Participant Empowerment Through Photo-elicitation in Ethnographic Education Research: New Perspectives and Approaches [1 ed.] 9783319644127, 9783319644134, 2017949113

Table of contents :
Acknowledgements
Contents
Editor and Contributors
Methodological, Critical, and Ethical Considerations
1 Introduction: Photo Methods, the Image, and Validity
Abstract
1.1 Historical Context
1.2 The Image and Culture
1.2.1 The Image in Ethnography
1.3 What Are Photo Methodologies?
1.4 Using Photo-Methods in Education Research
1.5 How Can a Research Method Empower Individuals?
1.6 Validity in Photo-Methods
1.7 What to Expect in This Book
References
2 The Ethics of Visual Research and Participant Empowerment
Abstract
2.1 Ethics Committees and Approval
2.1.1 Informed Consent
2.1.2 Informed Consent and Children
2.1.3 Privacy and Confidentiality
2.1.4 Safe Spaces
2.2 Beyond the Ethics Committee—Personal Ethics
2.2.1 Exposing Realities
2.2.2 Beneficence and Ethics
2.3 Conclusion
References
‘Listening’ to the Silenced
3 Auto-driven Photo-Elicitation Interviews with Young Deaf People
Abstract
3.1 Research Problem
3.2 Why Auto-driven Photo-Elicitation Interviews Were Used for This Study
3.3 Method
3.3.1 Photo Elicitation
3.3.2 Visucentrism and Research with Deaf Participants
3.3.3 Ethical Considerations and the Ethics Committee (IRB)
3.3.4 The Photo-Elicitation Interviews
3.3.5 Sampling, Self-identity, and Recruiting Participants
3.3.6 Placement, Power, and Language
3.3.7 Gathering, Storing, and Using the Photographs
3.3.8 Conducting the Interviews
3.3.9 Data Analysis and the Unique Challenges of Analysing Visual Communication
3.4 Findings
3.5 How This Method Empowered My Participants
Appendix A: Transitional Experiences of Young d/Deaf People in England
Information Sheet for Taking Photos (Abridged)
References
4 Using Photo-Elicitation to Break the Silence
Abstract
4.1 Research Problem
4.2 Why Photo-Elicitation Was Used for This Study
4.3 Method
4.3.1 Institutional Review Board (IRB) and Other Hurdles to Research with People with Disability
4.3.2 Using Photo-Elicitation in a Time of Digital Photos
4.4 Findings
4.4.1 Introducing Three Participants
4.4.2 Lesson 1: Balancing Belonging
4.4.3 Lesson 2: Quality of Life Is Fluid
4.4.4 Lesson 3: Personal Rights
4.4.5 Lesson 4: Judge More Wisely
4.5 How Photo Elicitation Empowered My Participants (and Changed Me)
4.6 Final Thoughts
References
5 Photovoice as a Tool for Understanding Sustainability in the Anthropocene
Abstract
5.1 Research Problem
5.1.1 Sustainability and the Coming of the Anthropocene
5.1.2 Using Photo as a Research Tool: Locating Ourselves Methodologically and Theoretically
5.1.3 Why Photo-Elicitation Was Used for This Study and Some Caveats Regarding Its Use
5.2 Method
5.2.1 Context of the Study
5.3 Findings
5.3.1 Common Worlds and Emerging Tensions
References
‘Listening’ to Kids and Teachers
6 Friends, the Club, and the Housing Authority: How Youth Define Their Community Through Auto-driven Photo Elicitation
Abstract
6.1 Research Problem
6.2 From Receivers of Service to Givers of Service
6.3 Why Auto-driven Photo-Elicitation Interviews Were Used for This Study
6.3.1 Service Learning Versus Community Service
6.4 Method
6.4.1 Picture Our Community Study
6.5 Findings
6.5.1 The Coventry Square Club
6.6 How This Method Empowered My Participants
Appendix: Picture Our Community Flyer
References
7 Do You See What I See? Family-Produced Photographs and the Transition to School
Abstract
7.1 Research Problem
7.2 Why Photo-Elicitation Was Used for This Study
7.3 Method
7.3.1 The Study and Participants
7.3.2 Data Collection
7.3.3 Data Analysis
7.3.4 Positionality
7.3.5 Rapport
7.4 Findings
7.4.1 Readiness Involves Doing School-like Activities
7.4.2 Readiness Involves Technology
7.4.3 Readiness Is Part of Everyday Activities
7.4.4 Readiness Involves the Right Materials
7.4.5 Readiness Is Supported by Family and Peers
7.4.6 Readiness Relies on the Resources of the Community
7.5 Participant Empowerment
References
8 Curb My Cynicism: Employing Photo Elicitation to Address the Problem of Research on Bullying
Abstract
8.1 Eye Roll Please: Research on Bullying
8.2 How My Cynicism of the “Contest Illusion” Led to Utilizing Photo Elicitation
8.3 Method: A New Way In
8.3.1 Selecting and Arranging Images
8.4 Findings: Snapshots from the Analysis
8.5 Empowerment, Engagement, and Insights Gained from Photo Elicitation
References
9 Mediating the Space Between: Using Photo-Elicitation to Prompt Cultural Consciousness-Raising
Abstract
9.1 Research Problem
9.2 Global Perspective Development
9.3 Mediating Understanding Through Cross-Cultural Interactions
9.4 Photo-Elicitation as a Tool for Cultural Consciousness-Raising
9.5 Method
9.5.1 Participants
9.5.2 Procedures
9.5.3 Data Analysis
9.6 Institutional Review Board (IRB) Consideration
9.7 Methodical Issues that Resulted from My Own Cultural Assumptions
9.8 Findings: Micro-movements Towards Global Perspective
9.8.1 Photography Used as Storytelling
9.8.2 Using Photography to Practice Position-Taking
9.8.3 Photography as Cultural Consciousness-Raising
9.9 Reflecting on This Process: How Photo-Elicitation Empowered the ISTs
Appendix 1: Interview Protocol: Kenyan Secondary Students
Appendix 2: Interview Protocol: Post Travel Interview with ISTs
References
10 Interrogating Whiteness: Using Photo-Elicitation to Empower Teachers to Talk About Race
Abstract
10.1 Research Problem
10.1.1 The Achievement Gap and the “School to Prison Pipeline”
10.1.2 Solutions Are not Readily Found
10.1.3 Finding a Counternarrative
10.2 Why Photo Elicitation Was Used for This Study
10.3 Method
10.3.1 Ethnographic Case Study
10.3.2 Case Study
10.3.3 Critical Ethnography and Positionality
10.3.4 Institutional Review Board (IRB) and Participants
10.3.5 Data Collection, and Analysis
10.4 Findings
10.4.1 Todd Edwards
10.5 Conclusion
10.5.1 Interrogating Whiteness
10.5.2 How This Method Empowered My Participants
References
Conclusion: Troubling Empowerment
Author Index
Subject Index

