The visual as a thinking tool

Abstract

The research was underpinned by a critique of the impact of images on students living in an image-saturated world, and how students’ critical approach towards the visual could be supported. The power of images is usually used to portray dominant ways of seeing the world, thus it becomes crucial to encourage in students' thoughtful engagement with images. In The New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007) one of the five Key Competencies is the development of ‘thinking’ as an end in itself and the means by which other ends are achieved. The visual art section of the curriculum stresses the development of ‘visual literacy’ as students learn how to discern, participate in, and celebrate their own and others’ visual worlds. At year 13, where students study visual arts for the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) there is also emphasis on students developing visual literacies. This research was conducted within the framework of ‘a/r/tography’, a methodology that links art, research and teaching and privileges both text and image. It involved an examination of the strategies used by visual art teachers to support year 13 students' critical thinking in visual art education and how the students responded to those experiences. It required analysis of whether and how the teachers’ plans to encourage thinking in students, through their use of images, occurred in a classroom context and what knowledge students perceived they had gained. This research sought evidence of critical thinking through interviews with teachers and students, classroom observations and photographic documentation of the students' art making practice. Findings revealed that thoughtful and flexible philosophical foundations and strong pedagogical support underpinned teaching practices, and that ‘critical thinking’ has the potential to be understood and manifested in multiple ways.