really worked with each single contributor to make this special issue happen. Thus, we acted both as guest editors as well as reviewers (in addition to the double blind peer-review process). You can enjoy an extensive introduction to this special issue in the Editorial, just being published ahead of print.
In order to read all eleven contributions, we still have to wait before they appear online, but here is the list of what you should look forward to:
Asko Lehmuskallio. The look as a medium: A conceptual framework and an exercise for teaching visual studies.
Gary McLeod. Rephotography for Photographers: discussing methodological compromises by post-graduate online learners of photography.
Terry Loerts and Christina Belcher. Developing visual literacy competencies while learning course content through visual journaling: teacher candidate perspectives.
Wendy R. Williams. Attending to the Visual Aspects of Visual Storytelling: Using Art and Design Concepts to Interpret and Compose Narratives with Images.
Jeeyoung Min. Visual literacies in a U.S. undergraduate writing course: A case study of transmediation.
Suriati Abas. Reading the world – Teaching visual analysis in higher education
Dana Statton Thompson. Teaching students to critically read digital images: A visual literacy approach using the DIG Method.
Choon-Lee Chai. Enhancing Visual Literacy of Students through Photo Elicitation.
Vered Heruti. Reading Personal Photographs: A Case Study at an Israeli Art College on Multiple Identities.
Gyuzel Gadelshina. Arrian Cornwell and David Spoors. Understanding corruption through freehand drawings: a case study of undergraduate business students’ visual learning in the classroom.
Rosalina Costa. iPhone, iResearch. Exploring the Use of Smart Phones in the Teaching and Learning of Visual Qualitative Methodologies.
On 19th of June 2017 I am going to run a workshop on Visual Pedagogies. The basic idea for this workshop or a roundtable is to meet fellow academics that this time will focus on their teaching practice. In particular, we are going to share our teaching experience in using images and/or visual methods in teaching.
The workshop is organized during the 35th IVSA 2017 Conference in Montreal, 19-22 June, Concordia University, “Framing/Reframing Visual Sociology, Goffman and the Everyday”. The link to my and other visually driven workshops can be find here.
At the same conference, I am also going to present a paper Assessment of visual literacy skills: Towards more visually oriented higher education?
Joanna Łucja Kędra 