Re-imagining Critical Visual Literacy in Higher Education

In this session, we will begin by briefly summarizing the task force's progress on the Framework companion document for visual literacy. Since its creation in 2018 by the ACRL Image Resources Interest Group, the ACRL Visual Literacy Task Force (VLTF) has actively pursued its charge to re-envision the 2011 ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education through the dual lenses of recent scholarship and the 2016 ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. We will then present our empirical research study which aimed to identify and define the skills, competencies, knowledge practices, and dispositions that enable learners to be critical consumers and creators of visual information, now and into the future. From Fall 2019 to Spring 2020, we gathered empirical data from stakeholders via email interviews, providing us with a structured scan of how librarians and affiliated professionals perceive, use, and define visual literacy in the twenty-first century. We will share preliminary findings and then introduce Futures Thinking to creatively explore new critical visual literacies informed but not necessarily constrained by current standards and frameworks. Participants will break out into discussion groups to envision how they might use a visual literacy companion document in a range of scenarios. Through a series of structured activities, audience members will engage in conceptual and practical exercises that will allow for the group as a whole to think broadly and holistically about visual literacy and its future - both as a theoretical framework and as a practical tool for use in libraries and education. Speakers include Stephanie Beene, Maggie Murphy, Mary Wegmann, and Dana Statton Thompson.

Related Event: ARLISNA 2020 Virtual Conference