Picture This: The Robson Orr Visual Literacy Research Initiative

Children learn from infancy to engage with visual information, but visual literacy—the ability to interpret, analyse, and create meaning from visual information—needs to be developed.

Our project— Picture This—proposes to transform our current understanding of the inter-relationships between visual literacy and related desired outcomes (e.g., oracy, academic and social development), how visual literacy develops differentially using different artwork modalities (i.e., physical and digital), and how teachers can develop their own awareness and teaching skills related to their own, and their students’, visual literacy. The project unites Oxford researchers from the Department of Education and from Gardens, Libraries and Museums (GLAM), with art providers including Art UK, the Government Art Collection (GAC), and the TenTen print programme with a diverse range of primary and secondary and SEND  students and teachers from schools that are historically less likely to engage in art-based programmes.

Research Questions

• What are the key elements needed in a visual literacy curriculum intervention that will effectively engage primary school students in visual literacy-building activities?
• What is the impact of a visual literacy intervention on children’s visual literacy, oracy, and social and academic outcomes?