In this presentation I would like to present an example of my visual research material and discuss methods of analysis.

The aim with my research is to get an understanding for how teachers work and can work with picture analysis in the compulsory school on the basis of young people's own image world and with digital techniques.

My experience is that teachers work with this following a tradition and that teachers feels secure in having a picture or a recognized process to assess and to evaluate. I think art education to a greater extent must work with the consumption and use of images.

In art education today we also have to work with digital techniques in a greater extent so that we prepare pupils for the big amount of pictures they meet in everyday life. In work with picture communication and digital techniques we give pupils a possibility to take an active interest in ideological and cultural questions and to be an active citizen.

The National Evaluation of the art subject NU-03 supports my opinions and is the basis for my thoughts. The report highlights the use of converting the subject to more of a communication subject, where interpretation and reception of images play a more prominent part than we see today. The authors of the report NU-03 also point out the importance of using digital techniques in order to strengthen the use in working life and society.

My principal research focus lies on the teacher role in work with digital techniques. How do they work with images from e.g. homepages, films on the Internet, where pupils often locate themselves? In what way do teacher design lessons to make pupils understand the impact of images and in order to develop pupils own creativity and understanding of the visual culture that is surrounding us in society? In the use of a digital medium the pupils will be given another possibility to expose their creativity for others in society.

In the study I want to elucidate the teacher's role in this kind of work.

Central issues for the study are:

• How can teachers work with communication on the basis of the pupils own world of images?

• Which role do teachers have in work with digital techniques?

• How can assessment be made of interpretation and reflection rather than the production of images?

Theoretical framework and Method

My theoretical framework is in the social semiotic area and I am also interested in using ethno methodology and conversation analysis in my study.

In spring 2009 I made observations in three different compulsory schools in art classes. When I did these observations I found it difficult to hear what the teachers said to the pupils in different locations in the classroom. In the autumn 2009 I did a test-study in an art class in compulsory school, to see how the use of observation with video cameras would work out. I had one stationary camera and one hand camera, with which I followed the teacher. I also placed a MP3 player round the neck of the teacher to test if that was a way to hear the conversations better.

One insight of these studies is that, when I did observations without a camera I had a better overview of the action in the class. But with the hand camera I could catch different conversations and analyze them afterwards.