Working toward third space: visual literacy acquisition in art studio classrooms

Unrestricted The visual art classroom can provide an important social and cognitive space for expression that fosters the development of students’ visual literacy. Using Gutierrez’s (1993) theoretical framework of the third space, Dewey’s (1943) theory of the mediated classroom, and Freeman (2003) and Taylor’s (2008) concept of visual literacy, the researcher analyzed the attributes of the mediated third space in the visual art studio classroom and the work being produced. The analysis of the third space model has the potential to transform other classroom models. Further, the art studio space in the presence of an art teacher serves to develop students’ visual literacy that can foster multicultural awareness.