What Is Visual Literacy?

In many ways graphic/technical images/products have replaced the written word as the means of communication. This is especially true for today’s youth (specially those born in the late 80’s and 90’s), who have grown up watching MTV, playing video games, listening to MP3 players, viewing the covers of music CDs, and using VCR/DVD players. Given this, how do we, as educators, in particular, teach for visual literacy? There are some assumptions of course we initially make: we assume that most people can understand and use words to communicate effectively by writing or speaking. We also assume that a literate person is able to read written words. However, what can we do in the field of education (my area of study) to address and understand the importance of visual images?

We first need to teach youth; in particular, to critically analyze what they see in the form of the written word and through visual image and its importance, leading to their continued growth. School teachers/educators should also work smarter (more effectively) at teaching critical study skills not just related to words, but images.

Visual literacy is a blending of various cognitive and aesthetics that shape one’s thinking and understanding. A visually literate person also practices, analyzes, and interpret all visual expression surrounding him/her, as well as through traditional artwork. A visually literate person is therefore able to approach any visual expression while searching for meaning.

In the article, Multicultural Art and Visual Cultural Education in a Changing World, Christine Ballengee-Morris (2001) writes, “…Through art [visual culture] we can come to understand cognitively, emotionally, physically and sometimes spiritually.” Because art, in this case visual culture, is a social and cultural expression of life, and therefore, intimately connected with it, then it is intimately connected with all other aspects of society. Simply put, art is interconnected to people, and an integral part of society. As a former college administrator who worked at a small arts college in Massachusetts, I would also add that visually literate also means being able to understanding and interpret the lens and perspective of the person in question.

Here are some reasons for why it’s important to be visually literate:

1) As educators (or librarians), we need to understand that youth, in particular, use various forms of visual media to create communities for themselves and others. Therefore, it’s important to have an awareness or appreciation for the culture or people for which the art is used and/or created.

2) The focus of the art, whether it be print media, a produced, or engagement in different forms of technology also requires a specific knowledge and a mastery of learned skilled, including a context for why student (youth) seek out various media to be engaged.


3) As educators, it is imperative that we be aware of one’s own social biases that could affect how we view youth with respects to visual literacy.

4) Through education, today’s youth are shaping firsthand-learned skills and creating their own forms of communications through their use of visual literacy.

Lastly, it is my belief that educators should be well-versed to deal with the multiplicities of a visual literate community, hopefully building on their own understanding and respect about different people, customs/practices, and enhancing own abilities in the process. Also, because being visual literate is complex, not always easy to understand (and multifaceted), what better way to learn but through the production of education, and as teachers? We are of course one segment of the population, engaged in this teaching, and having the ability to work within this ever changing environment, leads to understanding the complexities of a visual literate population.

-Tony Kwame