Visual literacy and the Sustainable Development Goals: a study of the literacy concept in UNESCO’s documents
Abstract
The Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) aims to ensure relevant, effective and equitable quality education so that everyone is given the opportunity to intervene in the world. This idea of participation in community is the base of the current concept of literacy. Due to the omnipresence of visuals in the contemporary society, one could infer that images are comprised in this idea of literacy and, consequently, take part in SDG 4. The educational benefits of working with visuals would strengthen even more this comprehensive idea of literacy as research has shown. The article examines the actual definition of literacy related to SDG and to what extent visuals are imbedded. Considering the fact that UNESCO is the organisation leading and coordinating the SDG 4, a selection of its documents are analysed. Results showed that visual literacy is not mentioned in any of these documents, which is a mismatch with the idea of literacy aiming to help people develop in society. This omission could be explained as the certainty that introducing visual literacy in educational systems entails a deep transformation, difficult to reach by 2030.
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