Enacting Critical Visual Literacy in Norwegian Secondary School EFL Classrooms: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

This article elaborates on opportunities and challenges related to implementing critical visual literacy (CVL) in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms in Norwegian secondary schools as an approach to preparing learners to face the complexity and diversity of today’s textual landscapes. The study draws on a doctoral research project which focused on the meaning-making processes learners engage in when discussing images from the perspective of intercultural learning and expands on this by giving voice to the participating students and teachers. Data consisted of researcher field notes and learner responses from a 16-week intervention in which 83 upper secondary EFL learners in Norway were introduced to CVL practices as an integrated part of their EFL classes. Using thematic analysis, the data was analysed with a focus on the opportunities and challenges that arose from teachers and learners enacting CVL in the EFL classroom. Three themes were identified and discussed, including ‘Changing classroom practices’, ‘Co-construction processes’ and ‘Reading and talking about images’.

Keywords

• critical literacy
• dialogic teaching
• meaning-making
• images
• English language learning