Citation preview

Michael L. Boucher, Jr. Editor

Participant Empowerment Through Photoelicitation in Ethnographic Education Research New Perspectives and Approaches

Participant Empowerment Through Photo-elicitation in Ethnographic Education Research

Michael L. Boucher, Jr. Editor

Participant Empowerment Through Photo-elicitation in Ethnographic Education Research New Perspectives and Approaches

123

Editor Michael L. Boucher, Jr. Texas State University San Marcos, TX USA

ISBN 978-3-319-64412-7 ISBN 978-3-319-64413-4 http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64413-4

(eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017949113 © Springer International Publishing AG 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Acknowledgements

The editor is indebted to the insightful, patient, and thoughtful scholars who agreed to partake in this project and who trusted me to pull it all together. Your work is inspirational. Thanks especially to Sarah Mathews who worked her network to get us started. I would also like to thank my wife, Karen, for always being supportive (indulgent) of my endeavours, scholarly and otherwise. Thanks also to Jacklyn Black and Eugenia Ugartechea for their work in maintaining the resources, and to John Segovia for help in the final proofing.

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Contents

Part I

Methodological, Critical, and Ethical Considerations

1

Introduction: Photo Methods, the Image, and Validity . . . . . . . . . . Michael L. Boucher, Jr.

3

2

The Ethics of Visual Research and Participant Empowerment . . . . Kyle Miller

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Part II 3

‘Listening’ to the Silenced

Auto-driven Photo-Elicitation Interviews with Young Deaf People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dai O’Brien

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Using Photo-Elicitation to Break the Silence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kharon Grimmet

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Photovoice as a Tool for Understanding Sustainability in the Anthropocene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Deborah J. Tippins, Sophia (Sun Kyung) Jeong, Purita P. Bilbao and Lourdes N. Morano

Part III

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93

‘Listening’ to Kids and Teachers

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Friends, the Club, and the Housing Authority: How Youth Define Their Community Through Auto-driven Photo Elicitation. . . . . . . . 117 Denisha Jones

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Do You See What I See? Family-Produced Photographs and the Transition to School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Kyle Miller

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Curb My Cynicism: Employing Photo Elicitation to Address the Problem of Research on Bullying. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Gerald Walton vii

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Contents

Mediating the Space Between: Using Photo-Elicitation to Prompt Cultural Consciousness-Raising . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Sarah A. Mathews

10 Interrogating Whiteness: Using Photo-Elicitation to Empower Teachers to Talk About Race . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Michael L. Boucher, Jr. Conclusion: Troubling Empowerment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Subject Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Editor and Contributors

About the Editor Michael L. Boucher, Jr. Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Texas State University. Dr. Boucher received his Ph.D. from Indiana University after his work as an urban high school teacher and teacher-leader in Minneapolis, MN. Using photo methods in ethnographic case studies, his research investigates the pedagogy and practice of White teachers working in solidarity with students of color in segregated education systems. He teaches research methods, instructional methods, diversity, and adolescent development to graduate students.

Contributors Purita P. Bilbao West Visayas State University, Iloilo, Philippines Michael L. Boucher, Jr. Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA Kharon Grimmet Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA Sophia (Sun Kyung) Jeong University of Georgia, Athens, USA Denisha Jones Trinity Washington University, Washington, DC, USA Sarah A. Mathews Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA Kyle Miller Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA Lourdes N. Morano West Visayas State University, Iloilo, Philippines Dai O’Brien York St John University, York, UK Deborah J. Tippins University of Georgia, Athens, USA Gerald Walton Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada

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Part I

Methodological, Critical, and Ethical Considerations

Chapter 1

Introduction: Photo Methods, the Image, and Validity Michael L. Boucher, Jr.

Abstract Although the two have distinct origins, photography and ethnography are linked in history and practice. The technology and application of photography as documenter and driver of society has created a convergence of culture and image not possible in former ages, and Yet in social science, the image has been slow to gain acceptance as a tool for data collection and dissemination. This introduction describes the origins and mechanisms of this powerful union and explains how the use of images in ethnographic work enhances validity. The chapters herein are testaments to the power of using images in ethnographic research as more than a mere mechanism for deeper data collection, but also as an empowering experience for participants. The great landscape photographer, Ansel Adams (1902–1984) said, “When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence” (Oden, 2017). I have always loved that idyllic image of the artist gazing at a landscape, hearing nothing but the breath of the earth, but that is not our world; the world of the educator, the ethnographer, or the social scientist in education (Bauer, 2000). Thus, we cannot be content with silence, either literal, nor existential (Mead, 1995). As social scientists, we have made words our medium to display the human tapestry of culture, but what of images? The daily news website on our phones is replete with images that focus our gaze on the issues and people of the moment. We have become a culture of self-creators on social media who show our created selves to others who like our travels, accomplishments, and living milestones (Barthes, 1981; Belting, 2011; Rose, 2012). In Ansel Adams’s world, the photo was a mechanical representation of the reality around him, but in today’s world, the photo is as much of a reality as our own experience (Barthes, 1981; Becker, 1995; Chaplin, 2002; Pyyry, 2015; Rose, 2012). When a relationship is official, it is posted on social media. The phrase, Photos, or it didn’t happen is a maxim for many youth in our society. When the words become unclear, we can turn to pictures and share what words cannot. M.L. Boucher, Jr. (&) Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing AG 2018 M.L. Boucher, Jr. (ed.), Participant Empowerment Through Photo-elicitation in Ethnographic Education Research, http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64413-4_1

