Social Justice Perception of Pre-Service Visual Arts Teachers: Visual Inquiries

This study seeks to reveal the perceptions of pre-service visual arts teachers on social justice through art-based practices focused on social justice. Designing on visual phenomenology, this study was performed in the fall semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. Five different activities involving visual inquiries are presented to reveal the perceptions of the pre-service teachers on social justice. The research participants are 35 (13 male, 22 female) sophomore-level pre-service teachers. The data are obtained through course documents, reflective diaries and semi-structured interviews. The data are then analysed through content analysis; reliability and validity are ensured through triangulation. This study identifies four different themes: association, questioning, transformation and reflection. The findings show that the pre-service teachers questioned common issues related to social justice. It was observed in the activities performed in this study that the pre-service teachers identified the visual themes. They mentioned common social justice issues based on the things they experienced and their observations. These are such as women's rights, violence against women, children's rights, LGBT, animal rights, language and religion differences, income imbalance, racism, and discrimination. The issues they questioned were the direct expression of the individual experiences of the pre-service teachers through visuals.


Introduction
Social justice education brings together feminist studies, racial and multicultural studies, disability rights, identity studies, environmentalism, community-based, critical pedagogy, performance pedagogy, social reconstruction, visual culture, and other fields in education (Garber, 2004). "Arts educators have discussed the need to teach future generations about social justice and diversity issues while providing responsible strategies to combat racism, prejudice and other forms of individual, institutional and structural discrimination" (Banks, 2009;Chalmers, 1996;Chappell, 2009;Collins & Sandell, 1992;Darts, 2004;Freedman, 2000;Pincus, 2000;Stuhr, 2003, as cited in Shin, 2011. Various researchers (Beyerbach, 2017;Bradshaw, 2019;Desai, 2020;Martin & Freedman, 2019;Ploof & Hochtritt, 2018;Spillane, 2019) educators, and artists claimed social justice concepts are embedded in art and art education. The relationship between art and social justice has been recently discussed and articulated as social reconstructionist art education (Freedman, 1994;Hicks, 1994;Stuhr, 1995), multicultural art education (Desai, 2003(Desai, , 2005Stuhr et al., 2008), and other various art education literature that discuss feminism, LGBTQ theories, and disability studies (Quinn, 2006). Art educators embrace material and visual culture (Blandy & Bolin, 2012Duncum, 2010;Freedman, 2003) and engage with community-based and social justice settings in order to more meaningfully engage with participants (Dewhurst, 2014;Garber, 2004;Quinn et al., 2012;Tavin, 2010, as cited in Hochtritt, 2019. Art education offers a number of definitions of social justice. A social justice art education is both utopian and practical. Such education contributes to the more democratic society that teachers can practice building in the classroom and as suggested by Westheimer and Kahne (2004), is also associated with the today's world. Social justice art education would deal with contextual issues that emerge through visual culture, but would need to engage with the surrounding political, social and economic structures through examination of what matters in the lives of teachers and students and focus on collective action for social change (Westheimer & Kahne, 2004). According to Desai (2020), social justice in art education is based on the desire to raise awareness about socio-political issues, mobilizes civic participation to change unequal power relations in society and seeks to change policies through art. So, social change in art education can be defined as a process and influence intended to positively change unequal social conditions through art making, exhibitions and the display of art in the public sphere. Social justice, which appears as a sub-field in art education, includes people dealing with creative artwork against inequality and other injustices in art education, as well as repetitive processes. Social justice education as a pedagogical approach seeks to attract students' attention to critical analysis by encouraging a change in social interactions and new images with creative artwork. Social justice in art education offers alternatives to creative and critical education. It is easier to understand some situations at the intersection of art and social justice. Social justice education in the arts is a practice; it is an evolving, iterative process (Dewhurst, 2010(Dewhurst, , 2014. As claimed by Anderson (2010) action-focused art curriculum is at the heart of social justice art education since it ultimately contributes to social change. Anderson further considers service-learning, communitybased art, multiculturalism, and gay/lesbian and gender bias studies, which are examples of social justice art education, as significant foci of social justice art education. One point he firmly insists is that although art education aims at social justice and equity, its content should be art and visual artifacts. He highlights the significance of aesthetics and aesthetic contemplation in discussing arts for social justice (Yoon, 2017). While the effects for social change are expansive, art in social justice art education is often conceptualized as individual political self-expression, and therefore we believe that representing social problems will open dialogue between people, which will inevitably cause social change (Desai, 2017).
According to Garber and Costantino (2007), social justice art education is premised on the convection that teachers act as guides to their students and education should be relevant to the lives of students. In her article titled "Social Justice and Art Education", Garber (2004) characterizes social justice art education based on four aspects.
Firstly, the subjects of social justice art education include community arts, media and popular culture literacies, visual culture, as well as material culture studies. In this way, it helps students explore the social and historical construction of knowledge. Secondly, the curriculum in social justice art education focuses on the interests, voices and lives of students. Besides, students "reclaim their voices as part of a process of empowerment" and learn the way to resist oppressive power. Teachers are seen as cultural workers and intellectuals that help justice and social change. Thirdly, critical inquiry and anti-discrimination pedagogies serve as ways for social justice art education. Finally, the results of social justice art education should be for students and teachers to become border crossers. Border crossers are "aware of various coordinates of differences and power and their specific limitations and engage in the struggle for democratic change (p.9).
