Studies in Art Education

A Journal of Issues and Research

ISSN: 0039-3541 (Print) 2325-8039 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/usae20

Interpreting Visual Culture as Cultural Narratives

in Teacher Education

Nancy Pauly

To cite this article: Nancy Pauly (2003) Interpreting Visual Culture as Cultural
Narratives in Teacher Education, Studies in Art Education, 44:3, 264-284, DOI:
10.1080/00393541.2003.11651743

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00393541.2003.11651743

Published online: 21 Dec 2015.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 94

View related articles

Citing articles: 15 View citing articles

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=usae20
Copyrighr 2003 by [he Studi~s in Art Education
National An Education Association A Journalof Issuesand Research
2003, 44(3).264-284

Interpreting Visual Culture as Cultural Narratives

in Teacher Education
Nancy Pauly
University ofNew Mexico

Correspondence Although many teachers explore art images with students as a source of personal
regarding this arricle inspiration for artrnaking, they rarely interpret images as visual culture. Such
should be addressed images exist within networks of culturally learned meanings and power relations
ro the author, Art that surround the production and consumption of images. Teachers rarely
Education Program, consider how viewers negotiate meanings by linking images with cultural narratives
Department of
that help them understand the ways cultural knowledge is learned, performed, and
Educational Specialties,
may be transformed. This study shows how elementary preservice teachers in an
University of New
Mexico, 204 Masley
art methods class investigated an image using codes of representation; their own
Hall, Albuquerque, subjectivities; cultural-historical contexts; intertextual connections and modalities;
NM 87131. E-mail: cultural narratives; potential social consequences; and, responsive action.
npauly@unm.edu
Although visual images emerged in the last century as one of the most
The author wishes to
thank B. Robert
pervasive forms of communication, their enormous social, historical, and
Tabachnick for his cultural power as cultural texts is largely ignored in schools. Yet, visual
steadfast guidance and images, and the experiences associated with seeing or being seen, saturate
wisdom as well as
Freida High W.
public and private spaces and influence how children, adolescents, and
Tesfagiorgis, Gloria teachers learn, perform, or transform their identities, values, and behaviors.
Ladson-Billings, and Further, images as visual culture, participate within networks of culturally
Nicholas Mirzoeff for
mediated processes and power relations while they appear as common
their scholarship and
inspiration. sense (Hall, 1996a) or "the way it is." Art teachers and students need to
examine these encounters with images and how meaning is negotiated by
viewers through these culturally learned lenses, sociocultural contexts, and
embodied experiences.
The meanings of most images today are commonly learned in multi-
modal 'televisual' environments in which interpretations are linked to
dramatic stories and music. Here people encounter mass media images
that are designed to sell products, politicians, versions of history, or other
cultural views by linking them with narratives, symbolic desires and plea-
sures. I use the metaphor cultural narratives, or social stories, to imply that
humans interpret visual culture through broad intertextuallinks that influ-
ence them to construct meanings as modes of representation that tell social
stories (Friedman, 1998; Pauly, 2002). These narratives refer to how
history is told, what is considered culturally valuable, how social identities
are imagined, who is considered beautiful, and what is more possible to
think or imagine in the future. Most people unconsciously perform the
messages implied by the images they encounter in multiple sociocultural
locations (Moore, 1994). Yet individuals fail to critique their influence or
acknowledge their own potential to transform negative messages through
alternative social acts, such as artmaking.

264 Studiesin Art Education

 InterpretingVisual Culture as Cultural Narratives

Visual Culture in Teacher Education

According to Zeichner et al. (1996) there is a need for research in teacher
education that prepares pre-service teachers to apply research on "reflective
practice" (p. 200). Zeichner describes reflective practice as helping student
teachers internalize dispositions and skills that they will need to study their
own practice over the course of their professional development. This prepa-
ration should include experiences in which they investigate the culturally
learned meaning that they associate with visual images. This critical stance
has been echoed in art education by those who advocate the study of visual
culture (Duncan et al., 2001; Freedman, in press; Tavin, 2001).
Duncum (2002) proposes Visual Culture Art Education (VCAE) as a
new paradigm for art education in which teachers and students critique
and make images with the goal of understanding the roles that images play
in society as well as the importance of images in their own experiences.
T avin (1999) suggests art educators ask fundamental questions such as:
What do students learn from images? .. Do these images provide or
signify a certain lifestyle or feeling? .. Do these images embody sexist,
racist, and class-specific interests? What are the historical conditions
under which these images are organized and regulated? How is power
displayed or connoted throughout these images? (p. 1)
Freedman-Norberg (1998) recommends that:
Educators provide young people with tools to become wiser
consumers of both the products and the ideas... [that] they see on
television and those in movies, as part of video and computer games,
on the Web, on packaging, and so on-in other words, the relation-
ship between all mass-produced images... How does the image influ-
ence or alter, conflict with or connect to, your sense of reality? (p. 4).
Wilson (2000) and Garoian (2001) suggest that the experience of inter-
preting visual culture is like a rhizome system of roots, shoots and nodes;
that is, people juxtapose complex connections to visual images and move
in multiple paths of memoty and association that- may break down and
reappear in new connections. Similarly, the philosopher Foucault (1980)
states that cultural knowledge and power is often circulated through
pleasurable experiences, such as those found in visual culture.
What makes power hold good, what makes it accepted, is simply the
fact that it doesn't only weigh on us as a force that says no, but that
it transverses and produces things, it induces pleasure, forms knowl-
edge, produces discourse. It needs to be considered as a productive
network, which runs though the whole social body. (p. 119)
In addition to asking what students learn from images, I am interested
in when, how, and with whom they learned to construct this knowledge. If
images are linked on multiple pathways as the rhizome metaphor suggests,
then what memories and associations intertwined with the people, places,
and feelings will be associated with that learning? Lanier (1983) asked
viewers of art to remember, "the general attitude toward art with which we

