Investigating Children's Graphic Skills: A South African Case Study

Abstract

Graphic literacy is identified as one of the critical outcomes of the new South African curriculum. For graphic literacy to become an achievable outcome of the new curriculum, we need to investigate the skills and concepts underpinning graphicacy as a form of communication. This paper describes a case study which has as its goals diagnosing and illuminating children's graphic skills development through identifying: what skills they use; how they use and apply these skills when communicating through symbols; and the difficulties they experience when encoding spatial information through a series of practical and drawing tasks. The research was based on a case study using a single Grade 5 class within an independent South African primary boys' school. The children who constituted this case, while from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, were nevertheless from the more affluent and privileged sector of society. In that it was age, gender and economic class specific, this case study does not constitute a representation of all primary school children. However, the research findings will help to illuminate the current situation regarding graphic literacy of South African primary school children, and may contribute to wider international debates about graphicacy and the development of graphic literacy.