As reported by Finley (2008), "Artistic inquiry is positioned as a unique method for radical, ethical and revolutionary research that is futuristic, socially responsible and useful in addressing social inequalities" (as cited in Osei-Kofi, 2013, p.131). There are two ways in which the process based on theoretical thinking while conceptualizing social justice reflects and supplements the cognitive work related to the process of conceptualizing and creating art. These are processes of embracing creative imagination and critical approach (Stevens, 2015). Beyerbach et al. (2017) claims that art can be a tool for imaging a society that is socially just. Moreover, Hanley (2013) states that since art is innovative and inventive in its nature, it can be a powerful source and means of exploring social justice. Visual arts offer teachers and students opportunities to take part in social change towards social justice (Greene, 1995, as cited in Sosin et al., 2010. Marit Dewhurst notes in her book (2014) that there are a diverse body of works that follow the social justice art model and embrace different projects and curricula under different names, which are Activist Art (Felshin, 1995, as cited in Stevens, 2015, Art for Social Change (O'Brien & Little, 1990, as cited in Stevens, 2015, Art for Democracy (Blandy & Congdon 1987, as cited in Stevens, 2015, Community Cultural Development (Adams & Goldbard, 2001, as cited in Stevens, 2015, and Social Practice Art (Dewhurst, 2014, as cited in Stevens, 2015. On the other hand, artwork united by the banner of social justice art may represent different conceptions of what it means to work for social justice and how art can help achieving that goal. The answers of educators and artists to these questions will decide their expectation of art and their evaluation of it. According to Dewhurst (2014), social justice art is artwork that attracts attention to, empowers action toward, or tries to intervene in inequality systems.
Social justice education in visual arts education brings many gains for teachers and students. Teachers deal with the issues in social justice education through art and have the opportunity to reflect on these issues with the students. Thus, they review social justice issues and problems. Issues in teaching social justice education arise from ideological and economic contexts, practice context, and student context. Teachers' empowerment as advocates that can contribute to a social change and social justice both within and outside of schools offers a foundation for believing in the possibility of social justice (Garber, 2004). A social justice-orientation in teacher education can direct preservice teachers toward better critical sociocultural knowledge, analytical skills, social responsibility, and willingness to act based on an understanding of history, structural conditions, and discourses reproducing unequal learning outcomes and disparate access to greater learning opportunities in classrooms (e.g., institutional racism, class disparities, gender inequalities) (Kincheloe, 2004, as cited in Kraehe & Brown, 2011. It is necessary to structure an equitable education in courses and to ensure that teachers approach all students fairly and impartially in visual arts education in the changing world order. Social justice education advocates equality and equal opportunity for all groups in a society. It combats against all thoughts that lead to inequality in society, such as social position, race, language, religion, sexual orientation (Özsoy & Mamur, 2019). Teachers who are committed to analysing social justice issues and supporting democratic principles through their teaching are obligated to consider how their pedagogical activities approach to the dynamic ties between culture and politics, and should determine how effectively their courses prepare their students to participate in the contemporary cultural sphere as thoughtful and informed citizens (Darts, 2004).
Further studies are necessary on how teacher educators may effectively teach courses with social justice aims and how students make sense of those learning experiences (Kraehe & Brown, 2011;Lowenstein, 2009;Sleeter, 2001;Yoon, 2017). There are several studies investigating how pre-service teachers learn about social justice issues through artistic production. One of them (Belliveau, 2006) developed a game on combating bullying, using the drama method in artbased research with pre-service teachers; another one involved a process in which an art teacher performed interpretation and creation processes in each of four disciplines, namely visual art, music, language, and dance, in the arts curriculum units in order to show how students think about the structure of social learning processes (Berghoff et al., 2005). Another study was performed to explore the influence of residency status (outsider) and prior cross-cultural experiences on the perception of the neighbourhoods of students by future teachers based on photographs (Brown, 2005). Further, Maguire and Lenihan (2014) claimed that it is imperative to find ways to concretize, apply and evaluate social justice practices of current and future teachers in art classrooms and they developed a social justice-based arts education course based on a service-learning component for undergraduate arts education students. Another research was carried out to present the experiences of a teacher researcher and university students exploring social justice issues in an art education course and accordingly examined oppression systems through class discussions and artbased assignments (Yoon, 2017). A significant contribution was made by Kraehe and Brown (2011) who aimed to examine how art-based research can provide what is needed in social justice-oriented teacher education and to develop critical socio-cultural knowledge of pre-service teachers. However, there is not study performed on social justice in art education in Turkey.
This study aims to explore the experiences and social justice perceptions of pre-service visual arts teachers through visual inquiries in teaching visual arts in Turkey. With this purpose in mind, this study seeks to answer the following questions: 1. How do the pre-service visual arts teachers define the concept of social justice? 2. How have the pre-service visual arts teachers experienced the concept of social justice in their lives?
• How do the pre-service visual arts teachers question the concept of social justice through the visuals provided?
• How are the ideas and observations of the pre-service visual arts teachers on social justice described in their reflective diaries?
• How do the pre-service visual arts teachers reflect their understanding of social justice in their art works?
3. What do the pre-service visual arts teachers think about social justice?