Studies in Art Education 265

 Nancy Pauly

grew up is something we carry with us when viewing an art work" (p, 90).
More recently Sullivan (2002) applied similar ideas to visual culture,
noting that "how we extract meaning from visual information is informed
in part by those who make art, and further extended by those who help us
to interpret the ideas and images that influence what we see, and how we
see" (p. 24).
Discourse Analysis and Cultural Narratives
Discourse analysis and cultural narratives were the analytic tools used in
this study. I adapted discourse analysis from the work by Fiske (I996) in
media studies, and Gee (I999) in literacy studies, to analyze the ways that
visual images might act as cultural texts that circulate cultural meanings.
Fiske defines discourse as "language in social use" (I996, p.3) and uses
discourse analysis as a way to investigate how power works in media
events. Gee defines "discourse analysis, [as) the analysis of language as it is
used to enact activities, perspectives and identities" (I999, pp. 4-5).
Discourses are constantly working in our minds to describe the ways we
imagine ourselves and participate as members of various groups to "make
sense" of things we experience. Discourses serve us, as users or producers of
images and other texts, to understand, circulate, or challenge the meanings
we make.
Hall (I996a) asserts that most people consume and construct meanings
about images and discourses using narrative forms to think about people
like or unlike themselves. He suggests:
Identity is within discourse, within representation. It is constituted
in part by representation. Identity is a narrative of the self; it's the
story we tell about the self in order to know who we are. (p. 16)
Extending Hall's notion of self, we initially experience visual images
through our memory, imagination, and our body as performed meanings.
From this we interpret those sensations and desires into narrative or
dramatic forms of knowing rather than through logical or rhetorical uses of
speech. It can be argued that we make sense of images as "cultural narra-
tives," a term derived from Susan Friedman (1998):
Cultural narratives encode and encrypt in story form the norms,
values, and ideologies of the social order ...around which institutions
of gender, race, class, and sexuality are organized. Cultural narratives
also tell the strategic plots of interaction and resistance as groups and
individuals negotiate with and against hegemonic scripts and histories.
(p.8)
In this study, the term "cultural narratives" also refers to myths about
the culturally learned codes of thought, feeling, and action that are legiti-
mated within groups. As Lyotard (I984) has suggested, narratives may
take many forms such as personal, familial, ethnic, racialized, gendered,
institutional and "master" narratives. To sum up, people use images
symbolically and emotionally as parts of cultural narratives that do not
necessarilyfollow rational patterns of argumentation but rather satisfy their

266 Studies in Art Education

 InterpretingVisual Culture as Cultural Narratives

needs and desires that inform the ways they think, act, dress, speak or
imagine themselves as "people like us."
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study was to explore the need for reflective practice
and approaches to interpreting visual culture in teacher education. More
specifically, this study sought to investigate how readings and interpretive
experiences might help students interrogate visual culture in terms of the
complexity of knowledge construction; the pervasiveness of cultural
learning; the performance of cultural narrative, and the possibility of trans-
formation through action. Without deeply investigating the complex
networks of meaning and power within which images are connected,
students will continue to assume that the plethora of image-narratives they
consume every day symbolize cultural normality.
The study of visual culture is not about the objects studied, but the
questions asked about visual images, objects, environments, and the
phenomena of seeing and being seen. In other words, the shift to visual
culture art education (Duncum, 2002) is not about including shopping
mall environments and excluding Manet paintings, but rather asking new
questions about both. For example, in this study preservice elementary
teachers were asked to choose any visual image and respond to questions
that were designed to help them interpret connections between an image
using six approaches to visual culture study. These included multiple codes
of representation, their own culturally-learned subjectivities: cultural-
historical contexts; intertextual connections and modalities; cultural narra-
tives; potential social consequences; and, responsible actions they might
take to respond to the messages implied in the image in their lives and
future classrooms. In general, I studied how they reasoned about how
images might influence people to think, feel, do, or imagine their social
identities and histories.
In this study, preservice teachers were asked to write an essay entitled,
"Cultural Interpretation of Art/Popular Culture." The term "cultural
interpretation" was adapted from an article by Hicks (1992/3, p. 79) who
extended Lanier's work. There is a need, however, to differentiate between
a "cultural interpretation" essay and other writings about artistic interpre-
tation. Barrett (2000) advocates writing persuasive arguments that are
"reasonable, convincing, enlightening and informative" (p. 6). Although
the preservice teachers in this study were expected to reference the salient
characteristics about the artwork in compelling ways, the cultural interpre-
tation essays were designed to help them become more aware of how they
learned to associate images with other images and cultural texts.
Six Culturally Learned Approaches for Interpreting
Visual Culture
To prepare the assignment that students used as a part of this study, I
surveyed the literature of visual cultural studies and findings were summa-
rized according to how meanings are interpreted, performed and trans-

Studies in Art Education 267

 NancyPauly

formed. Six strategies were defined that were described as "Culturally

Learned Approaches for Interpreting Visual Culture," and each featured
probing questions that helped focus interpretations (Pauly, 2002). The six
approaches were:
1. Culturally Learned Codes of Representation
This approach is based on theorists such as Lanier (I983), and Hicks
(I992/3) in art education and Tabachnick (I997) in teacher education.
Question: Did participants articulate or discuss how they learned to use
subject matter, visual signs, symbols, design qualities, technical qualities,
settings, or other graphic conventions to interpret the meanings of an image?
2. Interpreting Images "Intersubjectively," through a "Lived Anatomy"
Moore (1994) contends that identities are learned and interpreted
"intersubjectively," that is, through social interactions with people and
cultural texts as a "lived anatomy" (p, 4) taking place in multiple locations
and positions. For Moore, identity is about belonging to, or differing
from, a group.
The experience of being a woman, or being black, or being a Muslim
can never be a singular one, and will always be dependent on a
multiplicity of locations and positions that are constructed socially,
that is, intersubjectively. The intersubjecriviry of experience is not
confined, of course, to physical appearances, to actual dialogue, and
to the concrete nature of sociological circumstance. Inrersubjectiviry
is also about identifications and recognitions. It is about desire and
the projection and introjection of images of self and others. (p. 3)
According to Butler (I990), the rules that govern identity such as
"gender hierarchy and compulsory heterosexuality, operate through repeti-
tion" (p.145) of bodily gestures, clothing choices, social practices, and
word choices that are enacted within certain times and spaces. This
repeated reenactment of socially learned identities is the mundane way that
meanings are maintained.
Hall (I996b) maintains that we all imagine ourselves and others from a
notion of ethniciry that acknowledges "the place of history, language, and
culture in the construction of subjectivity and identity" (p, 446).
Question: How did participants interpret, or neglect a discussion of, the
ways images have influenced them to understand, perform, or transform
cultural meanings about their social identities (gender, ethnicities, histories,
sexuality, etc.) within various cultural groups?
3. Cultural-Historical Contextualization
According to Duncum (2001), there is a need to study the new visi-
bility of visual culture to identify the ways people interpret the multiple
meanings from images by referring to other images and multimodal
connections. In this way students can reconstruct the historical and
economic conditions during which images were produced, distributed and
used. When pre-service teachers used this approach, they constructed the
possible meanings implied by the image based on their research of the

