Using drawings to understand undergraduates’ perceptions of politics—the US and Ireland

What is it about?

Freehand drawing is a visual representation technique sometimes employed to bypass cognitive verbal processing routes as part of a critical pedagogy. This allows students to produce clear, more critical, and inclusive images of their understanding of a topic, irrespective of their vocabulary. This paper presents an interpretation of freehand drawings produced by undergraduates taking an introductory American politics module in a Denver university and an introductory Irish politics module in a Dublin university, in response to the question: ‘What is American/Irish Politics?’ Having to explain politics pictorially compelled them to distill what the essence of politics meant to them. The drawings provide insights into how these students perceive politics. In employing freehand drawing, we hope to create a learning environment where students can develop their capacity for critical self-reflection.

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