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In our research, whatever form of ethnography we use, our work is focused on human beings in all their messy, conflicted, illogical, and ideological selves. We use culture as a mechanism to understand people and all the ways that individuals are empowered and oppressed by the larger society. Social scientists occupy the space at this intersection of the individual’s incongruence and the culture’s frameworks of identities and behaviors. Exploring that space is our raison d’être and images have become an important method to understand people and their culture (Fay, 1987; Fetterman, 1998; Pyyry, 2015; Rose, 2012; Quantz & O’Connor, 1988). This volume is a collaborative work meant to give scholars and students a working knowledge of the procedures, challenges, and benefits of using photo methods in their ethnographic work using studies by current researchers. The chapters herein assert that the use of images can empower participants to challenge their own realities and examine their participation in structures of power. The studies are both examples of exemplary scholarship and serve as tutorials on the procedures and methodological considerations of using this personal, even intimate, method. Although these chapters come from existing studies that used photo methods, they are not reprints of previously published work. These eight authors were asked to re-open their carefully packed-away studies, disassemble the methods and the findings, and reflect on the contents. Like looking through old photo albums, these reflective essays allowed us to have new conversations with different audiences. To that end, each chapter contains sections that penetratingly explain the research problem, describe why photo methods were used for the study, elucidate and reflect on the method, summarize the findings, and then examine participant empowerment through the method. This unique structure is specifically designed to be used in masters and doctoral classrooms and with researchers looking for new methods or to strengthen their existing work. Each researcher brings positionality and purpose to their investigation and approaches these methods differently. Collectively, we believe that using photo-methods can empower participants to become part of the research process, but we have endeavored to trouble that notion within the various chapters and the conclusion. That said, there are many commonalities in these studies in that each of us uses photo with the same goal; to create rigorous science that has meaning for our participants. Despite the phenomenological nature of photographs, as qualitative researchers we recognize that knowledge is constructed from a mix of what we are taught and what we experience (Fetterman, 1998). Thus, historicizing a phenomenon allows for reflection on origins, purposes and motivations. In the next section, we call upon the historical record to inform our research and give context to our work. We stand not on our own, but in front of a long line of scholars who traveled to the all parts of the earth to gain knowledge that we use to explore further. However, the historical record also reveals that sometimes the best understandings come from those who stayed home.

1 Introduction: Photo Methods, the Image, and Validity

1.1

5

Historical Context

The history of ethnographic research has its roots in the nineteenth century practice of crafting narratives of peoples designated as non-White as objects of curiosity, and later, scientific study (Becker, 1986, 1995; Bourdieu, 1962; Chaplin, 2002; Gough, 1968; Harper, 2002; Wagner, 1979). Even though much of the current research using visual methods comes from visual sociology, the use of photos in scientific research has a long tradition of use in anthropology dating back to the beginning of photography itself (Pink, 2007). Explorers and colonizers used photography to document the humans, animals, and geographic features they encountered and these published accounts inspired generations to explore and exploit. The purpose of older ethnographies was not to discover new ways of being in the world, but to confirm the researchers’ own ideology of supremacy (Said, 1979; Pintchman, 2009). An example of an early user of photography was John Wesley Powell, one of the founders of the National Geographic Society (Hunter, 2012). His early ethnographic work in the western United States, exploring the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon combined with his post as an Indian Commissioner allowed him to rise to become the first director of the Bureau of Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution. According to Hunter (2012), Powell: had both practical and idealistic motives: he wished to improve communication with the tribes; but he also wanted to better understand their world, to classify their languages and delineate their cultures. Most importantly, he believed only a scientifically-based ethnology could displace the misconceptions that were causing so much bitterness and bloodshed on both sides. (voices.nationalgeographic.com)

While Powell was largely unsuccessful in his quest to bring understanding to “both sides”, the Smithsonian Institution funded many expeditions into what was termed, “Indian Territory.” Consequently, the Institution has an extensive collection of portraits of Native peoples based on Powell’s work and others. Whether that was for good or ill, is a matter of debate (see Conn, 2007). Inspired by Enlightenment thinking, anthropologists labored to find the cultural thread that linked all peoples together. To that end, they lived with peoples conquered by colonial governments and illustrated their experiences. In his foundational ethnography, The Algerians (1962), Pierre Bourdieu attempts to explain his participants’ connection to the land: The bond which unites the fellah [Egyptian term for non-landowner, or peasant] to his land is mystical rather than utilitarian. He belongs to his fields much more than his fields belong to him. He is attached to his land by deeply affective ties, as witness the agrarian rites in which is expressed a sentiment of dependency in regard to this land, which cannot be treated as a mere raw material but rather as a foster-mother whose authority must be obeyed, since, in the final analysis, it is on her benevolence or ill-will; much more than on human effort, that wealth or poverty depend. (p. 103)

Like many of his contemporaries, Bourdieu imbued his participants with exoticism as described by Edward Said in his work, Orientalism (1979). Said explained that

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this type of otherization allows colonizers to separate themselves from the colonized. The mental gymnastics of appreciation and distain for the people under colonial rule allows colonialists to maintain that they are culturally superior, but sensitive to the plight of the colonized. In Bourdieu, as with other ethnographies of the time, European supremacy was the unquestioned assumption in the portrayal of non-Europeans (Ramzy, 2008). Said explained that Europeans are of two-minds when it comes to the exoticized Other. On the one hand, subjects under examination are lauded for their, “pantheism,” “spirituality,” “longevity,” “primitivity and so forth.” This over-esteem is then superseded by the opposite when they were derided as, “under-humanized, antidemocratic, backward, barbaric and so forth” (Said, 1979, p. 150). Bourdieu’s description of Islamic culture and religious practice is steeped in the kind of exoticism Said described. Bourdieu wrote: The God of Koranic dogma remains remote, inaccessible and impenetrable; the common man feels the need to be in closer contact with this Divinity, and attempts to draw near Him by calling on mediators and intercessors. The fellah and the woman of the people, who quite often are completely ignorant of the true religion, beg favors of those saints who are both familiar and prestigious, human and superhuman, whose miracles have been recorded by the ancients, whose names are attached to particular sites, regions or tribes, and to whom are attributed specific powers. (pp. 115–116)

Bourdieu’s work is stunningly precise in its descriptions but strikingly contemptuous of the people he portrayed. His descriptions of Islam take on a firmly unexamined outsiders’ perspective. In The Algerians, Bourdieu condemned the colonial project of the French without examining its cause and explained the “disintegration and distress” of the Algerian people as a result of French occupation with little conviction. There is no assumption that, as a French citizen, he was participating in the exploitive colonizing mission and that his descriptions were a part of that project (p. 120). In his modernist and positivist framework, his distance was a virtue and his disinterest was a strength. Some ethnographers, however, imbued with liberalism, sought to stand against the tide of otherization and argued for the inherent humanity of their subjects, as explained by Gough, (1968): We [anthropologists] tended to accept the imperialist framework as given, perhaps partly because we were influenced by the dominant ideas of our time, and partly because at that time there was little anyone could do to dismantle the empires. In spite of some belief in value-free social science, anthropologists in those days seem to have commonly played roles characteristic of white liberals in other spheres of our society, sometimes of white liberal reformers. Anthropologists were of higher social status than their informants; they were usually of the dominant race, and they were protected by imperial law; yet, living closely with native peoples, they tended to take their part and to try to protect them against the worst forms of imperialist exploitation. (p. 13)