268 Studies in Art Education

 Interpreting Visual Culture as Cultural Narratives

socio-historical context, economic conditions, the target audience, or

aspects of the artist's life history.
Question: How did participants construct the contexts that may have
influenced the production of an image, its distribution, and the current
meanings in sociery or within their lives?
4. Intertextual Articulation with Cultural Texts and Cultural Narratives
Scholars such as Morrison (1992), Said (1993), Willis (1994) and
Mirzoeff (1999), use intertextual articulation to construct meanings by
juxtaposing various "texts" (such as literature, mass media, or photographs)
against other "texts" (such as historical writings or musical lyrics) to re-
construct discursive meanings within particular historical locations.
Similarly, media theorists such as Kilbourne (1999), Ewen (1988), and
Jhally (1987) link visual images with psychological "texts" since people
construct meanings based on emotional engagement, needs for symbolic
meaning, and cultural conditioning. Articulation is a term derived from
Hall (I 996b) that is used in this study to suggest the ways that preservice
teachers may link visual images to other cultural texts or narratives under
certain conditions.
Thus, a theory of articulation is both a way of understanding how
ideological elements came, under certain conditions, to cohere
together within a discourse, and a way of asking how they do or do
not become articulated, at specific conjunctures, to certain political
subjects. (Hall, 1996c, p. 144).
Question: With which Cultural Texts (associations with music, books,
toys, games, movies, environments, social practices, historical events) or
Cultural Narratives (large social stories or discourses about gender,
ethniciry, historical narratives, etc.) did participants associate this image?
5. Potential Cultural Consequences and Discourses of Representation
Mitchell (1994), a noted writer in literature and art history, has insisted
that we ask what images "do in a network of social relations" (p. 423), and
further, "what is our responsibility toward these representations" (p. 424)?
Question: How did participants discuss the ways that images might
influence people to think, feel, act, or imagine future possibilities? Did
they explore "discourses of representation" that acknowledged the history
of a type of representation and ways to re-enforce or challenge that history
such as "examining racism by interrogating Whiteness," as Ladson-Billings
(1996, p. 254) has discussed.
6. Response-Ability
This approach is based on the work of Tesfagiorgis (1993) in art
history, Freedman and Combs (1996) in counseling psychology, and many
art educators (see Gaudelius & Speirs, 2002). Giroux and Searls Giroux
(2000) suggest the need for educators to take action for social change
regarding representation.
Agency... becomes more than the struggle over identifications, or a
representational politics that unsettles and disrupts common sense; it
is also a performative act grounded in the spaces and practices that

Studies in Art Education 269

 Nancy Pauly

connect people's everyday livesand concerns with the realiry of mate-

rial relations of values and power. (p. 106)
Question: How do participants discuss the ways they might respond to
images through their thoughts, teaching, art making, or other life experi-
ences? Will they exercise their agency to resist, explore, or act in alternate
ways based on these approaches to cultural interpretation?
Description of the Research Context
The 71 participants in this study were students in a highly competitive
elementary education licensure program at a large, midwestern research
universiry. Participants identified themselves as 4 Asian Americans females,
1 Mexican American female, 57 Euro-American or White females, and 9
Euro-American or White males. This research was conducted within the
context of four sections of a required art methods course taught during the
spring and fall of 1998 that met for 5 hours per week for 16 weeks. In this
course students responded to readings, speakers' presentations, videos, and
artists' works in local art museums, and made art works in multiple
artforms. Participants engaged in readings written by scholars in art educa-
tion, art history, sociology, and media studies such as Lanier (1983),
Chalmers (1996), Green (1996), Hurwitz and Day (1995), Lutz and
Collins (1993), Anderson and Pungente (1997), Duncan et al. (1996),
Edgerton and Jackson (1996), Jen (1998), Shaheen (1993), Banks (1996)
and Green (1997). They also viewed and discussed videos such as The Ad
and the Ego (Boiheim and Emmanoulides, 1996), Affluenza (De Graaf and
Boe, 1997) and Images ofHonor (Ohlmann, 1998). Students also critically
assessed arrworks in local museums, examined multiple perspectives on
"Indian" school mascots with a Native American student, and interrogated
racist images with an African-American artist.
In this study I was both the teacher and researcher. Although I hoped
that my pedagogy would affect these students, and I realized that a power
relationship existed, the study did not directly address whether this
affected students' writings. Nor was there any way of assessing whether
students told the truth about what they wrote about, or whether they
wrote what they thought I wanted to hear. Despite these limitations, the
goal was to try to understand how the students put images into social use
by using themes to develop broader cultural narratives based on the six
approaches for interpreting images.
How This Study Was Conducted
After experiencing a series of readings and experiences mentioned
above, all pre-service teachers selected an image and wrote a paper in
response to an assignment. (See Pauly, 2002.) The participants were asked
to write about categories of response, but not necessarily each question
posed within each category. Issues to consider were organized into four
areas within which several categories of questions were posed. Areas
included questions about the analysis of the selected images (five cate-
gories); historical contexts (nine categories); interpretation of the images

270 Studies in Art Education

 Interpreting Visual Culture as Cultural Narratives

(five categories), and alternative ways of responding or making art (three

categories). Students were asked to propose their interpretation and then
argue their positions with supporting evidence or experiences. As a part of
the assignment, students were encouraged to research the historical context
surrounding the creation of the image and to interview three people,
unlike themselves in social categories, to hear their points of view. They
were also encouraged to suggest how they might use their chosen image in
future classroom practice. The essays were assessed on the basis of coherent
arguments in each category.
Analyzing the Essays for Cultural Narratives Using Genres
In order to look for cultural narratives across the cohort as a whole, the
essays were grouped by the genres that participants used to articulate
meanings in their essays. The genres included: cultural group representa-
tions; advertisements; toys; characters from TV, movies, and cartoons;
"artworks" done in various media; book illustrations; and, symbols. These
genres over-lapped and were not fixed categories that participants used to
articulate meanings. For example, when a participant discussed an adver-
tisement for a LegoTM toy set in terms of the cultural functions of toys, it
was grouped as "toy" rather than the advertisement genre. Although one
could argue that most of the images in this study could be categorized as
"Cultural Group Representations," items were placed in that category
when a participant primarily linked the image with specific cultural groups
to suggest national, ethnic and class groupings.
The participants who selected images grouped as "artworks" articulated
images in terms of the work of a single artist working within cultural