Research Model
This study draws on visual phenomenology.
Visual phenomenology is a method that involves structuring the meanings created by individuals regarding an event or a phenomenon with a visual perspective. The focus of visual phenomenology is on how individuals experience and interpret an event or phenomenon and visual phenomenology revolves around visual questioning. The phenomenology of vision can be best defined as an ongoing process of anticipation and fulfilment (Madary, 2016, p.4).
Visual phenomena may differ according to theoretical perspectives. For that reason, these phenomena are multifaceted. Different perspectives lead to different descriptions and different explanations. Scientific experimenters and the observers serving as subjects embrace significantly different perspectives. An individual's subjective and personal experience notably differs from that of a scientist studying vision and looking from outside at the behaviour of another person. It is obvious that scientific observations about the visual experiences of other people are restricted. Most scientists believe that visual phenomena have characteristics quite different from those that are experienced by observers. Vision takes place through the actions of material structures that transfer energy by means of optical, physiological, chemical, and neural processes. If visual phenomena have meanings and characteristics, in the traditional scientific view, then these properties must be immaterial additions produced by inference, memory, intellect, and emotion (Albertazzi, 2013). The main data in visual phenomenology are documents with visual content, applications and interactions. Visuals are effective in individual data analysis. Visual phenomenology is based on verbal and spontaneous identification of visual objects. Thus, the purpose is to create visual awareness through questions (as cited in Bedir Erişti, 2016).

Participants
The research participants were selected by criterion sampling. The research participants are 35 (13 male, 22 female) sophomore-level pre-service teachers who attend the course of the Learning and Teaching Approach in Visual Arts, which includes the subject of social justice. Participants voluntarily took part in the study and consent forms were signed by the participants. The participants in the study were identified as P1-P35.

Role of the Researcher
Based on her previous studies on visual culture, the researcher in this study (Çığır, 2016;Güler & Bedir Erişti, 2019;Güler, 2020) observed that both pre-service teachers and students raised social justice issues and explored them. Thus, the pre-service visual arts teachers were asked to question the concept of social justice, which is one of the subjects of contemporary art education, through visuals. The researcher created five different activities for pre-service teachers to understand how they can express their cultural capital, values, experiences and understanding of the world through visuals and convey their experiences. Further, future teachers were provided with an environment to explore ways to take action against many issues related to social justice. The researcher allowed the pre-service teachers to experience change and transformation through visuals by exploring this subject beyond the classroom.

Data Collection Tools
This study utilized course documents based on visual inquiries for five weeks (visual data, photographs, drawings), reflective diaries where students reflect their observations and other situations related to social justice in their daily lives, a semi-structured interview form with 16 questions prepared by the researcher to obtain the opinions of the students about their perceptions of social justice after the implementation process and to reveal their perceptions of social justice. The study was conducted one-time semi-structured interview. 14 participants out of 35 were interviewed. The participants have been selected voluntarily. The semi-structured interview asks questions intended to explain the views of the participants on social justice, their experiences, their opinions on social justice education as well as social justice in visual arts education. The questions have been checked by both the researcher and a field expert. Interview questions were asked using an online interview form due to the epidemic.

Data Analysis
The data obtained through semi-structured interviews where the students expressed their opinions on social justice, course documents and student diaries, were analysed through content analysis. Content analysis involves deriving meaning from data texts, dividing the texts into parts based on the meaning derived, naming these parts via codes, examining the codes against redundancy and transforming these codes into comprehensive themes (Creswell, 2012). Accordingly, the data were separately coded by the researcher and the field expert; the codes were compared to form common codes, categories, and themes. The data were presented in quotes to create a meaningful structure from the data. This study uses the reliability formula suggested by Miles and Huberman (2015) to test its reliability: Reliability = Consensus / (Agreement + Disagreement). The reliability of this study has been found as 85%. A value higher than 70% is considered reliable. Thus, this result implies that this study is reliable.

