Resources - Discussion Papers

Critical Literacy and Visual Texts: Windows on Culture

J. Browett

Lecturer, School of Education, University of Tasmania at Launceston

ABSTRACT

By developing insights about the construction of culture and about their own cultural frameworks, students are able to reach deeper understandings about their own personal identity and value, and about the multiple ways of being in the world. A sense of self and the ability to successfully «engage with othernessˇ are vital capacities for students. Visual texts are a readily accessible source of information about culture as they encode the essential relationship between culture and language. By using a Critical Literacy approach to visual texts students are able to «readˇ a wide spread of cultural information, ranging from the symbolic to the ideological, and the sorts of power relationships that exist within cultures. Through this approach individuals can develop an awareness of their active role in making meaning from text. They are able to reflect on and make explicit their own cultural contexts, and those of others.

Workshop materials and experiences will provide hands-on strategies for use in classrooms. These will be based on visual texts from a variety of Asian cultures. Participants will be presented with frameworks from which to generate other strategies and processes.

INTRODUCTION

This paper will emphasise the relationship between texts and culture, with special emphasis on the visual. A critical literacy framework shows how authentic visual texts can be read to reveal a wide spread of cultural information, ranging from the symbolic to the ideological, and the sorts of power relationships that exist within cultures. Through this approach students can develop an awareness of their active role in making meaning from text. Students are able to reflect on and make explicit their own cultural framings. In understanding that viewpoints are culturally determined, students are able to 'engage with otherness' (Scarino, 2000, p. 9).

DEVELOPING A FRAMEWORK FOR CULTURE

Teaching and learning about other cultures and societies historically has been an important element of the Australian school curriculum. Studies of Asia: A Statement for Australian Schools (2000), for instance, lists a range of principles to guide curriculum design and the implementation of teaching and learning about culture including: learning should challenge stereotypes about peoples and cultures; studies of culture should help students critically analyse representations of peoples and nations in the media, literature and other sources; cultural and national similarities and differences should be approached with knowledge respect and empathy ( p.8).

To move beyond a cursory understanding of culture students need to develop a sense of their own cultural identity, develop deeper concepts about the construction of culture, and understand that there are many ways of being in the world. To develop an approach to teaching and learning that encompasses current notions about culture Scarino points to four ways of thinking about culture (2000, p. 8). Firstly, the recognition that culture is multi-faceted. It encompasses such items as social institutions and practices, values, protocols, signs and symbols, icons, rituals, power relationships, and the production of text (Scarino, 2000, p. 8; Carr, 1999, p. 105; Lankshear, 1997, pp. 14-15). The second idea recognises that these items are not static in time or place. There does not exist a 'normative' culture. Variables such as gender, ethnicity, socio-economic group, religion, age all work together to form an infinite number of ways of being in the world.

A third notion is that language, texts and culture are embedded in one another. Kress claims an acute relationship between language, texts and culture when he states that 'every act of communication is a cultural event. The structures, processes and contents of communication are given by culture¸ Culture sets the grounds entirely for communication¸' (1988, p. 10).  The forth idea stresses that the construction of culture itself is a matter for observation, and that individuals' own interaction with culture should be a matter for reflection. In order to understand another culture there needs to be a realisation that the individual's own viewpoint is culturally determined - attitudes, values, beliefs and emotions. Critical literacy offers a tool for moving students towards these understandings.

CRITICAL LITERACY

Critical literacy rests on the idea that language and literacy do not occur in a vacuum. Rather they are practices that occur in, and are shaped by, their social and cultural settings (McKay, 1999, p. 20; Luke & Freebody cited Anstey & Bull, 1996, p. 193; Gee cited Carr, 1999, p. 105). Hilary Janks (cited Morgan, Lankshear, Williams, Gilbert & Werba, 1996, p. 3) provides some points that help to clarify a critical literacy approach:

„         Critical Literacy emphasises that texts are constructed and so can be unpacked.

„         By deconstructing text, readers / viewers become aware of the text creator's choices.

„         Every choice emphasises what was included in the text and places what was excluded in the background or omits it altogether.

„         Knowing this enables readers / viewers to examine these choices.

„         Many of the selections are the result of socio-cultural choices. Every socio-cultural group has shared conventions and norms to do with language whether it be written, visual or spoken.

Critical literacy requires a '¸'reading of cultures', around, behind, underneath, alongside, after and within the text' (Luke, Comber and O'Brien, 1996, p. 35). In the classroom a critical approach to text can shed light onto socio-cultural choices, norms and conventions; onto shared cultural understandings and experiences; onto the dominant groups and power relations that exist within the target cultures. It can assist students to engage with text and to see different cultural perspectives.

The critical literacy approach to text offers an opportunity to 'shake up cultural certainties' (McKay, 1999, p22) through the interrogation of text. It provides the tools for noticing, analysing and reflecting on text. Culture can be seen as playing a central role in the choices made in the production of text, and in the interpretation of text.  Carr suggests that even at the earliest stages of learning students can examine texts to find key concepts, symbols and systems of representation. Students begin to realise that theirs is only one of a multitude of ways of viewing the world (2000, p. 109).

Cultures contain a large body of texts that are representative of culture - visual texts  (films, CD Roms, television, Internet sites, signs, cards, advertisements, picture books, works of art and so on). Such texts embody elements from the past, from contemporary culture and from emerging culture that can be examined in a critical manner.

