Visual methods and the visual culture of schools

Abstract

This article examines visual methods for understanding the visual culture of schools. It adopts an institutional culture perspective to equate the visual culture of schools with the ‘hidden curriculum’ of schooling. A range of visual sub‐cultures is touched upon including architecture, non‐teaching space and postures of teaching and learning. The possibility of conceiving the visual culture of schools as a holistic entity raises the problematic of devising broader more encompassing visual‐centric methodologies combining mixed methods and cross‐disciplinary approaches.