Table 1. Functional Genres Used to Articulate Meanings

Spring '98 Cultural Characters

(S) (34) Group Advertisements Toys from "Art Book Symbols
Fall '98 Representations TV/Movies Works" Illustrations
(F) (37) Cartoons

Males (3) 0 1 0 2 0 0 0
Spring'98
Females(31 ) 3 14 1 7 6 0 0
Spring '98
Males (6) 0 1 2 1 1 1 0
Fall '98
Females(31 ) 2 13 5 4 3 2 2
Fall '98
Group Total 5 29 8 14 10 3 2
71

Studies in Art Education 271

 Nancy Pauly

contexts to produce images that function primarily to express his or her

vision, politics, social, or historical values rather than to sell products,
illustrate other texts, or symbolize events.
Analyzing the Essays by Themes and Approaches
In analyzing the essays from a discourse analysis perspective using
cultural narratives as a metaphor, I asked myself: "what themes or
approaches does the participant use to construct meaning?" "What is not
here?" Silences or absences were noted. Each participant's essay was
encoded according to the themes and approaches identified. Table 2 shows
the way the essays were encoded by themes using letters to signify
sub-themes (these examples are discussed later in this article). When the
participants applied the Six Culturally Learned Approaches using sub-
approaches discussed in the literature it was noted in another table not
shown here.
Each essaywas read several times and the participant's use of themes was
encoded in the following ways. First, it was determined whether that person
interpreted his or her chosen image as an insider (I) or outsider (0) (in
terms of the image represented) and whether slhe responded positively (P),
negatively (N), or had mixed reactions (PIN) to the image. Secondly, I
looked for evidence of what themes a participant used to articulate his or
her chosen image. The final themes included: 1. Appearance (App): 2.
References to Sexuality (Sex); 3. Performance of Social Identities (Soc 10);
4. Violence as a Social Consequence (Vio): 5. References to Consciousness
or Awareness of Points of View (Con); 6. Relationships Between or Among
People (Rel) 7. Passivityor Agency (Pas/Ag); 8. Measures of Success in Life
(Sue); 9. Cultural Diversity or Stereotypes (Div/Ster): 10. Things Society
Teaches (Soc Tea); 11. Trivialization of the Influence of Popular Culture
(Tri); and 12. Historical-Cultural Contextualization (HC Con).
To apply discourse analysis to the interpretation of images as cultural
narratives I employed themes and approaches as analytic tools. I also
considered what might be missing from an essay in light of critiques

Table 2. An Example of the Tables Used to Encode Themes

Themesl Inl Posl 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Participantsl Out Neg App Sex Soc Via Can Rei Pasl Sue Div Soc Tri H-C
Image ID Ag Ster Tea Can
Selected
Fall 98 #57 0 N A A A A A AB A A A
Little C
Mermaid
Fall98 #39 I PIN EH B C K E B A A A
GIJoe I
Fall98#44 0 P G A
Ascent of
Ethiopia

272 Studies in Art Education

 Inrerpreting Visual Culture as Cultural Narratives

suggested by scholars in the literature and my own experiences. After essays

were encoded according to themes and approaches, patterns were identi-
fied across the genres and summarized. When the analysis of the genres
was complete, patterns across the group of 71 participants were noted. It
was found that 34 essays focused primarily on discussions of ethnicities, 29
emphasized gender performance, 6 concerned relationships between or
among people, and 2 centered on childhood responses to power or fears.
In regard to erhnicities, participants discussed interpreting their own iden-
tity through ethnicities (53%), difference across identities (18%), cultural
recovery (16%), tactical use of the knowledge of struggles (33%), the
power of Whiteness to name, normalize or universalize (15%), racism as
interwoven, inferred, re-coded, or denied (25%). Concerning gender,
participants suggested the ways gender is learned, performed, and chal-
lenged. Two thirds (66%) made some reference to learning their social
identities through interaction with other people or cultural texts and nearly
two third (63%) indicated that their identities practiced through repetition
and performance, as Butler's (1990) work suggests.
Three participants' essays are included that reflect the themes and
approaches explored by the group as a whole. First, I discuss an essay by
Kim, a Korean American, who explored many of the themes about gender
and erhniciry discussed by a large number of the participants. Second, an
essay by Mike, who used a GI Joe® website to link intertextual articulation
similar to many participants with gender, ethnic, and national narratives.
Finally, an essay by Mary Ann, who interprets work by two artists in a way
that is similar to others who used arguments similar to Hall's concept of
"cultural recovery," that is, "a relationship to the past... that is partly
through memory, partly through narrative, one that has to be recovered"
(Hall, 1989, p. 19).
"From Fins to Feet"-
Loss of Identity, Voice, and Self-Mutilation
In her response to the video cover, The Little Mermaids Kim explored 1 The LittleMermaid,
many of the themes and all of the approaches mentioned by a large Glen Keane and Mark
Harm, Disney Corp.,
number of participants. Participants were able to interpret their chosen 1989.
images with the first approach, culturally learned codes of representation,
using visual signs, symbols, and/or graphic forms (100%), design or tech-
nical qualities (100%), and memories of experiences (87%). For example,
Kim writes,
Ariel is a 16-year-old mermaid with bright red hair and wide
innocent eyes. Her body is very petite but in a sophisticated way that
portrays Ariel as much older than her innocent, child-like face...
The ratio between her waist and hips are [sic] unrealistic and the
subliminal image that young girls receive can be unhealthy. It seems
to me that the animators created a child sex symbol. Ariel has the
mental capacity of a teenager and the body of a twenty year-old. My
fear is that a young girl will think that type of physique is normal