Gough’s reflections illustrated the historical entanglement of colonialism with ethnography that dominated the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Gough saw her world as divided into white and “non-white” peoples and lamented the loss of empires as a strike against the ability to do ethnographic work. This mindset also led to polemics like Peter Worsley’s The end of Anthropology? (1966) where he

1 Introduction: Photo Methods, the Image, and Validity

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argued that without a clear division between the primitive and industrial societies, the discipline of Anthropology would be diluted and absorbed into Sociology. Empirically «primitive» society is, in fact, the area which anthropologists have primarily studied. They have struggled with might and main to eschew what they see as value-judgments and the problems of typological classification and of the general conceptualization of development only at the price of producing a relativistic and often largely descriptive corpus of studies (p. 121)

Worsley complained that ethnographies placing industrial and “primitive” societies on an equal footing were destroying the mission of anthropological research which, as he described, had been to create an evolutionary typology, similar to the task of paleontologists, from the primitive to the modern. Without this framework, he asked if there was any use for the discipline: These emphatic kinds of relativism were evoked, historically, by half a century and more of reaction to absolute claims to superiority by racist and imperialist apologists for various cultures, societies, and races. In the event, however, we have eliminated value-judgements about inferiority or superiority, have undermined assumption about the rightness, efficiency or the historical/evolutionary inevitability of the advanced industrial societies, and have demolished nineteenth-century theories of social evolution, only at the expense of avoiding problems of typological classification of the variety of human societies…. (p. 123)

Attitudes and practices of researchers led to the creation of ethnographies whose sole purpose was to build a narrative of the backward Others and reassure Europeans and Americans of their cultural, racial, and scientific supremacy (Worsley, 1966). Gough and Worsley were both concerned that the end of colonialism and the rise in “revolutionary movements” in the 1960s would impede the building of leveraged relationships built as buffers against the worst ravages of colonialism, “as white liberals between the conquerors and the colonized” (Gough, 1968, p. 17). The early work by anthropologists using photographs embodies the scientific gaze, a complicated mix of support and exploitation, even into the Mid-twentieth century (Mead, 1995). Often mentioned as an example of photo methods in ethnography, Bateson and Mead (1942) used still photography to supplement their ethnographic study of Bali (Harper, 2002). The study began with a narrative, detailing the observations of the Ethnographers. They then followed it with a second part consisting of 100 “plates,” displaying 5–10 photographs on each page. On the opposite page from the photos are descriptions of the scenes and an analysis of their content. The photos portray buildings, celebrations, and daily life of the Balinese people. Photos of children, particularly babies, play a major role in discussion of childrearing and human development (Bateson & Mead, 1942). However, though it is often seen as one of the best examples of ethnographic analysis, there is a voyeuristic fascination with people who do not follow Western norms of dress and sexual mores that assumes a hierarchy of cultures reinforcing Said’s argument. The plates, in this study, are not the center of the project, but are used to illustrate the themes that are addressed in the narrative. Congruent with Said’s (1979) description of research with the Other,

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the Balinese are valued for their spirituality, sexuality free of inhibitions, and exotic child rearing, but otherized for those same traits. American Anthropologist, John Collier, Jr. (1957) is widely credited as the first to argue that photography was an effective method to do more than “illustrate” the work of observation and interview in ethnography, but could be a tool to gain more data from interviews (Pink, 2007). Collier explained that his role in a study was purely observational until he noticed that photos could create a record that would aid the analysis. Collier noted that the descriptions of dwellings, while accurate, were not consistent across data collectors: Apparently, the field workers were unconsciously judging houses in respect to their personal backgrounds. A poor house for an urban dweller was not necessarily considered a poor house by a man who had grown up in the country. Regional influences also gave a different interpretation to phrases like “well-painted” or “poor repair” (Collier, 1957, p. 843).

Collier described how he improved the consistency of portrayals of houses by photographing them and then sitting with the other members of the research team to create a more reliable set of descriptions of the housing in this community: The research workers sat in a circle and the photographs were passed around. Each member of the team studied the numbered photograph, wrote down his rating, and passed it on to the next, who in turn rated it independently, until everyone had rated the complete sample. The ratings were then compared. In general discussion, and by turning to the photographs as precise examples of what was meant, the group was able to define their criteria and co-ordinate their judgments. (pp. 847–848)

Collier found that the success of the collaboration made the scientific work more precise and lessened the influences of biases based on the upbringing of the descriptors. Not only was the photographic image sufficiently defined to permit critical examination of all characteristics visible from the road, but also the houses could in this way be compared critically with each other. The material could be analyzed with a comparability that was not otherwise feasible in such a rapid survey. When the prints were laid out together, each component could be viewed and measured simultaneously throughout the graphic sample. Further, the graphic evidence insured that quality would not be measured by some previously inculcated criteria, but in its own realistic environmental relationship. (p. 848)

In Collier’s later volume, Visual Anthropology: Photography as a Research Method (1967) he further fleshed out the advantages of using photo interviews and essays with “natives” (p. 46). He saw the use of photos as a way to overcome barriers of race and class and to celebrate a “cultural energy, a culture’s power to emit its own light” (Biella, 2002, p. 56). Collier explained that using photos was a way to begin conversations across cultural and racial difference. Although his language shows little reflection of a two-way learning relationship, Collier’s descriptions of using photos in the houses of Navajo families and Canadian workers are instructive in the technique that would eventually be used to empower participants and build a less exploitive ethnography. Collier explained that the use of photography in research can, “sharpen the memory and give the interview an immediate character” (p. 48). Using photos allowed the informant to “educate the interviewer with his wisdom” and the photo interview, “allows for

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very structured conversation without any of the inhibitive effect of questionnaires or compulsive verbal probes” (p. 48). He found that asking Navajo people for a second or third interview annoyed them but using photographs allowed for a rich conversation as many times as needed: Projective material [Photographic slides projected in the home] in the interview functions as a third agent. Photographs examined by the anthropologist and the native together, become the object of discussion. This appears to reduce stress in the interview by relieving the informant of being the subject of the interrogation. Instead his role can be one of the expert guide leading the fieldworker through the content of the pictures. The photographs allow to tell his own story spontaneously. (p. 48)

