Getting to “Know” Pictures: A Methodological Shift to Critical Visuality

• In Event: Disrupting Representations in Research

Abstract

The purpose of this presentation is to trouble the methodological boundaries of visual content analysis by sharing a criticalist methodology we developed in our own work with high school geography textbooks. Pushing analyses of photographs beyond content analysis driven by tallying/typologies to critical visuality allows for an epistemological shift. Our methodology is informed by critical theory and poststructuralism that allows us to decenter representations and acknowledges their freeplay of meaning. We invite the use of personal context and reflexivity from the audience as we walk through the analysis of a sample of photographs—at once troubling the idea of a singular interpretation, while relating the criticalist enterprise to real educational contexts that audience members will be encouraged to discuss.

Authors

• Lisa L. Zagumny, Tennessee Technological University

• Amanda B. Richey, Kennesaw State University