Making meaning(s) with cover designs

Abstract

In this article Halliday’s systemic functional grammar, Kress and Van Leeuwen’s grammar of visual design and Bernstein’s work on pedagogic discourse are drawn on in order to analyze some of the ways in which meanings are made and some meanings privileged over others in the designing, both visual and discursive, of the covers of three course books prepared for teacher education programmes in South Africa. The primary aim of this analysis is to understand what meanings are offered to readers as entrants into or as established members of communities of practice in the teaching profession and the academy.