Collier understood that the photographs he took could be used to give participants an “opportunity to speak of the values and subtleties of his culture” and in this way, inform the work, giving a more comprehensive picture of the people and cultures under investigation (p. 49). He also explained that using pictures was a way to communicate across cultures and overcome barriers to understanding: … the inclusion of photographs can make the familiar community questionnaire more comprehensive and meanings of questions more precise; the nonverbal presentation can help to overcome problems of illiteracy and facilitate questioning across the language barrier in cross-cultural studies. Photographs offer the thought process a fluency of imagery in the projective interview, an opportunity that has just begun to find its place in the research of psychological and anthropological understanding. (p. 58)

Collier’s son, Malcolm Collier (2007), expounded that even though his father was an accomplished photographer and created beautiful images, by the 1960s, he became less concerned with the quality of the images used to tell the story, and more with the stories that came from those images. He summed up his father’s work explaining that Collier’s “documentary and anthropological photography had a common thread of concern with the cultural vitality of communities” (p. 49). While we should not be uncritical of Collier’s approach to indigenous people, within the framework of his time he worked to understand and celebrate cultures and laid much of the groundwork for the use of photos in ethnographic research. Photo methodology became more popular in education ethnographic research when Harper (2002) made a case for the use of photo elicitation in ethnographic research and is widely cited in this volume. Like Collier, he extended the use of photos and challenged researchers to see photos as more than documentation, but to elicit better and more trustworthy data when used as an interviewing tool. In the field of education, Marisol Clark-Ibáñez’s extensive work in photo elicitation has made important contributions to the field of educational research and methodology (2007, 2008, 2012). She explained how the use of photo methodologies can free the researcher to hear the authentic voices of children who are less likely to record their thinking through journals and other traditional ethnographic techniques. Clark-Ibáñez (2004) explained how quickly children became engaged in her study by using photography: I gave students their cameras as soon as I received their signed permission slips. Although most children had never taken a photograph, they understood the basic principles of operating a camera and required little instruction. Most students completed the project within a week of receiving their camera. (p. 1511)

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Researchers have used photo methods to elicit responses from young people in multiple fields including medicine, psychology, and social work. It has been especially useful for work with children and adolescents (Böök & Mykkänen, 2014; Boucher, 2017; Cappello, 2005; Checkoway & Richards-Schuster, 2003; Hill, 2014; Pyyry, 2015; White, Bushin, Carpena-Mendez & Ni Laoire, 2010; Winton, 2016; Kaplan et al. 2007; Kaplan et al. 2011). Epstein et al. (2006) explained that that photo methods can help alleviate methodological and ethical considerations involved in working with children and could be used to more fully understand the lived experiences of children with chronic diseases and conditions. They argue that it is inappropriate to use question and answer interviews with young children as they are not cognitively ready to give useful responses, leaving the door open to over-interpretation from the researcher: Although there is a trend toward using interviews with children “to hear” children’s thoughts, these traditional verbal interviews can be problematic and raise several ethical and methodological concerns. …The verbal interview accentuates the adult authority as an expected feature of adult-child communication. Thus, reliance only on verbal interviews with children might limit the research value of interviews. Using photographs during an interview with children, on the other hand, might address some of these issues but not without challenges. (p. 1)

Thus, when working with any population, but most acutely the vulnerable, these questions of power, authority and voice must always be in the forefront of the researcher’s consideration (see Kyle Miller’s Chap. 2 on ethics in photo methods). The use of photo in ethnographic research has a long history, but it has not always been used as a way to empower participants. Famous examples from the past have used photos to supplement the observations of anthropologists, but the expense, cumbersome equipment, and long time lag, meant that neither cameras nor photos were put in the hands of participants (Mead, 1995). Today, however, with the prevalence of digital photography in everyday life, researchers are more frequently turning to images as a mechanism to capture data and are turning cameras over to participants to amplify the voices of the people under investigation. Even in studies that do not use participant photos, there is more emphasis on the participants being part of the research process and less as subjects of observation (Madison, 2012). Thus, as ethnographic research becomes more visual with each passing year, modeling examples of successful and ethical work with images becomes critical. This volume seeks to build on that literature, but with the explicit mission of exhibiting techniques that will empower the participants to observe, and then to challenge structures in their own communities.

1.2

The Image and Culture

Research on the nature of photographs is an area of study on its own and is not the focus of this book, however, it does warrant a short discussion here as to the nature of photos in Anthropology and Sociology in order to see beyond the borders of our

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own disciplines. Belting (2011) made distinctions between the image, the picture, and the medium when he stated that “The picture is the image with a medium” (p. 10). He explained that in the same way an idea is different from its execution, so the medium of photography, painting, or drawing is not the image itself. The image is the idea and the connection it makes with the viewer is based on the image, not the medium. To Belting, “We live in images, we comprehend the world in images. And this living repertory of our internal images connects with the physical production of external pictures that we stage in the social realm” (p. 9). Images are static representations of reality, but are not reality itself. The way that a photo is taken, the lighting, the angle, all create the image, but the reality is far more complex. Loizos (2000) cautioned that manipulation of images, intentional or not, is a reflection of ideology. When photos are taken, they select the frame in which the image is seen. These selections reflect the value placed on the real objects by the photographer. Photos of city streets can look disserted if the image focuses on one part of the road, excluding the wider life of the sidewalks. Loizos also advised that the image seen by a single person is not universal, thus we bring our own cultural understandings to images. In our research, we should not assume that when we show a photo to participants that they will construct the same sense that we have. Our personal experiences inform our understanding, our perception, and our ability to make sense of the image. Barthes (1981) theorized that profound images held degrees of two elements based on the perceptions of the viewer, the stadium and the punctum. He viewed the process of interpreting photographs as a quest to understand the intent of the photographer. If the photo displays familiar cultural clues to the viewer, there will be little interpretation needed in that the meaning will be quite apparent. This cultural comfort pushes photographers to show familiar items in new ways through abstraction or viewpoints that are not easily seen without photographic equipment. To Barthes, photos like these are neither stadium nor punctum but have an “average affect”, they “can be more or less stylized, more or less successful, depending on the photographer’s skill or luck, but it always refers to a classical body of information” (pp. 25–26). Pictures of the mundane or the normal do not require a new perspective to understand and therefore do not have the same impact as more emotive images. The next reaction to photos is stadium, which can be, “political testimony or enjoy[ed] …as good historical scenes: for it is culturally…that I participate in the figures, the faces, the gestures, the settings, the action” (p. 26). Stadium figures are illustrative of objects or people displayed in the photo. They are informative and may explain something the viewer did not know, but they do not ask the recipient of the image to move beyond their own understanding of the items, events, or cultural artifacts depicted in the photograph. Beyond the informative photos that are “stadium” are the impactful photos that elicit an emotional reaction. To Barthes, these are “punctum” from the Latin work for sharp point. This element, “rises from the scene, shoots out of it like an arrow, and pierces me” (p. 26). Interestingly, although written before the like button was invented, Barthes summed up much of the daily operations of visual culture. In our routines on social media, there are the photos that we scroll past on our phones,

