LLED 565F/96A - Supporting Learners with Learning Difficulties

This course is based on the significance of the growing use of visual methodologies in social research, as well on as a recognition of the challenges this presents in relation to data analysis and research ethics. Of concern, too, is the absence at times of any critique about the tools and methods of such methodologies, and the false claim made about what the visual can (or cannot do) within social action/social change frameworks. ​The course is designed for educational researchers (and others addressing social issues) interested in testing out, critiquing, and studying the challenges and successes of this type of work, with the idea of deepening an understanding of research design, including implementation, interpretation and representation, the role of reflexivity, data management, and the role of emerging technologies. A feature of the course is that it will take a workshop/lab approach to exploring the issues. It will focus on several areas of visual research (including participatory work ith photos and video), and will explore how this work might inform ’from the ground up’ policy-making in relation to social action/social change. The course will provide students with a foundation for assessing the suitability of visual methods for a range of research questions.

Picture books which tell a story in words and pictures have often been called the “twice-told tales.”  For the reader, however, there is no separation between the pictures and the text rather the “picture storybook is an imaginative interaction of text and illustrations used to tell a story” (Raines   Isbell, 1994).  In this course we will investigate the formal properties of the picture book, how picture books can facilitate literacy development and the ways in which children interact with them. We will discuss aesthetic theory, theories of text-picture relationships, theories of literacy and theories of literary understanding, and the ways in which these theories connect.   We will also explore research on children’s engagement with and responses to picture books.