Reliability and Validity
There are many strategies for validity and reliability followed in qualitative studies. One of them is triangulation. The concept of triangulation is more about organizing trips or converging two or three measurement points in a specific way on a site (Merriam, 2015). That is to say, triangulation means looking at something from a multiple perspective to increase accuracy (Neuman, 2014). In this regard, reflective diaries, course documents, semi-structured interviews were all examined together in this study. Also, the field expert (one person) and the researcher coded the data separately, compared them and developed common codes and themes. Thus, the reliability of the research was ensured.
International Journal of Educational Methodology  521

Figure 1. Themes on the perception of social justice
Analysis of the findings obtained from the qualitative data in the study identified four different themes. These themes are an association, questioning, transformation, and reflection. The identified are presented along with the visual inquiries and opinions of the students. The association theme includes findings on the question of "How do the preservice visual arts teachers define the concept of social justice?" The first step: The pre-service teachers were asked about their opinions on social justice and requested to write a text on this in the first step of this study. The students were not given any information on the concept of social justice in this study. They attempted to define social justice based on their own experiences or observations. The opinions and experiences of the pre-service teachers on social justice at the beginning of the research process are as follows:

Social Justice
Association Questioning Transformation Reflection Just as people are given many rights, animals and the nature have rights as well.
Animal rights -violence against animals Humankind feels superior Respecting differences such as religion, language, colour, race, opinion, etc., and distributing these rights equally.
Discrimination -not respecting different opinions, economic imbalance Lack of empathy and selfesteem People who are accepted as members of society get along well in society are excluded or marginalized Violence against women-cultural difference-a multicultural society Othering That the individuals that form the society have good conscience and equality regardless of religion, language or race.

Economic imbalance Population and economic policy
Living freely, being able to defend one's opinion… Freedom to dress, pressure experienced by the surrounding people

Illiteracy, believing in stereotypes
That the relationship between individuals is based on common good and each individual equally benefits.

Discrimination/sexism experienced in daily life and school life
Art and art education should present an educational content that creates freedom of expression and thought.
Taking children's rights as a basis Child abuse incidents Socially neglected issue, An unequal understanding of men and women Giving equal rights to each individual in the society LGBT and sexist discrimination in schools Eliminating stereotypes about gender and showing love and respect The pre-service teachers associated their opinions on social justice with their previous experiences and situations. Their experiences in this context contributed their ideas about social justice/injustice. The preliminary definitions of social justice of the pre-service teachers focused on equality of women and men, children's rights, being equal in matters such as sexism, religion, language, colour, race, and opinion discrimination and involved concerns regarding people with disabilities. In these definitions, the pre-service teachers mostly expressed the inequalities they experienced at school and in their families.

Questioning
The questioning theme includes findings on the questions of "How have the pre-service visual arts teachers experienced the concept of social justice in their lives?" and "How do the pre-service visual arts teachers question the concept of social justice through the visuals provided?" Accordingly, the above-mentioned steps were followed: Step: Observe/View/Analyse-Photovoice Project: In this step the pre-service teachers were given a period of 5 weeks. They were asked to keep a diary about the events and phenomena they experienced and observed about justice each week respectively. Also, they were asked to view and analyse a movie, a cartoon, and an advertisement, to analyse an art form and take a photo (create a photovoice), which they believed to be related to the concept of "social justice" one by one. At the end of this period, they were requested to express the concept of social justice with a work of art, based on their impressions. In this process, the pre-service teachers established connections between the events and phenomena they experienced and questioned the concept of social justice through visuals. The pre-service teachers analysed visuals semiotically through literal meanings and connotations. To achieve this, the pre-service teachers were provided with visual analyses and contexts during this 5-week period. As it is not possible to present the works of each participant in this study, five student works for each activity are given as an example by the researchers. LGBT rights Marxism and Feminism Animal rights Public service ad and justice Work analysis in the context of social justice Photovoice in the context of social justice

