Taking action through redesign: Norwegian EFL learners engaging in critical visual literacy practices

Figures & data

Figure 1. The redesign cycle (from Janks, 2010, p. 183).

Figure 2. Main focus and learning aims in the three phases of the intervention.

Figure 3. Overview of introduced metalanguage (based on Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006).

Figure 4. Example of progression from codes, through first- and second-level categories and finally theme.

Table 1. Distribution of themes within the three parts of the data set.

Theme	Power	Diversity	Identification	Symbolism
Coded in n annotations (of 10 in total)	9/10	8/10	4/10	4/10
Coded in n redesigns (of 54 in total)	36/54	34/54	40/54	34/54
Coded in n reflections (of 54 in total)	17/54	27/54	3/54	21/54
Total	62	69	47	59

Figure 5. Redesign, Anne.

Figure 6. Redesign, Caroline.

Figure 7. Redesign, Kasun.

Table

Topic	Task name	Description	Time in minutes
Stereotypes, indigenous people, and multiculturalism	Blindfold task (inspired by Vasquez et al., 2013)	Making guesses about what a photograph depicting Native Americans might look like and reflecting on the sources of these assumptions	10
	Are images universally understood?	Exploring different ways of understanding the same images.	10
	AIEVM	Analysing an image depicting indigenous people using selected questions from the Autobiography of Intercultural Encounters through Visual Media (Council of Europe, 2013).	30
	Taking pictures of the school (from Janks et al., 2014, p. 85)	Reading and discussing the poem ‘The blind men and the elephant’. Taking pictures of the school and comparing the pictures and the impression they give of the school.	30
	Visual stereotypes and redesign of photomontage	Lecture on visual stereotypes. Redesigning a montage from a Norwegian EFL textbook depicting indigenous people.	80
Politics and multiculturalism	American Born Chinese	Reading chapters 2 and 3 of American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (2006) and answering questions related to stereotypes, positioning, and power relationships.	80
	Visual grammar and positioning	Introduction to key concepts from Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006) grammar of visual design. Analysing images of their choice using these tools.	60
	Optional task on montage	As an optional task on a test, the learners individually write an essay discussing the montage from the Redesign of photomontage task.	80
Race and class	White privilege	Discussing their own experiences of white privilege. Analysing a poster that represents ‘white’ people as ‘normal’.	30
	Political cartoons	Introduction to persuasive techniques and analysing political cartoons addressing racial issues in the USA based on these.	25
	Redesign of advertisement	Modelling of a critical reading of two advertisements. Discussing an advertisement in groups based on a list of questions. Redesigning the advertisement.	80

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Council of Europe (2013). Images of others: An autobiography of intercultural encounters through visual media. https://www.coe.int/t/dg4/autobiography/Source/AIEVM_en/AIEVM_autobiography_en.pdf

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Yang, G. L. (2006). American Born Chinese. St. Martin’s Press.

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