Visual Representations of Identity: Teacher Education in the Pacific

• In Event: Visual Education Research: Exploring Photographic Research Methods in Education

Abstract

Contemporary societies, whether in the US or the Pacific are overwhelming visual in character. Yet, schools at all levels continue to privilege written text as demonstrations of learning over any other form of communication. A visual curriculum has the potential to strengthen instruction across disciplines and offers students an alternative way to express their knowledge (Author & Colleague, 2008; Eisner, 1994). Moreover, a visual based curriculum may provide students an otherwise missing opportunity to express cultural knowledge and identity.
This presentation will explore the ways visuals created mediated means for student expression of curricular knowledge and cultural identity in three university level teacher education contexts in American Samoa, Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia, and Palau. Visual discourse analysis was used to interpret the lesson outcomes created through transmediated university classroom experiences where visuals were integrated alongside traditional oral and written language forms. The following research questions guided the study: In what ways did privileging visuals provide students with another way to express curricular understandings?; How did the process of creating visuals create opportunities for learners to reflect and explore culture?
Theoretical Framework
In 1973, Dondis wrote that schools “still persist in an emphasis on the verbal mode to the exclusion of the rest of the human sensorium and with little sensitivity, if any, to the overwhelmingly visual character of the learning experience” (p.10). Sadly, not much has changed, except the increasing visual nature of contemporary society. Emerging from semiotics, a multimodal perspective that values multiple and diverse communication systems has been well developed (Jewitt & Kress, 2003; Kress & van Leeuwen, 2001; Lankshear & Knobel, 2006) and much has been written about applying these theories in K-12 schools. This research applies those perspectives in the context of teacher education (Ajayi, 2011; Author, 2011; Cervetti, Damico, & Pearson, 2008) and specifically for the purposes of exploring cultural identity (Albers, 2010; Danzak, 2011; Vinogradov et al., 2011).
Methods
This interpretive study analyzes qualitative data generated from multiple visual and textural sources including teacher education based learning products. Data from student work included digital photographic stories and visual based lesson plans.
As part of a symposium on visual research methods, this paper will detail the analysis processes which draws upon the methods of visual discourse analysis (Albers, 2007; Serafni, 2014; Rose, 2012). Specifically, the analysis process includes a close reading of the visual data for illustrations of teachers’ beliefs about their cultural identity.
Results
Findings suggests multimodal and visual integrated classroom experiences provided opportunities for teachers to draw upon and express their cultural identities while creating instructional opportunities for their own (K-12) students. Teachers capitalized on folklore, history and tradition when designing standards based curriculum.
Significance
Considering the impact of visuals in our students’ worlds and the potential for teaching and learning, using photography in teacher education classrooms is clearly important and beneficial. Further, this study advocates for use of visual based research methods in education studies.

Author

• Marva Cappello, San Diego State University