ABSTRACT
America has become a much more visual culture than in earlier decades. Th e proliferation of images in American society, whether conveyed through television, Internet, fi lm, magazines, newspapers, or advertisements, means that students are constantly confronted with images presented in varied visual formats that rage from the visually rich “still” images found within textbooks to real-time, Web-based visuals, and as a result, educators need to more explicitly encourage students to discern the multiple meanings and biases contained within varied and complex contexts and images. In order to enrich social studies instruction and learning, the traditional defi nition of “literacy” as the ability to read and write should be expanded to include visual literacy. Broadly defi ned, visual literacy involves the ability to interpret and construct meaning from an image. According to Suzanne Stokes (2002), visual literacy is “the ability to interpret images as well to generate images for communicating ideas and concepts.”