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flash at us from the interstate, or decorate the bus shelter, but there are others that engage us or grab our attention and will not let go. Examples of these are photos of a horrific or joyous event that grips the national consciousness, or it may be the first pictures of a new grandchild born far away. Barthes explained: Many photographs are, alas, inert under my gaze. But even among those which have some existence in my eyes, most provoke only a general and, so to speak, polite interest: they have no punctum in them: they please or displease me without pricking me: they are invested with no more than stadium. The stadium is that very wide field of unconcerned desire, of various interest, of inconsequential taste: I like/I don’t like. The stadium is of the order of liking, not of loving; it mobilizes a half desire, a demi-volition; it is the same sort of vague, slippery, irresponsible interest one takes in the people, the entertainments, the books, the clothes one finds “all right.” (p. 27)

Barthes’ approach, while incomplete, gives us a framework to discuss the impactful images that elicit more or less responses from participants in an ethnographic study.

1.2.1

The Image in Ethnography

Harper (1988, 2002) theorized that photographs allow for a more relaxed and conversant experience than the clipboard interview. He explained that since the brain processes information visually, it puts the participant at ease to see the subject of the interview rather than staring at the interviewer. Harper (2002) posited that images used in visual methods research fall along a continuum. On one side, the images are scientific, relating more to Barthes’ stadium. These images are usually of objects or of people who do not have a direct impact on the participant. They are descriptive but can be sterile and lifeless. Harper listed visual inventories or photos of artifacts; things that are detached from everyday life and experience as being on the scientific end of the spectrum. These images engage the mind and but do not reveal the deeply personal lives of the participants. At the other end, are images that Barthes would have described at punctum, but Harper described as intimate. These are the portraits of family or close friends. They can be raw, and unflattering. They are the kinds of images whose content are seldom seen outside in public. These are the things we keep to ourselves, not the pristine visage we portray to the world. These images betray the internal lives of the participants and uncover the incongruities between our public selves and the lives we live internally. These are the unkempt images of our day lives; the images of real life. As Harper (2002) explained: Photographs may literally describe but leave us unmoved; other images may inspire our emotions but not be useful…. Some photographs may, however, do the opposite; that is, communicate sociological insights in an artistically stimulating manner. (p. 66)

Rose (2012) explored the question of whether the photos used in visual methods were part of the larger culture where visuals are centered in our everyday experiences. She explained that in our current culture, photos are more than

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representations of reality, but are “embedded in social and cultural practices” such that the presence of photos and the act of photography is now a cultural act (p. 26). This resonates with anyone who has been to a wedding or a graduation where photographs are front and center of the experience. We photograph without hesitation and the photo is part of the celebration, not a distraction or merely documentation. Rose’s exploration of visual methods questioned the nature of research that uses images and connected it to the current visual culture. She argued that qualitative researchers who use visual methods are ultimately, not interested in the photos themselves as expression as much as they seek to use them as tools to gain deeper meaning. She concluded: They [photos used in visual methods] may be representational images that carry significant meaning; they may be tools for thinking with; they may evoke the ineffable; they may be sent as messages; remembered forever; deleted after a moment. In these diverse uses of images, and despite their [researchers using visual methods] apparent uninterest in visual culture, then, it seems that [visual research methods] VRM are indeed ‘non-coincidentally’ part of contemporary visual culture. (p. 41)

Whether the intent is to create images that meet an aesthetic standard, use them as a touchstone to remember a specific time and place, or more commonly, to give a new perspective to the viewer to explore new ways of seeing the familiar, photo methods have allowed researchers to reach deeply beyond the face to face interview. The contemporary visual culture as described by Rose, adds to the comfort participants feel when using photos in research, and photos put people at ease to feel less like they are under scientific examination (Collier, 1967; Harper, 2002). While the nature of photographs and images will be a topic of discussion for philosophers, artists and other scholars for generations to come, few would question the use of photos in research anymore as the entire culture has made a great shift towards visual mediums that inform, delight, and distract. Culturally, participants are accustomed to images in their daily lives, but they are less familiar with being interviewed. This comfort extends to the telling of stories while looking at images, but participants are less comfortable sitting with a researcher holding a notebook and being asked a set of questions. The culture that has produced innumerable images, has also created an ease with them that was not available in past epochs, allowing for opportunities to see culture in new and exciting ways. As we move into the age where visual methods may become normal, ethical considerations will move to the fore and we must meet those challenges. To that end, ethical considerations around the use of images are detailed in Chap. 2 of this book by Kyle Miller.

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1.3

What Are Photo Methodologies?

According to Torre and Murphy’s (2015) literature review on the subject, visual methods fell out of favor during the progressive era as social scientists worked to reflect a positivist ontology and create objective and reproducible results. However, as researchers embraced post-positivism after WWII, they began exploring ways to use photos to understand culture in far-flung places. Another literature review by Pain (2012) includes not just the ethnographic work, but also includes works in psychology and Art, among other topics and concludes that photo-methods are now firmly established in research and have become a staple for many researchers. Harper (1988, 2002) framed the use of photo elicitation as a method that decentered the researcher in the process of ethnography. As explained earlier, past researchers who used photo-methods like Bateson and Mead (1942) and Collier (1967) used images as a supplement to their work of description. Bateson and Mead took photos to illustrate the themes they described in their work, and while they were duly analyzed, the photographs were not center to the ethnography. Collier labeled a method closer to the one described by Harper, using photographs to triangulate or reinforce the themes from the traditional interviews. Harper turned the tables on the customary interview by using the photos to elicit a deeper, and more nuanced interpretation of the phenomena under study through the account of the participant. In other words, rather than observations and interpretations from the researcher as center in the study, the participant could now use the photos to more effectively use her/his own voice, or narrative.

