The importance of using visual sources

Please note: this article pre-dates the 2014 National Curriculum and some content may be outdated.

The Spring 2008 issue of this magazine, Visual Literacy, highlighted the excellent practice in using visual historical sources that exists in many primary schoolsWe should strive to preserve and extend this critical use of visuals, whatever the topics of study. Historians traditionally have been trained to use text rather than pictures, therefore it is all too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that picture sources are beneficial only for the very young or those who find difficulties in dealing with the written word...