Visual Thinking Strategies: An Expansive Method for Qualitative Inquiry

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium advances Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) as a generative, equity-oriented method for qualitative inquiry in educational research. While VTS has been widely used to support literacy and classroom dialogue, presenters highlight its emerging role as a tool for data generation and analysis across diverse educational settings. Drawing from studies involving culturally and linguistically diverse populations, six researchers demonstrate how VTS cultivates interpretive agency, surfaces layered understandings, and challenges deficit perspectives. By extending VTS beyond its aesthetic roots, the session underscores its value in multimodal and participatory research. The symposium contributes to current methodological conversations by positioning visual inquiry as a powerful means to reimagine qualitative practices in education.

Sub Unit

• Division D - Measurement and Research Methodologies / Division D - Section 3: Qualitative Methodologies

Chair

• Reka C. Barton, University of Maryland

Papers

• Images of Hope - Marva Cappello, San Diego State University

• Critically Analyzing Dominant Images of Teaching - Kris Bell, Claremont Graduate University

• Transborder Pedagogy: Preparing Critically Conscious Border Educators through Visual Thinking and Translanguaging at the Imperial Valley Borderlands - Vannessa Falcón Orta, San Diego State University

• Looking Together: Visual Thinking Strategies as Black Feminist Praxis in Youth Participatory Research - Autumn A. Griffin, University of North Carolina - Charlotte

• Voices on the Inside - Reka C. Barton, University of Maryland

• VTS and the Black Girl Gaze - Darielle Blevins, Arizona State University

Session Organizer

• Marva Cappello, San Diego State University

Discussant

• Marva Cappello, San Diego State University