Categories on the Questioning Theme
The activity that involves viewing a movie and the opinions and visual inquiries of the pre-service teachers on social justice The pre-service teachers reviewed the movies they watched and expressed their opinions on the subjects they questioned based on the frames from the movies they watched. Dangal is a movie that features many aspects of the concept of social justice; so much so that it presents a closed and harsh society like India, with a social structure where women suffer from violence and are secondary to men. The plot of this movie shows the severity of social injustice; the struggle a father started for the sake of realizing his dreams turned into something that can affect the whole society. (P2) Visual inquiries in the category of Racism Racism is one of the issues that cause many injustices in the world. The fact that this movie is a real-life story impressed me even more in relation to racism. And it made me realize that the real wealth is being human, not being black or white. What causes us to divide people into different classes and makes these classes fight against each other is a mindset. I hope people with this mindset realize that we are all created equal, that no one is superior to anyone, and that every person living in this world has a purpose and a reason for his/her birth. (P17) Visual inquiries in the category of Equal Opportunities It is very difficult for them to live freely because people have disgusting and cruel thoughts on them, but these people do not know how they live and that they give up their freedom; some of them are on the alert during their lives or face the risk of being a victim of honour killings. Their (transvestites') freedom is restricted or they are excluded from the society, but they state that they will not change their sex. The pressures of this society make them sociopaths or push them into suicide. For example, have you ever thought about which toilet you will use? They think about this every single day. Or have you ever drowned by the disgusting gaze of society? (P26) Child brides, thousands of people that we do not even know their existence, die of hunger. In addition, I was more impressed by the credibility of the actors in this movie, which addresses to a universal subject; most of the actors were real amateurs who were collected from the street and who were living the script of this movie in their real lives. The concept we call justice is unfortunately not applied in most countries and we lead our lives without acknowledging this reality. (P4)

Visual inquiries in the category of Child Brides
The activity that involves viewing a cartoon and the opinions and visual inquiries of the pre-service teachers on social justice Apart from these cartoons, the pre-service teachers also watched short cartoons and animations that highlight justice, discrimination and differences (gender, race, culture).

The activity that involves viewing an advertisement and the opinions and visual inquiries of the pre-service teachers on social justice
Visual inquiries in the Code of The Right to Education Figure 13. Turkcell's village teacher Derya Doğru's advertisement (Turkcell ,2020) I support that education should be provided completely free of charge and equally. It is not fair at all that one can receive a comfortable education just because s/he is rich and study at the university and at the department as s/he wants… As someone who received education in a village, I can say that we did not receive an education equal to that of other students.
Visual inquiries in the category of Differences In these visual inquiries, the pre-service teachers addressed anti-discrimination issues that question race, class, gender, age, abilities, cultural background, religion, and other factors that define people, among the important tools of social justice education. Through visual inquiries, they discovered that there are not always certain characteristics that represent all the people in a given group, but that there are changing and different perspectives. According to Giroux (1991), through social justice, students learn to think of diversity as a force and understand that no way of existence is the norm.
The activity that involves analysing an art form and the opinions and visual inquiries of the pre-service teachers on social justice Table 4. The Questioning Theme, the Category of Artwork Analysis Artwork Analysis in the context of social justice Potato Eaters -working class and peasantry The Justice Statue -equal distribution of justice Cimon and pero-social prejudice The Gleaners-social class difference (urbanites and peasantry) The Jungle (La Jungla) -justice brought about by the class system The Weeping Woman-Questioning about violence against women and children's rights Break through from your mould -Women's freedom and life Guernica-Injustice caused by war Intrigue-Noble class' understanding of justice Stutzen Der Gesellschaft-Bourgeois class and justice Jacque louis david socrates-Impairment of freedom of thought Charles White-racist approach and justice In this step, the pre-service teachers chose works from art history and analysed them based on the framework of social justice. They examined the works semiotically through literal meanings and connotations. A holistic art curriculum both involves creating and performing and encompasses art history, critical analysis, and aesthetics as well as the ways these connect. Students of the arts comprehend the personal and cultural forces shaping artistic communication and the way that the arts shape the different cultures of past and present society (Sosin et al., 2010). Dewhurst recognizes the roots of social justice art in two aspects of art history/art criticism and community organizing and discusses this balance. Art history/art criticism involves the historical traditions of art and projects a conventional understanding of artistic performance where art is bought by collectors and then reaches the art market. It considers the final product as an area for critiquing, challenging, and documenting (Dewhurst, 2014). Art history and visual arts give teachers and students opportunities to take part in social change towards social justice (Greene, 1995). When it comes to social justice, the first thing that came to my mind is something negative, wrong and bad, for whatever reason, something that would not be assented by anyone in the world. The first things that came to my mind are violence against women, young children, as well as poverty, war, and misery. Although this work seems to be outdated, unfortunately, even today, all kinds of negative behaviours, insults and violence against women are still there. Any attitude or behaviour that results in the physical, sexual, psychological, or economic harm to or suffering of an individual or that includes threats and oppression or arbitrary obstruction of freedom contains the word violence. (P11)