VIEWING

Visual Literacy gives students the tools with which to more fully appreciate visual texts as intentionally crafted and functional texts, and as transmitters of values and ideologies: as sites of culture (Anstey and Bull, 2000, p. 186).  There is a wealth of information about the target culture that can be gained by examining a spread of visual texts and their construction - symbols, icons, settings, characters, emphases, omissions and so on. Through these texts it is possible for students to access worldviews, values and ideologies other than their own (Callow, 1999, p. 2). Another key idea, embedded in a critical literacy approach, is that in order to generate 'preferred readings' creators of visual text rely on assumptions about the joint knowledge, experience and values of the target audience. They may reflect the dominant socio-cultural group in which the text is produced and may try to circumvent other readings (McLean, 1995, p. 3; Quin, McMahon and Quin, 1996, p. 11). By asking questions of visual texts students can learn about the power relations that exist within a culture, and can gain an understanding of the multi-faceted, complex nature of that culture.

Elements of socio-cultural experience from other target cultures can be examined. For example students may miss the point of a visual joke, or be confronted by an image.  By examining the tensions that may exist between their own interpretation of visual texts and the preferred reading, students can arrive at new understandings about their own cultural locatedness. 

Text Selection

A diverse range of authentic visual texts can be drawn from other cultures. Multiple texts should be presented to give a full description of the multi-faceted nature of the target culture. Anstey and Bull (2000) provide some key questions about representation of culture in picture books that are also valuable in considering the range of visual texts:

„         Are minority groups represented, or just the dominant cultural group?

„         Are characters shown to be individuals, with diverse physical characteristics / clothing / occupations?

„         What / whose experiences, histories and heritages are included or omitted?

„         Are settings diverse? eg architecture; fauna and flora; rural / urban.

„         Is the text creator's purpose overt propaganda, or the stereotypical representation of a minority group? (pp. 217-222)

Connections with English - a curriculum profile for Australian Schools

The following table shows how notions of culture connect with the reading and viewing strand of English - a curriculum profile for Australian Schools. These key concepts appear under the stand organisers Contextual Understanding, Linguistic Structures and Features and Strategies.

Table 1: Key Notions

(Curriculum Corporation, 1994a, pp. 8-9; McLean, 1995, pp.  7-8; Lo Bianco, Liddicoat & Crozet, 1999, pp. 184-185; Scarino, 2000, p. 9)

In order to connect the key notions to classroom practice some key questions are included in the following table. This is a starting point from which to generate other questions, processes and strategies.

Table 2: Sample Questions

(Anstey and Bull, 2000, pp. 191-193, 180-186; Quin, McMahon & Quin, 1997, pp.  9-29,71; Howard, 1995, pp.  8-9; Pitt, 1995, p. 46)

The framework and key questions recognise that 'the relationship between language and culture is ¸ synthetic and organic' (Lo Bianco, Liddicoat & Crozet, 1999, p. 184). They provide key notions that can assist teachers in making these ideas explicit to students through the medium of visual texts, and a concrete starting point in translating these into classroom practice.

CONCLUSION

Adopting a critical approach to authentic visual texts from target cultures is one practical way for students to develop insights about the construction of culture and about their own cultural framework. Students can indeed reach a '¸deeper appreciation of their own personal identity and value' (Vale, Scarino & McKay, 1995, p. 36). By interrogating visual text they are able to develop understandings about, and to make informed comparisons with, other cultures - including their own. The essential relationship between communication and culture in everyday life, as encoded in authentic visual texts, can be examined to reveal the diversity of cultural experience - the multiple ways of being in the world.

References

Anstey, M. & Bull, G. 1996, The Literacy Labyrinth, Prentice Hall, Sydney

Anstey, M. & Bull, G. 2000, Reading the Visual, Harcourt, NSW

Asia Education Foundation 2000, Studies of Asia: A statement for Australian Schools, Curriculum Corporation, Victoria.

Callow, J. 1999, Image Matters, PETA, NSW

Carr, J. 1999, 'From 'Sympathetic' to 'Dialogic' Imagination: Cultural Study in the   Foreign Language Classroom', in Striving for the Third Place: Intercultural Competence through Language Education, eds J., Lo Bianco, A. Liddicoat, & C. Crozet, Language Australia, Melbourne

Curriculum Corporation, 1994a, English - a curriculum profile for Australian schools, Curriculum Corporation, Victoria

Howard, J. 1995, 'Reading and Viewing Advertisements', in Texts: the heart of the English Curriculum series 1, eds P. Adams & H. Campagnia-Wildash, DECS, South Australia

Kress, G.(ed) 1988, Comunication and Culture, New South Wales University Press, NSW

Lankshear, C.  Gee, J. P., Knobel , M. & Searle, C. 1997, Changing Literacies, Open University Press, UK

Luke, A., Comber, B. & O Brien, J. 1996, 'Critical Literacies and Cultural Studies', in

The Literacy Lexicon, eds G. Bull, & A. Anstey, Prentice Hall, Sydney

Lo Bianco, J., Liddicoat, A. & Crozet, C. (eds) 1999, Striving for the Third Place: Intercultural Competence through Language Education, Language Australia, Melbourne

McKay, P. 1998, «Literacy Development in Languages Teaching: A Review for Language Teachersˇ, prepared for the AFMLTA

McLean, K. 1995, 'Visual texts: which ones, why and how?, in Texts: the heart of the English Curriculum series 1, eds P. Adams & H. Campagnia-Wildash, DECS, South Australia

Morgan, W. Lankshear, C. Williams, L. Gilbert, P. & Werba, S. 1996, 'Workshop Materials', in Critical literacy: readings and resources, AATE, South Australia

Pitt, J. 1995, Not Just After Lunch On Wednesdays, DECS, South Australia

Quin, R., McMahon, B., & Quin, R. 1996, Teaching Viewing and Visual Text: Primary, Curriculum Corporation, Victoria

Scarino, A. 2000, 'The Neglected Goals of Language Learning', Babel, Vol. 3, No. 34, Summer, pp 4-11

Vale, D., Scarino, A. & McKay, P. 1995, Pocket ALL, Curriculum Corporation, Victoria