Abstract

This article argues that despite CORU’s recognition of Creative Arts as integral to Social Care Practice, there are ‘pedagogical, theoretical and practice gaps’, which might be addressed through a ‘process orientated novel creative pedagogy’ (PONCP) introduced in this paper. The PONCP is built on two tenets, firstly that creative expression is not just for professional artists – everyone is capable of creative expression, though cultural messages make us believe otherwise, and secondly engaging in creative practice is therapeutic in varying degrees from passing time productively to psychoanalytic engagement. A curriculum is proposed comprising: edusemiotics (the interpretation and creation of meaning), multimodality (the use of different modes / tools of/for expression) and Inquiry Graphics (a tool for critical analysis of photographs) (Lacković, 2010, 2020).

Through this PONCP the author hopes to establish a terrain for future research and elaboration, and to develop creative, reflective and analytic capabilities for effective, high-quality practice with service users. The PONCP aims to support social care creative work by promoting everyday creativity and imagination as an affirming expressive and adaptive ability through understanding how ‘signs’ construct meaning and therefore learning. By critically reading and analysing the visual world through ‘signs’, socially constructed ideologies and accepted visual meaning can be challenged revealing hidden truths. Overall this may serve to enhance professional practice as well as professional critical appraisal in keeping with the CORU Standards of Proficiency.

Keywords: Social care, creativity, semiotics, multimodality, inquiry graphics, critical visual literacies.

MacGiollaRí, D. (2020). Learning to Put Everyday Creativity, Semiotics and Critical Visual Literacy Using Inquiry Graphics ( IG ) Visual Analysis to Work in Social Care. Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies, 20(2).