Charles White is an artist who has devoted his life to combating discrimination against black people in the United States. White described the suffering of his people and the injustice he suffered with his paintings on walls, window blinds, cardboard, and paper. Dominantly working on the concept of social justice and particularly on the theme of racism, Charles White used black figures mostly in his works. There has been a racial discrimination that survived from past to present, and individual rights and freedoms have been restricted as well. Indeed, White's exposure to various pressures and discrimination throughout his education life may be one of the good examples regarding social justice. He, despite all these injustices, injustices and challenges, was able to produce works. (P30) The Photovoice activity and the opinions and visual inquiries of the pre-service teachers on social justice
After Observe/View/Analyse steps, the pre-service teachers were involved in a photovoice project by photographing the moments which they consider as justice/injustice in their daily life based on their perception of social justice. Photographs combine scientific and artistic evidence to create formal, narrative, and conceptual interactions in education projects in visual arts. Photos are a unique and autobiographical way to make sense of something (Bedir Erişti, 2016). Photovoice encourages participants to take photographs and together discuss on an issue of their daily life and to make suggestions to address the issue being discussed. Photovoice is defined as a process through which societies are defined, represented and improved through a special photographic technique (Wang & Burris, 1997, as cited in Ersoy & Avcı, 2016). That being said, the photovoice project was intended to allow the pre-service teachers to represent social justice through photos and to write the stories of their photos. The transformation theme includes findings on the questions of "How are the ideas and observations of the pre-service visual arts teachers on social justice described in their reflective diaries?". Throughout the research process, the pre-service teachers reflected all kinds of events and situations they experienced or observed regarding the concept of social justice in their diaries. It is notable that the pre-service teachers mentioned the social justice issues they experienced in the primary, secondary, high schools and universities in their diaries. The pre-service teachers expressed some points in the social justice issues they mentioned in their diaries. The issue of social justice was discussed based on rights including "Worker children/Child Brides/Child Rights, Women's Rights/Femicide, Right to life, Discriminatory Behaviors/Discrimination, Economic Rights, Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Immigrants, LGBT rights, Right to education, respect/disrespect for social rules and animal rights" and the pre-service teachers drew attention to these rights in the diaries. Sample sentences from their diaries are given below.

Worker children/Child brides/Children's rights
Child brides!... How rational to marry them a monster 40-50 years older by making them put on a white piece of cloth… A child whose will was taken away from her… Who knows, maybe she has never dreamed of getting married; maybe she will have a successful education life, but it is a shame to force her to get married before she even thinks about it. (P4) Women's rights/Femicide: On this issue, mostly female students expressed the harassment they were subjected to, the sexist approach they experienced in the family and school, and the things they experienced and observed.
Can't we walk alone on the streets? Can't we dress the way we want? There are so many abuse and rape incidents… I did not say something once. I will never be quiet again. What I see, hear, live. I will never be quiet. I am not doing anything to be ashamed of. They are doing. I was silent once and I don't know how many more people were hurt, maybe because I was silent. I will be the one who makes others silent. I will be human. (P7)

Right to life
The killing of Ceren Özdemir by someone she did not know and for no reason made me even more sad. A woman again, a loss again. Women who are constantly harassed, raped and murdered… These incidents will persist, and femicide has been increasing. (P15) Discriminatory behaviours (Family environment, geography, economy, gender, language, religion and race) Even today, there is still a huge reaction against religious ideas; even the smallest question about religion is more than enough to judge and exclude a person from the society. It was disappointing that today I was in conflict with my best friend and that I was not understood by him/her. On the other hand, just letting go of selfishness and a little understanding can eliminate all discrimination in the world. (P31) Economic rights (Income imbalance, rich-poor distinction)

My friend's father said that he had not received his salary for months from the factory where he had been working for years, and he was fired when he reacted about this with his colleagues…. The rich get richer and this is not just. (P3)
In the today's order, there are people who do not live under equal conditions and get education under equal conditions, which means that something is wrong. The amount of the minimum wage creates inequality as well. This is a world where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. People who experience financial difficulties are not hired when they apply for a job even though they meet all the requirements and thus it seems that the company management uses nepotism. (P33)

Rights of disabled people
While walking, I witnessed the unjust treatment of a disabled child and his/her mother helping the child as there was a car parked in front of sidewalks for the handicapped. I hope that problems such as this one caused by a selfish and thoughtless driver who ignores the rights of disabled people will not be experienced. (P8) Autism is not a barrier. The news on social media and the videos I view cause me to boggle and I watched them with shame. (P5)

Immigrants I got on the bus and it was a day when there were many immigrants in the bus. A middle-aged man on the bus said loudly that the immigrants occupied our village and there is no place left for us to live. Yet, there is enough room in the world for all of us. I don't understand why one can be so cruel. (P9)
LGBT rights

Among prejudices, gender-related prejudices come first. Examples of these prejudices are prejudices about masculinity, prejudices about femininity and prejudices about LGBT persons. My close friend was an LGBT person and was so ostracized that I felt sorry for him. He used to wear pink socks and my friends found this strange. I don't think this is a bad thing. This shows his colourful personality. We are the ones who attribute genders to colours. (P13)
I recently observed that a guy at school acted like a girl and others seemed to make fun of him. This is called homosexuality. I never accept this or anything similar or reactions against homosexuals; I find such behaviours pathetic… Freedom is one's living well both spiritually and physically. (P21)

