Research Report
This qualitative research project sought to explore the recent advances in policy and curricular change as part of the new Junior Cycle Visual Art Curriculum; more specifically, a deliberate address of the development of students’ visual culture literacies. In a media saturated age, where young audiences are bombarded with images, the media plays a vital role in communicating highly-mediated content. Media representations provide both implicit and explicit messages that can influence young people’s experiences, perceptions, and understandings of the world around them. Young people participating in second-level education are at a pivotal stage of their lives, when how they interpret and interact with visual media can have significant implications for their cognitive and emotional development.
In this way, the aims of the study focused on (i) the extent that students can confront media representations of the local community through painting practices, (ii) the degree to which painting can foster the development of students’ visual culture literacies, and (iii) the extent to which painting supports the cognitive development and emotional intelligence of students.
Action research was the theoretical framework used to underpin data gathered throughout the project. Within the context of this methodology, a variety of research methods were used in the collection of data: unstructured observation, focus group discussion, semi- structured interviews, student surveys, and students’ artwork.
Research Findings
The findings of this study promote the inclusion of visual culture literacies in second- level education. The simultaneous and cyclical development of students’ skills and knowledge was significant in terms of their holistic development; learning to interpret the implicit and explicit visual messages of the mass media (visual analysis) in tandem with learning how to respond and confront such representations through their own artistic production (painting). The following findings were held from the outcomes of the study:
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Lived experience was essential in fostering students’ visual culture literacies
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Classroom discourse acted as a forum for critical inquiry and creative expression
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Painting was an authentic and emotionally- charged form of social dialogue
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The concurrent development of skills, knowledge, and concept domains offered a holistic learning experience
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The artist- teacher model enriched the development of students’ artistic practices
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The dissemination of students’ ideas in the public domain established critical social dialogue and fostered students’ active citizenship
Students' Work