Studies in Art Education 273

 Nancy Pauly

and admired which can place a mental pressure on girls, who are
already conscious of their bodies. The slim, hourglass figure is
constantly thrown in the face of young girls from Barbie dolls to
society.
Kim interpreted the exaggerated proportion of Ariel's body parts as
both "child-like" and womanly, thus suggesting "a child sex symbol." She
used the fourth approach, intertextualarticulation, to link this image with
Barbie dolls and images found elsewhere in society to suggest the ways that
this type of image is regularly repeated in girls' lives. She suggested the
resulting social consequence as "mental pressure on girls, who are already
conscious of their bodies," which is approach five. Other participants
mentioned how some girls and women act on these images by excessive
exercise, dieting, anorexia, and bulimia. For example, Natalie wrote,
"when I look at these images I feel inferior. I am an intelligent woman but
I still feel ifI were thinner, I would be a better person."
Many participants interpreted images through approach two, what
Moore (1994, p. 3) calls a "lived anatomy", this means the ways people
learn about their gendered identities and ethnicities through their bodies
in relationships with other people and "cultural texts" of representation.
For example, they used an awareness of experiences (80%), ethnicities
(53%), learning intersubjectively (66%), and maintenance through perfor-
mance (63%). Kim, an Asian American, wrote,
Like many people, I grew up with Disney. As a little girl, my
favorites were Sleeping Beautyand Snow White.... I associated beauty
with blond hair and blue eyes... As a child, I took a bath evety day
and scrubbed my skin because I thought beauty was associated with
fair skin color ... I have had to learn and constantly struggle with the
issue of beauty by molding my image of beauty that is diverse and
less Westernized ... At one time, I went through a phase where my
hair could would get lighter and lighter because I did not want to
look like other Asian women.
Kim illustrated how cultural narratives about beauty are learned and
lived when she tried to lighten her skin "snow white" and to mask her
"sleeping beauty" by lightening her hair.
In the following extract, Kim used the fourth approach, intertextual
articulation to link the image of Ariel with the movie text, as well as the
fifth approach, potential culturalconsequences. Kim writes,
To be with Prince Eric, she trades her most valuable possession, her
voice, for entrance to the Prince and his world. This act falls into the
sacrificing heroine in most Disney films....Ariel's self-mutilation of
her fins for legs indicates conformity that women give into for the
sake of beauty. Her loss of voice is a loss of herself. In the scene
where Ursula, the sea witch, convinces Ariel that her voice will be
useless, she says, 'You'll have your looks! Your pretty face! And don't
underestimate the importance of body language.' Now what kind of

274 Studies in Art Education

 Interpreting Visual Culture as Cultural Narratives

impression do young girls have of themselves with comments like

that? The issue also comes up in the scene where Ursula teaches Ariel
how to 'playa woman' by coaching her how to use make up, her
body language and gender behavior. .. Disney's message is that a
woman is not complete without a man and self-sacrificing oneself is
acceptable for a woman (a quality often referred to as the 'can't say
no' syndrome).
In this telling of a cultural tale, Kim critiques how images participate
within cultural narratives within which girls and boys a learn how to get
heterosexuality and gender performance "right", as Butler (1990) has
theorized.
Kim explored the third approach, cultural-historical context, when she
researched Disney's history, economic incentives, production, and distrib-
ution of The Little Mermaid. Other participants contextualized images
using socio-historical context (60%), political or economic conditions
during production (81%), intended audience (95%), artist's history or posi-
tionality (74%), and recognition of the social construction of knowledge
(57%). Kim wrote:
During the 80s, the feature animation film was emerging as a hot
commodity for movie companies ... [The re-released] Sleeping Beauty
grossed $40 miliion .. .In 1985 Disney's animation director Ron
Clements came across a collection of Hans Christian Andersen
fairy tales Clements and director John Musker expanded
the ... idea: eliminating the little mermaid's grandmother from the
original story, expanding the roles of her father and the sea
witch ... By November of 1989, The Little Mermaid was the first
animated fairy tale released by Disney in thirty years. It became
Disney's most successful feature-length animation... [grossing] $84.4
million including a brilliant marketing campaign of commercial
products from clothes, action figures, books, etc...Ariel became the
second most licensed cartoon character in history; Mickey Mouse
being the first.
Although Kim described Disney's economic incentives and wide distri-
bution of this image, she failed to critique the broad implications of vast
numbers of children who would see this image in products, the monopoly
that Disney enjoys in news media and entertainment industries, or re-
occurring Disney motifs, such as the motherless girl with a strong father
and a dark evil woman who tries to harm the girl, as possibly carrying
gender and racialized meanings.
Kim used approach four to interpret broadculturalnarratives.
There is clearly a contrast berween the world on land and the world
under the sea...The human world represents the dominant white
male culture. The sea world represents the culture that disrupts the
white male system. The privileged in the white male culture are in
their own world and are oblivious to anything outside their environ-
ment. Those outside the white male system are informed about the

Studies in Art Education 275

 Nancy Pauly

dominant culture as well as their own... Prince Eric believes a

human girl saves him and not a mermaid, which complicates Ariel's
plan to win his love... The cost she must pay is the exchange of her
voice for a human body (self-mutilation).
Kim expanded her interpretation to suggest that people who participate
in the underwater cultures (presumably referring to "people of color" or the
so-called "Third World") must know about their own cultures but adapt to
the dominant culture to function in both. Other participants also linked an
image with rnetanarrarives (30%) or discourses of superiority (57%).
GI Joe®: Performing Militarism
2www.geociries.com/ Mike, a White male, linked an image he found on the GI Joe website-
Hollywood/Lor/97461
with musical, political, and experiential cultural texts that he used to
Joepage/imagegalleryl
glossy2.jpg. interpret cultural narratives about military rhetoric by the Reagan admin-
istration during the 1980s. Many other participants articulated images
with intertextual linkages (64%), intergraphic linkages (74%), historical
linkages (47%), and personal experience (91 %) using approach four,
intertextual articulation with cultural texts and narratives.
When one first glances at this image, you can't help but think it's an
illustration of a Village People concert... 1 believe this to be more
than a coincidence, 1 think it is a sign of the times that we lived in.
A time when we glorified masculine, sometimes aggressive looking
men. It was time when military spending reached all time highs
under Ronald Reagan .. .It makes sense that GI Joe was popular
around children of the eighties.
Mike's ironic interpretation provides another example of how approach
two, embodied subjectivity, is learned and re-created as an "awareness of
social, symbolic and cultural signification of body" (Moore, 1994, pA3).
The characters seem to be behaving in a triumphant, male power sort
of way ... 1 think they're celebrating the success of Reagan's star wars
defense system...And the way to show off their victory is to do some
sort of Guerilla-like ritual where they raise their fists in the air to
show off their bulging muscles. It's also imperative that they scream
and grunt a lot, that's the way we civilized, freedom-loving Americans
do it. We must insure that we teach our young Americans how to
behave in this aggressive manner so that they can preserve freedom
and our way of life for future generations to come.
Mike suggested children learn behaviors through which they perform
and circulate their knowledge of aggressive cultural narratives about the
United States' imagined role in the world. Mike recalls his own lived experi-
ences with the GI Joe character to show how he learned and performed his
knowledge through social interaction with other people and cultural texts.
The cartoon, action figures, and comic books of GI Joe are some-
thing 1 loved growing up. 1 watched the cartoon almost every day
after school, owned many of the action figures, and even had the GI
Joe video game for my computer.

