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Dissertation Abstract
VISUAL LITERACY IN MIDDLE SCHOOL EDUCATION AT PRIVATE SCHOOLS OF LAHORE: AN INVESTIGATION OF IT’S CURRENT STATE AND, TEACHERS’ UNDERSTANDING
JAFFER HUSSAIN
We are living in an era of rapidly changing technologies with a never ending supply of information that is mostly in the form of visuals. In Pakistan, the majority of children are exposed to this unfiltered and unregulated abundance of visual information. These visuals can be both useful as well as harmful to children, depending on how they are mediated. In the absence of proper guidance and mediation on visuals, children in Pakistan are at great risk of being manipulated by the persuasive visuals of media. While in the presence of visual education, they can improve their critical thinking, learning, and visual communication skills.
While visual literacy has been recognized as a mandatory 21st-century skillset to help children learn and communicate through visuals, this concept seems alien in Pakistan. That is why this research investigates the current understanding and state of visual literacy in the middle years’ schools of Lahore, Pakistan. The researcher used an exploratory and qualitative approach to collect data through semi-structured interviews, open-ended questionnaire form, focus groups session, and documents analysis.
The findings revealed that there are no formal Visual literacy practices in the majority of these private schools. Teachers had very basic knowledge about the concept of visual literacy and libraries had no active role in improving children's' visual learning faculty. By analyzing the general situation, the researcher concluded that the current understanding and state of visual literacy is not satisfactory in private schools of Lahore, Pakistan. Based on his findings, the researcher extrapolated that this situation could be even worse in public schools across Pakistan.
The researcher suggests that through teachers’ formal training and informational workshops on visual literacy, this situation has a chance to improve. The research also suggests that libraries need to be considered as an important space for children’s visual learning. Collaboration between schools also appeared as a possibility to improve the current state of visual literacy in Pakistan.