What stick figures tell us about Irish politics: creating a critical and collaborative learning space

Abstract

This paper focuses upon the interpretation of freehand drawings produced by a small sample of 220 first-year students taking an Irish politics introductory module in response to the question, 'What is Irish Politics?' By sidestepping cognitive verbalprocessing routes, through employing freehand drawing, we aim to create a critical and collaborative learning environment, where students develop their capacity for interpretation and critical self-reflection. This is because the freehand drawing technique, as part of a critical pedagogy, can generate a more critical and inclusive perspective, as visual representations permit us to comprehend the world differently, and understand how others also see the world. We feel that the drawings provide insights into how our youngest voters perceive their society and their place in it, and thus communicate to us their understanding of Irish politics.

Understanding corruption through freehand drawings: a case study of undergraduate business students’ visual learning in the classroom

“…Freehand drawing is widely recognised as an effective and efficient way of recording and communicating a flow of ideas (Richards, 2013). It is also seen as an effective 'visual elicitation technique' which allows students to explore multiple ways of understanding and challenging 'taken-for-granted' assumptions (Donnelly and Hogan, 2013;Feeney et al, 2015). The pedagogical benefits of a freehand drawing activity include enabling students to draw their own interpretations of a particular phenomenon as well as facilitating students' knowledge construction and visual critical thinking (Feeney & Hogan, 2017).…”

Using drawings to understand perceptions of civic engagement across disciplines: ‘Seeing is understanding’

“…Most studies on the use of drawings see them as a tool for understanding the behaviour patterns of children and as a way of providing observations and questions (see Rubin, 1984; Thomas and Jolley, 1998). In recent years, drawings are being used as a method of data collection (Merriman and Guerin, 2006), and as a pedagogic tool (see Dean, 2015; Donnelly and Hogan, 2013; Feeney et al, 2015). Donnelly and Hogan (2013: 5) found ‘the use of freehand drawing in the classroom to be an immediate, yet non-threatening, way to focus students’ attention on critical self-reflection and developing understanding of their own and others’ deeply held frames’.…”

“…For Giroux (1997), critical pedagogy is purposely transformational, as it adopts the position that teaching and learning are dedicated to broadening the possibilities for students. However, introducing critical pedagogy, through use of the visual, necessitates redefining the roles and responsibilities of faculty and students (see Donnelly and Hogan, 2013; Feeney et al, 2015).…”

“…In 2007, an Active Citizenship Office, under the aegis of the Department of the Taoiseach, was established. Unfortunately, the initiative stalled in 2008 as Ireland experienced its most severe economic crisis in a generation (Feeney et al, 2015).…”

“…Freehand drawing – a visual elicitation technique that permits students to see that there are potentially multiple ways to analyse and challenge any issue (Feeney et al, 2015) – serves as a useful tool to aid understanding of a topic. As a teaching approach, capable of generating a critically reflective stance (Rose, 2008), freehand drawings can build students’ ability to engage in critical thinking as well as providing insights into their perceptions (Dean, 2015; Donnelly and Hogan, 2013).…”