Right to education
The young people in the city receive a high-quality education in terms of school equipment and similar aspects, but those in the villages lead a very difficult life, which is against the understanding of a social state. The bad roads in the villages need to be improved so that students can go to schools more easily. (P24) Children who grow up working and begging on the streets, children who collect their childhood dreams in the moneybox… Equality in education should be provided for every child. (P30)

Animal rights
Whenever I think of something about social justice, I always think of animals. A forest fire with an unknown cause occurred in Australia today. More than a thousand people were hurt and lost their lives. A photo of a panda cub hugging the leg of a person was revealed, the panda was clearly seeking help. This is sad; I can't describe it... I am so sorry. (P30)

Reflection
The reflection theme includes findings on the questions of "How do the pre-service visual arts teachers reflect their understanding of social justice in their art works?" and "What do the pre-service visual arts teachers think about social justice?". The pre-service teachers were asked to create an artwork based on their observations and thoughts during the research process. Good examples from the artworks of 35 pre-service teachers are given below. It is notable that the pre-service teachers often used the technique of collage in their works. Figure 27.

Discussion
This study, which draws on visual phenomenology, seeks to reveal the social justice perceptions of the pre-service visual arts teachers through art-based practices that focus on social justice. It thus aims to explore the perspectives of the pre-service visual arts teachers towards social justice through visual inquiries. The findings of this study will hopefully provide insights into future research on social justice in art education.
This study concludes that the pre-service teachers reflected the inequalities they experienced on their perceptions and definitions of social justice, limited to only their experiences or observations before visual inquiries. They defined social justice based on their cultural capital. The process of visual inquiries and analysis based on visuals in this study reveals that the pre-service teachers not only focused on the injustices they experienced, but also raised awareness towards the rights of their acquaintances and even the rights of strangers, against the injustices they suffered, and questioned these injustices. Incongruent with this, Bradshaw (2019) finds out that the lesson plans of the pre-service teachers based on social justice in arts education support meaning-making, critical participation, and the development of artistic and activist voices. Bradshaw (2019) further argues that the pre-service teachers connect with each other, question the world and benefit from semiotic pedagogy to convert their beliefs into action, that while doing so, they become active participants through their lives and interests.
The pre-service teachers in this study expressed that they made sense of the issues they could not understand better through visual inquiries. It is notable that the pre-service teachers, who only had a theoretical understanding of social justice before this study, realized different things through visuals. Supporting these findings, Martin and Freedman (2019) claim that the potential of visual arts to encourage social justice and to transform the lives of individuals is greater than most people realize. They further illustrate just a few of the ways the visual arts can function as an environment for teaching and learning, informing and persuasion, and promoting social well-being.
It was observed in the activities performed in this study that the pre-service teachers identified the visual themes. They mentioned common social justice issues based on the things they experienced and their observations. These are such as women's rights, violence against women, children's rights, LGBT, animal rights, language and religion differences, income imbalance, racism, and discrimination. The issues they questioned were the direct expression of the individual experiences of the pre-service teachers through visuals. It is thus clear that they found a democratic environment where they could express themselves. These findings are congruent with the findings of research performed on social justice in arts education with the participation of pre-service visual arts teachers. Alexander and Murphy (2020) ascertain that pre-service visual arts teachers gain awareness towards global, socio-political and social issues through art and reflect it in their lives. These findings support the findings of Alazmi (2017). Indeed, Alazmi (2017) reports that social justice-based art practices enhance the awareness of pre-service teachers on social issues such as gender inequality and cultural diversity and strengthen their democratic ideas. Garber (2004) offered findings that support this argument. Garber (2004) stated that pre-service teachers need to examine the cultural and social codes of both themselves and their future students and have a perception to guide them to include these codes critically towards a more just society.
The pre-service teachers in this study experienced, learned social justice issues through visuals and reflected them again through the strong expression of art. Social justice-oriented art-based inquiry enabled them to gain a critical perspective and awareness. The study by Alazmi (2017), among other studies that add to these findings, underlined the value of using art making in social justice education to help students discover, study, and examine themselves in relation to society. Broome et al., (2018) argued that art tools can be effectively used to discuss social justice issues and that these art practices help developing critical thinking skills.
Further, the pre-service teachers in this study stated that they changed their minds on social issues and that they gained a different perspective that they had not had before. Research that offer similar findings and results are available in the literature. For example, Maguire and Lenihan (2014) revealed that socio-cultural issues encourage pre-service teachers to reflect on more deeply. Kraehe and Brown (2011) determined that social justice education can be improved through art practices and that social justice education helps raise the critical awareness of pre-service teachers about social justice teaching and allows for their self-transformation. Creating meaning through art in subjects such as social justice and democratic citizenship, which are included in the curriculum of art education courses, Lawton (2019) argued that providing preservice and in-service art educators with access to empowering community-engaged experiences that holistically integrate their artist/teacher/researcher identities can be personally, professionally, and socially transformative.
The pre-service teachers in this study expressed that they had a creative perspective when dealing with social justice issues and reflected this perspective both in their opinions and in their works. This finding is congruent with the findings of Bastos and Zimmerman (2017). Their study discussed with practical examples how arts education can use creativity to promote social justice and investigated how to support creative learning and to carry out practices to achieve this.
In this study, it is remarkable in the research findings that especially female pre-service teachers emphasized violence against women and women's rights. They questioned the sexist and discriminatory behaviors based on their experiences and reflected on them through visuals. In conclusion, the pre-service teachers stated that injustice can be eliminated by education, awareness, and state policies, and most importantly, through self-improvement on justice. Yoon (2017) revealed that female teachers positively acknowledge their racial, sexual, cultural, and linguistic identities, and that they should envision their roles as border-crossers and agents of change.
Questioning social justice through visual inquiries, the pre-service teachers in this study experienced the art-based education process and designed concept-oriented art materials. They further learned to brainstorm, respect ideas, empathize with others and concretize their opinions with visuals through discussion in the classroom environment.
Considering the increasing importance of empathy in teacher education in the recent years, Bullough Jr (2019) reported that teachers need to be more empathetic to overcome social inequalities and that social justice education is essential in pre-service teacher education, given that they failed to connect with children and their parents in a meaningful and compassionate way. This is supported by the findings of Li (2020). Li ascertained that regarding the implementation of the social justice art curriculum, art teachers suggest designing student-centered social justice art education, developing age-appropriate teaching materials, and helping students to brainstorm ideas and visualize images.
The pre-service teachers in this study also examined the images circulated in the media while questioning social justice. They discussed many visuals such as films, animations, and commercials from a critical point of view. Thus, examining these visuals, they have become critical media literate as well. Janks (2017) and Cho (2017) argued that critical literacy is key in enriching social justice education and in increasing the potential of practices. Beyerbach (2017) and Hattier (2017) stated that one may develop critical literacy with artistic interaction in social justice education.
To enhance the critical visual abilities of both pre-service teachers and students, social justice in arts education proposes that arts teachers need to teach, transfer arts skills and to incorporate social justice issues into arts courses. Pre-service teachers or arts teachers can convey information on social justice in arts courses, through various activities, and observe how social justice is used in arts education to advocate for a more just and democratic society (Li, 2020).

