ABSTRACT
When I first began to collect children’s images of literacy at the turn of the 21st century (along with Roberta McKay), the landscape of literacy and communication in society was rapidly changing. In classrooms, however, the visual had little or no status, particularly in language and literacy education. At the time, literacy researchers were only just beginning to theorize the role of the visual in literacy practices, and analysis of visual communication in education was limited. This extended version of Kendrick and McKay (2004) reconsiders our initial findings in light of current language and literacy education policy, pedagogy, and practice. The purpose of this study, which built on our prior research and the method we developed (Kendrick, Anderson, Smythe, & McKay, 2003; Kendrick & McKay, 2003; Kendrick, McKay, & Moffatt, 2005; McKay & Kendrick, 2001a, b), was to investigate the ways in which the visual provides opportunities for young children from diverse backgrounds to communicate their literacy knowledge and experience.
