How Might Teachers of Young Children Interrogate Images as Visual Culture?

Abstract

Visual images, and experiences of seeing and being seen, saturate the public and private spaces where children learn to construct sociocultural and historical meanings about their identities, histories, and cultural values. Images permeate children’s culture, appearing in TV shows, music videos, interactive games, fast food promotions, movies, videos, books, and various forms of visual art such as painting, sculpture, and architecture. While visual images have emerged in the last century as one of the most pervasive forms of human communication and persuasion, their enormous power as cultural texts used by children is largely ignored in educational discourse.