Multimodal perspectives on school community building through graffiti

Abstract

Graffiti constitute a particular form of communication, which often conveys meanings in specific cultural contexts. This article presents a multimodal analysis of three graffiti images located in female lavatories of a higher education institution in Malta. Each visual has its own theme which revolves around issues related to (i) a sense of disappointment and dissatisfaction with life, (ii) a need for affection and commitment within romantic relationships, and (iii) sexual orientation and gay pride. Each visual contains drawings and written text and testifies to the need of female students to express themselves in environments, which go beyond formal education in classrooms. A multimodal reading of these visual images explores possible meanings of student’s artistic expressions aimed at voicing their feelings, doubts, struggles, perplexities, and hopes in relation to the issues they raised. We draw on a multimodal analysis to understand the contribution that images make to the understanding of how young people communicate with each other and how visual forms of self-expression could be linked to community building in education institutions. The study presents a number of implications on how peer interactions based on multimodal communication contribute to the understanding of students’ cultures that could lead to community-based learning.