چکیده:
Following an ethnographic approach, this study was intended to investigate how children transfer meaning in their drawings, as a manifestation of their visual literacy competence. To this end, 32 six- and seven-year-old Iranian male children were observed for six class sessions as they engaged in learning activities that involved drawing. Building upon Kress and Van Leeuwen’s (1996) theoretical framework of Visual Grammar, children’s drawings were analyzed. Field notes were also used to describe experiences and observations the researcher made while participating in the class. Furthermore, children’s descriptions of their own drawings were used as complementary evidence to the analysis. The results of the analyses revealed that drawing upon a variety of visual resources, such as talks, written texts, gestures, and objects, children made ideational, interpersonal and textual meanings in their drawings. Furthermore, although each drawing was uniquely created by different types of interests and provided the specific context for the visual structures and forms, some features such as use of space and line framings, diagonal lines, curved/bent figures, profile form, and tilted body position were shared by most children in their meaning-making act. The findings can help educators and practitioners promote children’s visual literacy, and propose pedagogical and practical implications.
خلاصه ماشینی:
The results of the analyses revealed that drawing upon a variety of visual resources, such as talks, written texts, gestures, and objects, children made ideational, inter- personal and textual meanings in their drawings.
Furthermore, although)VIew the image of this page) each drawing was uniquely created by different types of interests and provided the specific context for the visual structures and forms, some features such as use of space and line framings, diagonal lines, curved/bent figures, profile form, and tilted body position were shared by most children in their meaning-making act.
Keywords: Visual Literacy, Drawing, Meaning-making, Visual Grammar, Textual Meaning Introduction The growing influences of multimedia technologies have produced a shift in what counts as texts and what it means to be literate (Jewitt, 2005; Kress & van Leeuwen, 2001).
Pantaleo (2005) and Rabey (2003) demonstrated children’s meaning-making skills both of and with visual resources, as their drawing responses to picture books were analyzed.
Building upon Kress and van Leeuwen’s (1996) framework, the present study aimed to analyze meaning in the drawings of six- to seven- year-old children and to demonstrate the pedagogical potential of drawing to support and promote children’s visual literacy skills.
More specifically, this study was intended to encourage teachers to consider children’s ways of constructing meaning through drawings, and to pay atten- tion to the value of drawing for visual literacy education.
In addition, teachers can foster children’s visual literacy by reading and talk- ing about the meaning of drawings.