Conclusion
The findings further highlighted that the pre-service teachers who examined the visuals through semiotic analysis gained the ability to reflect deeply. It was observed that they examined the visuals by associating them to social events, feminism, Marxism, multiculturalism, and politics. In the activity involving analysis of artworks, the pre-service teachers interpreted the images in the works by relating them to their perceptions of social justice. Similarly, in the photovoice activity, they narrated all the justices/injustices they experienced with photographs (along with the meanings they attributed to the images in the photographs). As a matter of fact, the pre-service teachers gained awareness of the social issues they observed every day, and then internalized them with photographs. In the activity that involves creating an artwork, the pre-service teachers reflected the social justice issues that they internalized through art in a striking and clear way. While doing this, they questioned what justice was; at the end of the process, some of them believed in justice whereas others came to the conclusion that there was no justice. In conclusion, the pre-service teachers stated that injustice can be eliminated by education, awareness, and state policies, and most importantly, through self-improvement on justice.

Recommendations
Some recommendations can be made in line with the findings of the research. Institutions that offer arts education may incorporate cooperative, interactive curricula on justice for social justice practices in their schools. Art-based practices in social justice issues can be increased. Lesson plans and activities may be developed to encourage students to reflect on their own identities and thus support can be given to students to identify issues of justice in their lives. With a content focused on social justice, educators can use art education as a tool and include critical inquiry. In this context, educators need to incorporate art education focused on social justice to challenge injustices, change or transform students.
Research in the field of art education may use activities based on visual inquiries and focus on different cultures and different educational levels. Moreover, future research may investigate arts education practices together with critical media literacy. Scholars can also design course plans on social justice for visual arts education curricula, or pre-service training can be offered to visual arts teachers to design such plans. Not only pre-service visual arts teachers, but also other subject-matter teachers can participate in social justice practices through art research/projects. Also, narrative research can be performed with visual arts teachers where they tell their own teaching experiences on social justice. Students can plan activist art movements to emphasize social justice. Practices on social justice can be carried out not only in visual arts but also in other areas such as music, drama and literature.

Limitations
This study has certain limitations. Firstly, it only offers insights into the learning and teaching approach in visual arts course. Secondly, the participants of this study are limited to the sophomore-level pre-service visual arts teachers.