ABSTRACT
One of the aims of Art & Design education, reinforced in the National Curriculum Art Order (NC) (DFE 1995) is to enable pupils to become visually literate. The right to verbal literacy is never contested; it is seen as a prerequisite for participation in democratic society. Put simply, literacy is the ability to read and write. To be literate enables a person to participate fully in verbal culture. In usurping the terminology of language to proclaim a central aim of Art & Design education you might feel that educators are admitting defeat and bowing down to the primacy of language. But, as literacy is perceived as fundamental, it is worth considering what visual literacy, as a metaphor, implies. Literacy encompasses both reception and production, reading and writing. What
is the visual equivalent of these activities? Learning to look, see and make? The concept of visual literacy clearly questions the privileged position of making in the Art & Design curriculum.