1.4

Using Photo-Methods in Education Research

Returning to the central theme of empowering our participants through research, each of the studies in this volume show that through the reflection and dialogue surrounding the images, participants were able to explain their own lives in a more deep and meaningful way. Harper explained in 1988: In this process, which has been called “photo elicitation,” the roles of researcher and subject are altered. The interviewer, more like a student of the subject, is less likely to ask questions that may not make sense to a subject. As the informant studies images of his or her world and then talks about what elements mean, the interview produces information that is more deeply grounded in the phenomenology of the subject. A photograph, a literal rendering of an element of the subject’s world, calls forth associations, definitions, or ideas that would otherwise go unnoticed. (p. 65)

The authors in this volume also found that the use of photos elicited longer and more genuine responses, leading to better data and deeper understanding of the lived experiences of the people involved in the study. We agree with Harper (1988) when he stated:

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From other interviewing experiences, I know that, without the photographs, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to sustain interviews over a long period of time and to accomplish the kind of depth we were able to achieve. With the photographs, the interviews moved almost effortlessly, opening up subjects, in many cases, I would have never anticipated. (p. 65)

Photo methods encompass a wide path of uses for photography within the study, but how and when that photo is applied varies among the users and even the studies in this book. In this volume, education scholars use different types of photo-elicitation, photovoice, photonarrative, photoessay, photofeedback, and photointerview to give a deep sampling of the variety of ways researchers can use photographs in ethnographic education research. The technique, at its core, uses photographs to elicit responses from participants in the study. In some cases, the researcher takes the photos and asks participants to comment on them. In other studies, the participants take the photos and present the photos and their meaning to the researcher. In other instances, the participants are involved in another project that involves photography and use the photos to interpret their experiences with the project. After the initial collection of data, sometimes the photos are used in a documentary or show, and other times the pictures are not seen by anyone but the researcher and participant. While many of the studies herein use photo elicitation interviews, sometimes called photo-interview as their method, there are other variations on the use of photos that are referenced in some of the chapters (Harper, 2002; Tucker & Dempsey, 1991). Photo-essay, or photoessay is typically a participatory action research technique where participants are asked to take photographs and then arrange them with a written portion as a way to make meaning of an issue. In Chap. 5, Tippins et al. work in collaboration with scholars and a rural community of the Philippines where they asked participants to take photographs of their lives and describe them. In Chap. 6, Jones used photo-essay with young students to describe the elements of a neighborhood. Both studies use a participatory method where the researchers and the participants cooperatively composed written narratives that describe the images. Sometimes referred to as Photonarrative, this method can allow for a great deal of involvement with the people participating in the study (Böök & Mykkänen, 2014; Baetens, 2001; Checkoway & Richards-Schuster, 2003; Crane, 2012; Goldston & Nichols, 2009). Ideally, along the process, participants are continually defining their images and teaching the researchers about their lives. In a shift from the ethnographies where researchers do the interpreting, these techniques are empowering to participants in that they are able to tell their stories and interpret their own culture to the researchers. It also allows for participants to reflect on their lives, their power relations, and can empower them to make changes that are needed in order to improve their personal situation.

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Largely used in participatory action research, photovoice allows for participants to engage with the issues in their environment through the use of research and engage in critically conscious action (Checkoway & Richards-Schuster, 2003; Rania, Migliorini, Cardinali, & Rebora, 2015). Used as another method in Tippins et al. (Chap. 5), but with elements in all of the other chapters, photovoice, “encourages and leads participants to express and stand up for the issues that they consider important” (Rania et al., 2015, p. 383). According to Rania et al. (2015) photovoice is a method that gives voice to participants to speak about the strength of their communities, involves participants in critical dialogue about personal and community issues, and shares with participants the tools to approach and interact with political and other structures of power. According to Wang and Burris (1994) the use of photos allows participants the ability to be experts on their own lives and experiences (Wang & Burris, 1997; Wang & Redwood-Jones, 2001). As with other participatory research methods, photovoice assumes that observations from experts are less important than the reflections of the participants in telling the stories of their own lives. Wang (2006) found that the use of photo inspired participants to improve their communities based on their observations made through the study. Wang (2006) stated that photovoice has three main goals: record and consider the community’s strengths and needs, engage participants in critical dialogue; aid participants in reflection around the issues that matter to the community, and finally, to create and implement an action plan with local leaders (Rania et al., 2015). Wang and Burris (1997) rooted their participatory action research in feminist theory and in the work of Freire (1970/2000), “… problem-posing education starts with issues that people see as central to their lives and then enables them to identify common themes through dialogue” (p. 370). Hergenrather, et al. (2009) summed up the purpose and strengths of the method, “Photovoice expands the representation and diversity of participant voices that assist to define and improve the realities experienced by community members, who, many times are not heard” (p. 694). As with all methods, a researcher must make decisions based on the purpose of the study, the needs of the participants, and the research question. However, photo methods are unique in that, in the hands of a skilled, critical, ethnographer, they can decenter the researcher as the questioner and they center the participant as inventor and creator of her/his stories. As stated earlier, there are many ways that ethnographers can use photos in their studies but this is the general process as explained by Torre and Murphy (2015): 1. Researchers identify a topic for investigation. 2. Researchers identify and invite participants to the study. 3. Researchers or participants take pictures relevant to a particular question or topic. 4. After pictures are developed [or downloaded], researchers use pictures to guide interviews and elicit dialogue. 5. Researchers analyze data and report findings.

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The key component of PEI [photo elicitation interviews] is that photographs are used during an interview. There are many studies that do not use photographs to elicit dialogue, but instead rely on images as visual data that speak for themselves. (p. 8)

The variety of ways that photos can be incorporated is a strength of the technique. Photo methods used by a researcher devoted to doing justice alongside participants will find that these techniques allow for new perspectives, a new depth of understanding, and new theorizing by participants, leading to richer, more meaningful data and reflective new insights for the participants.

1.5

How Can a Research Method Empower Individuals?