276 Studies in Art Education

 Interpreting Visual Culture as Cultural Narratives

Power, Knowledge, and Pleasure

Mike explores the ways children who consume this image might form
knowledge, participate in pleasure by associating themselves with a glam-
orous military, and appreciate its comfort and strength.
What is important about this image is how it makes the viewer
feel.. .To me this serves one of two purposes. One, hopefully the
image makes one feel like they have to run out to Toys R Us and buy
all the Gl Joe figures and accessories that can fit into their parent's
credit limit. It definitely worked on me. I loved GI Joe, and I felt like
I had some ownership in the fascinating and glamorous lifestyle if I
had the action figures. The other purpose is that our society at the
time of this image was one that needed the military. We were in the
cold war. We needed justification for spending trillions of dollars on
defense ...seems only logical that all of these things would spill over
into our culture. The young people of the time were being politicized
into thinking that the military is a good thing. I think it's a very
clever way of brainwashing.
Mike's writing supports Foucault's thesis that cultural knowledge and
power often work through networks of pleasure rather than repression or
prohibition.
If power were never anything but repressive, if it never did anything
but to say no, do you really think anyone would be brought to obey
it?... It induces pleasure, forms knowledge, and produces discourse.
(Foucault, 1980, p. 119)
Mike critiques the racial and gender representations (approach four)
associated with this image.
If one looks at this particular image, they will see that there are ten
men and only one woman...Another interesting fact about this
image is that the GI Joe staff pictured are predominantly
white ... [T]here is only one Asian character shown ...wearing stereo-
typical garb ... [appearing] to be a karate master of some sort because
of his headband and sash.
Mike's essay reveals an example of someone sifting through many
cultural influences and challenging the meanings of the images in terms of
identity formation. Mike wrote:
I have pointed out many negative things about this picture. It is
sexist, racially stereotypes, and promotes aggressiveness and a pro-war
attitude. These are all terrible things that I wish were not in this
world. But at the same time I have to say that being exposed to these
things and many other similar images as I grew up, I still turned out
all right.. .It makes me think that this happened for at least one of a
few reasons. One, I'm not a moron, and I can realize that this isn't
real life, it's just a cartoon ... Parental factors are a good point to bring
up as to why I still sifted through GI Joe wasteland to become a
people loving, Reagan hating individual ...99.9% of the population

Studies in Art Education 277

 Nancy Pauly

that grew up loving GI Joe will not have any terrible effects from GI
Joe's obvious shortcomings ... My friends who shared the joy of
wreaking havoc and war upon each other's GI Joe figures all have
grown up fine as well...Just as when I decide to tackle my roommate
and punch him in the arm after he makes fun of me...GI Joe hasn't
made me behave in that aggressive manner. It's an adult choice I
make. I think it's an awful travesty that we choose to blame defense-
less toys for our societal shortcomings. Problems are more complex
than that. So I say, leave my friends pictured here alone. They aren't
causing problems, they are merely bringing entertainment and joy to
our youth.
After Mike elaborated all of the cultural meanings associated with GI
Joe, he dismissed their influences ultimately because he "turned out all
right" due to parental and other societal influences. Mike's assertion
suggests that he thinks GI Joe acts in a world independent of networks of
meaning and power within which this doll participates (and for which he
persuasivelyargued). Mike seems to believe that only extremely violent acts
indicate that discourses within which GI Joe participates are active in
children's lives.
Mike might be trying to say that his behavior is influenced by multiple
forces, of which this toy plays an insignificant part. He advises the reader,
to "leave his GI Joe buddies alone" since "they are merely bringing enter-
tainment and joy to our youth." This statement is similar to Tavin's
(2001, p. 141) that students learn to separate the pleasure and entertain-
ment value of popular texts from the political.
In contrast to these experiences other participants chose art works that
worked toward challenging dominant cultural narratives.
Lois Mailou Jones and Marlon Banks:
Recovering the Past and Discovering the Future
Of the participants, 16% found artists, illustrators, or advertisers who,
they argued, were responding to the negative stereotypes of their cultural
group through a creative relationship with history, memories, images, or
stories aimed at remembering the past and envisioning future possibilities,
what Hall has called "cultural recovery" (Hall, 1989, p.19).
For example, Mary Ann, a White female, interpreted Lois Mailou
Jones's TheAscent ofEthiopia (I932) in terms of jones's exploration of the
roots of African-American history and the importance of the arts during
the Harlem Renaissance. She also linked it with achievements by African
Americans; hope in the face of racism; injustice in the present; and
empowerment for the future. Mary Ann provided historical context:
TheAscent ofEthiopia.. .immediately suggested honor, prestige, and
respect to me... Lois Mailou Jones... was influenced by travels in
Europe, Africa, Haiti, and more than 45 years of teaching at Howard
University, and also by her immense love of her culture...

278 Studies in Art Education

 Interpreting Visual Culture as Cultural Narratives

Figure I. TheAscent of
Ethiopia; Lois Mallou Jones
(American, 1906-1998), 1932.
Milwaukee Art Museum,
Purchase, African American
Art Acquisition Fund,
matching funds from Suzanne
and Richard Pieper, with addi-
tional support from Arthur
and Dorothy Nelle Sanders.

