239 International Journal of Education Through Art Volume 14 Number 2 © 2018 Intellect Ltd Visual Essays. English language. doi: 10.1386/eta.14.2.239_1 VISUAL ESSAYS INGRID FORSLER Södertörn University Image ecologies: Infrastructures of visual art education in Sweden and Estonia ABSTRACT This essay is a visual interpretation of the media ecologies of visual art education in Sweden and Estonia. As the title of the article suggests, an ecology of visual art education means infrastructures for accessing, producing, showing and sharing images. The study is empirically informed by social network analysis conducted in online communities and by interviews with teachers who are active in those commu- nities. Graphs of activity and connectedness in online communities are included in a media ecology model, based on the teacher interviews. The model visually relates online collaboration with material technol- ogies, such as classroom computers or cameras, and different forms of governance, such as curricula. The essay attempts to contribute to the exist- ing literature regarding the relation between technologies and educational practice by combining digital methods with media ecology and infrastructure theory, and methodologically by using visual methods for interpretation. KEYWORDS art education media ecology media infrastructure data visualization collaboration social network analysis Figure 1: Graph of a social network group for Estonian art teachers. Data retrieved from Facebook May 2016.