Teaching Critical Thinking Through Images
This project, based at Northumbria University and led by fashion academic Louisa Rogers, aims to promote the use of imagery as a powerful tool to help students develop critical visual literacy skills. In a world saturated with images that are increasingly artificial and manipulated, the ability to read and question what we see is more important than ever. Yet it’s rarely taught systematically in education, and many schoolsdo not integrate critical analysis of this type into their formal curricula.
We are steeped in images more than ever, and visual culture is oftenmore accessible than other touchpoints for students, making them an ideal starting point for learning how to think critically about the world.
Our platform is divided into thematic categories, each with overlapping subsections. In these, you will find free-to-use images and associated critical thinking exercises that encourage learners to move from their personal responses, through careful visual analysis, to understanding broader social and cultural contexts.
The goal is to democratise and demystify critical engagement by using accessible visual texts to build skills that extend far beyond the classroom into how young people navigate, question, and ultimately create media, advertising, and visual communication in the world around them.
Teach Critically 