'Jones daringly juxtaposed the pharaonic presence of Egypt with the

ideals of artistic expression voiced by individuals associated with the
Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and early thirties' (Milwaukee Art
Museum, n.d.). During this time Egyptian imagery was frequently referred
to in discussion ofAfrican civilization at black literary and art salons. . .A1so
the painting's composition... suggests the rhythms and improvisation of
the Jazz Age ... I think Jones ... hoped her audience ... would celebrate
artistic achievements made by African Americans ...see their heritage as a
source of creative new art forms ... take pride in their roots and remind
them of the importance of keeping their culture strong and active... [to]
realize their own potentials and dreams.
Mary Ann also related Jones's painting to the artwork of Marlon Banks
who shared his art and writing (Banks, 1996) with the class.
The Ascent 0/Ethiopia.. . rem inds me of the time we spent talking
with Marlon. He spoke a lot about identifying with his culture and
using his past in his paintings. The pharaoh reminds me of the
African mask in one of Marlon 's watercolors [i.e. The Culture

Studies in An Education 279

 Nancy Pauly

Figure 2. Watercolor painting, The Culture

War, Marlon Banks, 1998.

Figure. 3: Drawing, William

Undressing Stereotypes,
Marlon Banks, 1998.

280 Studies in Art Education

 Interpreting Visual Culture as Cultural Narratives

War] ...The figure climbing the hill reminds me of the watercolor of

the man removing his clothes as he removes stereotypes [i.e, William
Undressing Stereotypes]. Marlon is like Jones in that he has also made
the journey using his past to create new art forms.
Mary Ann reflected on the implications of these works for herself as a
White Euro-American, which is an example of approach two.
I feel sadness and shame that African Americans had to suffer for so
long in trying to reach and influence the modern city. In many ways
the messages in this painting are still true today. Many of them are
still trying to make the journey up the hill while racism, prejudice,
and inequality are pushing them back down. The pharaoh may still
be the strength that keeps pushing them back up.
This painting supports beliefs in overcoming obstacles and achieving.
It supports beliefs about the importance of being aware of your past,
building on the past, and keeping traditions alive... Because of the
effects of this painting, in the future I may dedicate my time to helping
African Americans realize their potentials, reducing racism and
prejudice, and raising awareness ofAfrican American achievement.
Although Mary Ann expressed her appreciation of the contribution of
Jones's work, she fell short of confronting the privileges and structures of
racism that she enjoys. She imagined racism as something that individuals
climb through, and hopefully surmount, but not structures that maintain
privilege and the collective struggles needed to address it.
Discussion and Conclusion
This study demonstrates that preservice teachers were capable of articu-
lating images in terms of cultural narratives, which participate within
networks of meaning and power. Some participants articulated the ways
the cultural narratives linked with images are learned, performed, and may
be transformed. After participating in readings, experiences, and assign-
ments, these preservice elementary teachers were capable of articulating
images using themes and the six culturally learned approaches recom-
mended by the literature of visual cultural studies.
Most participants articulated images using cultural narratives, which
focused primarily on ethnicity and gender performance. Mike, Kim, and
Mary Ann linked images with cultural narratives about beauty, gender,
sexuality, erhnicity, superiority, militarism, and racism. Although Kim and
Mike elaborated how they learned and performed the meanings implied by
images, they trivialized their significance. This suggests that images exert
strong cultural messages that are often dismissed. Others, such as Mary
Ann studied artworks created by artists aimed to transform dominant
cultural narratives, which she imagined enacting in her life.
The majority of preservice teachers articulated images using the six
approaches discussed in this study. First they identified culturally learned
codes, such as Kim's interpretation of Ariel as a "sexualized child." Kim
also illustrated how she learned and performed her identity through a "lived

Studies in Art Education 281

 Nancy Pauly

anatomy" when she bathed her skin to achieve "snow white" beauty.
Participants such as Mike, who described the ways he used GI Joe to
participate within military narratives of the 1980s, investigated the histor-
ical-cultural contexts during which images circulated. Most participants
linked images with other cultural artifacts, narratives, memories, pleasures,
and desires. They showed how images may strengthen or challenge the
possible social consequences active in their world. For instance, Mary Ann
linked images of Jones and Banks to illustrate the ways they both used art
to strengthen or challenge cultural narratives about African Americans.
Finally, participants suggested how they might respond to image-narratives
through their thoughts and actions, such as Mary Ann's desire to use
Jones's artwork to remember the past, imagine future possibilities, and act
in the present.
Although participants were generally capable of using these approaches,
some essays lacked deep analysis and well-developed contexrualization. As a
part of the assignment, students were encouraged to interview three people,
unlike themselves in social categories, to hear multiple points of view. Mike
and Kim, like other participants, at some point rrivialized the importance of
visual culture in terms of knowledge construction and power relations.
These trivializations suggests that the power and influence of visual culture
is often normalized and dismissed. In conclusion, this study offers six
approaches that teachersand their students might use to unpack the culturally
learned meanings associated with images from a visual cultural perspective.

References
Anderson. N. & Pungenre. J. (1997). Scanningtelevision: Videos for medialiteracy in class. Canada:
Harcourt Brace and Co.
Banks, M. (1996). Massmediaand the AfricanAmericanimage. Madison. WI: Paper delivered to a
graduate seminar in art education.
Barrett, T. (2000). Studies invited lecture: About art interpretation in art education. Studiesin Art
Education. 4.2(1), 5-19.
Boiheim, H .• & Emmanoulides, C. (1996). The ad and the ego [videorecording], San Francisco:
California Newsreel.
Butler. J. (1990). Gendertrouble. Routledge: New York.
Chalmers. G. (1996). Celebrating pluralism: art, education, and culturaldiversity. Los Angeles, CA:
The J. Paul Getty Trust.
DeGraaf. J.• & Boe, V. (1997). (Producer). Affluenza [videorecording], Oley, PA: Bullfrog Films.
Duncan. B.• D'Ippolito, J.• Macpherson. C. & Wilson, C. (1996). Man mediaand popular
culture. Canada: Harcourt Brace and Co.
Duncum, P. (2001). Visual culture: Developments. definitions. and directions for art education.
Studiesin Art Education, 4.2(2), 101-112.
Duncum, P. (2002). Clarifying visual culture art education. Art Education, 55(3). 6-11.
Edgerton, G. & Jackson. K. M. (1996). Redesigning Pocahontas: Disney. the white man's Indian
and the marketing of dreams. JournalofPopularFilm and Television. No. 24 (summer). 90-98.
Ewen, S. (1988/1999). AUcomumingimages thepolitics ofstylein contemporary culture. New York:
Basic Books.

282 Studies in Art Education

 Interpreting Visual Culture as Cultural Narratives

Fiske, J. (1996). Media matters. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Foucault, M. (1980). Power/Knowledge. Selected interviews and otherwritings 1972-1977. Gordon,
(Ed.) New York: Pantheon.
Freedman, J. & Combs, G. (1996). Narrativetherapy: The social construction ofpreferred realities.
New York: W.W. Norton and Co., Inc.
Freedman, K. (in press). Teaching visualculture. New York: Teachers College Press.
Freedman-Norberg, K. (1998). The Mona Lisa vs. Barbie: Today's technology calls for a new
kind of literacy. The Link. Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota, The College of
Education and Human Development, 14(2) 4-5.
Friedman, S. (1998). Mappings: Feminism and the culturalgeographies ofencounter. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
Gaudelius, Y. & Speirs, P. (Eds.) (2002). Contemporary issues in art education. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Garoian, C. (2001). Performing the museum. Studiesin Art Education.42(3) , 234-248.
Gee, J. (1999). An introduction to discourse analysis. New York: Routledge.
Giroux, H. & Searls Giroux, S. (2000). Impureacts: Thepracticalpoliticsofculturalstudies. New
York: Routledge.
Green, G. L. (1997). Televised gender roles in children's media: Covert messages. Journalof
SocialTheory in Art Education. (17), 23-39.
Green, R. (1996). The rexture of memory: Historical process and contemporary art. In Cahan, S.
& Kocur, Zoya, (Eds.) (1996). Contemporary art and multiculturaleducation. New York: The
New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York and Routledge.
Hall, S. (1989). Ethniciry: Identities and difference. RadicalAmerica. 23(4), 9-20.
Hall, S. (1996a). Gramsci's relevance for the study of race and erhniciry. In D. Motley & Kuan-
Hsing Chen, (Eds.) Stuart Hall: Criticaldialogues in culturalstudies. New York: Routledge,
411-440.
Hall, S. (l996b). New erhnicities. In D. Motley & Kuan-Hsing Chen, (Eds.) Stuart Hall: Critical
dialogues in culturalstudies. New York: Routledge, 441-449.
Hall, S. (1996c). On posrrnodernism and articulation: An interview with Stuart Hall,
L. Grossberg (Ed..). In D. Morley & Kuan-Hsing Chen, (Eds.) Stuart Hall: Criticaldialogues
in culturalstudies. New York: Routledge, 131-150.
Hicks, L. (1992/3). Designing nature: A process of cultural interpretation. Journal of
Multiculturaland Cross-cultural Research in Art Education. (10111), 73-88.
Hurwitz, A. & Day, M. (1995). Children and theirart. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace.
[en, G. (1998, June 14). What becomes a legend most? LosAngeles Times, pp. 4, 80, 82.
jhally, S. (1987). The codes ofadvertising: Fetishism and thepoliticaleconomy ofmeaningin the
consumer society. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Kilbourne, J. (1999). Deadlypersuasion: Wiry womenand girlsmustfight the addictivepowerof
advertising. New York: Free Press.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1996). 'Your blues ain't like mine': Keeping issues of race and racism on the
multicultural agenda. Theory Into Practice, 35(4), 248-255. Columbus, OH: College of
Education, The Ohio State University.
Lanier, V. (1983). Theperception ofart. The visualartsand the elementary child. New York:
Teachers College Press.

Studies in Art Education 283

 Nancy Pauly

Lutz. C. & Collins, J. (1993). ReadingNational Geographic. Chicago and London: The University
of Chicago Press.
Lyorard, J. (1984). Thepostmodern condition:A reporton knowledge. Minneapolis, MN:
The University of Minnesora Press.
Lyotard, J. (1993). Thepostmodern explained. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press.
Mirzoeff N. (Ed.) (1998). The visualculture reader. New York: Routledge.
Mirzoeff N. (1999). An introductionto visualculture. New York: Routledge.
Mitchell. W.J.T. (1994). Picturetheory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Milwaukee Art Museum (n.d.), HighlightsofAfrican American artfrom the Milwaukee Art
Museum. Milwaukee, WI: Milwaukee Art Museum.
Moore, H. (1994). A passion for difference. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Morrison. T. (1992). Playingin the dark. New York: Vintage.
Ohlmann, A. (1998). Images ofhonor: The remnantsofracism in Wisconsin rchools. [video-
recording]. Hortonville, WI: Horronville School District.
Pauly, N. (2002). Visual images linked to cultural narratives: Examining visualculturein teacher
education. (Doctoral Dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison). Disserration Abstracts
International. UMI Company #072699
Said, E. (1993). Cultureand imperialism. New York: Vintage Books.
Shaheen. J. (1993). Aladdin animated racism. Cineaste XX, I (49). New York: Cineaste Publishers.
Sullivan. G. (2002) Ideas and teaching: Making meaning from contemporary arr. In Gaudelius, Y.
& Speirs. P. (Eds.) Contemporary issues in art education(pp, 23-38). Upper Saddle River. NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Tabachnick, B. R. (1997). The socialcontextofteacher development. Lisbon, Porrugal: Address to
the School of Education at the University of Lisbon.
Tavin, K. (1999). Toward a critical pedagogy of visual culture: Mapping the socioscopic.
Madison, WI: Paper submitted for discussion and disrribured to participants of the
Symposium for Conceptual Research in Arr Education.
Tavin, K. (2001). Swimming upsrream in the jean pool: Developing a pedagogy towards critical
citizenship in visual culrure. Edmonton, Alberra: TheJournal ofSocial Theory in Art Education,
(21).129-158.
Tesfagiorgis, F. H. W. (1993). In search of a discourse and cririques that center the art of Black
women artists. In S. M. James. and A. Busia (Eds.), TheorizingBlackfeminisms: The visionary
pragmatismofBlack women. pp. 228-266. New York: Routledge.
Willis, D. (1994) Picturing us:African American identity in photography. New York: The New
Press.
Wilson. B. (2000). Of diagrams and rhizomes: Disrupting the content of arr education. 2000
International VisualArts Conference: Art Educationand Visual Culture (pp.25-52). Taipei:
Taipei Municipal Teachers College.
Zeichner, K., Mernick, S.• & Gomez. M, (Eds). (1996) Currentsofreformin preseruice teacher
education. New York: Teachers College Press.

284 Studies in Art Education