Carspecken (1996) explained that critical epistemologies do not, “give us recipes for helping the poor and downtrodden” instead methods of critical research provide the opportunity to conduct “valid inquiries into the human experience” (p. 8). Madison (2012) defined Critical Ethnography as having, “a compelling sense of duty and commitment based on principles of human freedom and well-being and, hence a compassion for the suffering of living beings” (p. 5). Building on the work of critical ethnographers in Anthropology and Education, the authors of these chapters seek to create scientific work that honors our commitments to justice and human empowerment with the people whose lives we learn from. According to Banks (2001), “Social research has to be an engagement, not an exercise in data collection” (p. 179). To do just work with participants and communities, researchers who explore culture through the experiences of the Other must not advance their own interests, but work in solidarity with participants. To neglect doing so allows for exploitation of communities and individuals, rather than our goal as educators of empowering people to examine their cultures and their place in them (Anderson, 1989; Freire, 1970/2000). To do this work well, there must be an element of uncertainty. Even attempts to be unbiased must make room for the possibility that all the researchers’ theory goes out the window based on the realities of culture or there would be no need for fieldwork at all. As Banks (2001) explained, That engagement is bound to be partial and bound to include elements that could not have been predicted or foreseen. Swooping in god-like into other people’s lives and gathering data…according to a predetermined theoretical agenda strikes me not simply as morally dubious but intellectually flawed (p. 179).

The framework of Critical Ethnography allows researchers to see the use of photos as more than a pry to gain more data, but can create the conditions to help individuals and communities solve problems, challenge the powerful, reimagine their neighborhoods, and exert their independence (Boucher, 2017; Carspecken, 1996; Madison, 2012; Simon & Dippo, 1986).

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Validity in Photo-Methods

When engaged in critical ethnography, it is important, then, to consider validity while designing the study and analyzing the data. Lather (1986) challenged researchers who seek to empower their participants to use four validity tests to ensure the rigor of their work, calling for triangulation, construct validity, face validity, and catalytic validity (p. 67). Photo methodologies are especially conducive to meeting all four types of validity as explained by Lather and are, in use by skilled researchers, able to meet the validity tests in some of the following ways. • Triangulation: Most photo methodologies involve multiple inputs beyond the photos themselves. The use of photo elicitation requires the researcher to triangulate data through observation, the photos or film, and discussions with the participant. Some studies also include other layers of triangulation as in public shows or discussions with family members. • Construct validity: Lather uses the term “systematized reflexivity” to explain the process of change that should happen when a researcher realizes new theories that arise from the data. The iterative process used by photo-ethnographers lends itself to discovery. For the average person, when a photo is taken, it is often a surprise as to how it comes out. In the same way, researchers should be surprised by what comes from the well as the power of the photos themselves. Both the researcher and participants can learn and grow from the experiences of recording the lived experiences of participants. Using photographs in a study releases the researcher from the typical questions that are so often a part of qualitative interview research. The depth of the data means that the researcher will also have to reflect constantly on the same questions. “What is happening in that photo?” and, “Who are these people?” • Face validity: Lather uses face validity to discuss the importance of “member checks” (Guba & Lincoln, 1992). The process of showing photos and asking for interpretation allows for a great deal of reflection from the participant. In the study by Harper (2002), he explained that when he showed aerial photos of the farm to the farmer, the viewpoint allowed the farmer to have a whole new perspective of what he saw every day. Harper explained that the purpose was to “break the frame” (p. 20) of the farmer and allow him to relay new insight on familiar topics. This technique includes a type of member checking, in that the data of the photos was gathered by the researcher, and the participant reflected on the new learning from these photos. Researchers who wish to empower participants should always include member or “participant” checks throughout the process and the use of photos makes those conversations much simpler (Guba & Lincoln, 1992). One way to ask the question of participants using photo elicitation could be, “When we discussed this photo, I heard you say this… Is that correct and does it reflect your thinking?” This kind of question is much less intimidating or antagonistic than handing someone a transcript and asking them to review the words that they know have been audiotaped.

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• Catalytic validity: According to Lather (1986), catalytic validity is “the degree to which the research process re-orients, focuses, and energizes participants in what Freire (1970/2000) termed ‘conscientization,’ knowing reality in order to better transform it” (p. 67). Catalytic validity has been linked with “democratic validity” where “study participants are seen as active collaborators and co-constructors of knowledge rather than as objects of research” (Koro-Ljungberg, 2008, p. 986). This process views the participant as a “knower [of] positivities, subjectivities, values, beliefs, and operating discourses,” These discourses or biases are not problems to be overcome as in some post-positivist research paradigms, but instead, they are an opportunity for deeper understanding of the participant’s knowledge construction (p. 986). Seale (1999) explained that research employing catalytic validity helps participants deepen their own understanding of the phenomena and can “stimulate some form of action” based on that deeper understanding (p. 469). Onwuegbuzie and Leech (2007) explained that catalytic validity “is the degree to which a given research study empowers and liberates” the participants in a community (p. 237). As you will see in these pages, these photo methods seek to empower participants, or at least, to create conditions under which participants have power over their own lives and stories. As Darder (2016) reminded us, education researchers, “are called to risk a liberating praxis that embodies a new sense of revolutionary subjecthood and challenges our domesticated tolerances for societal injustice and human oppression” (p. 1). In these studies, the authors have endeavored to meet the challenges of praxis in the communities under study while creating valid, trustworthy, and meaningful knowledge.

1.7

What to Expect in This Book

As stated earlier, the purpose of this book is to provide researchers and instructors courses in qualitative methods with a set of studies where photo methods were used. Beyond the findings themselves, each of the authors was asked to reflect deeply on the process and the methods, providing insight for researchers considering using photography. Each chapter is organized for use as a tool for researchers and research students to gain deep insights on how this method can shape their inquiry. In Chap. 2, Kyle Miller discussed the ethical considerations inherent in the use of photo as a method. She explained the types of challenges that may be met from Institutional Review Boards (IRB) and the techniques researchers can use to preserve the privacy of participants. She also spells out specific challenges to research protocols in a world dominated by social media. In Chaps. 3 and 4, two researchers, on different ends of the globe, use photos to listen to students who have previously been unheard in the educational literature. Dai O’Brien uses auto-driven photo-elicitation, where participants are directors of

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their own research data, to equalize the power relations between researcher and participant while exploring the transition of young deaf people from childhood to adulthood (see also Samuels, 2004). A deaf researcher, O’Brien uses both sign and speech to explore the visual ontologies that deaf students use to understand their experiences and their world. Kharon Grimmet challenges researchers to see people with developmental disability as individuals with voice who are able to convey their own lived experiences. She used photo elicitation to hear from students with disability about their Quality of Life (QoL). Grimmet explains the challenges of working with individuals whom many see as incapable of giving consent and argues that the perspectives of people with disability is worth the effort it takes to overcome obstacles by committees and review boards. In Chaps. 5 and 6, communities are examined using photo-methods. Deborah Tippins and Sophia (Sun Kyung) Jeong use photoessay, photovoice, photofeedback, and photointerview methods to explore sustainable community practices in the Philippines. Using an EcoJustice philosophy, they teamed with local researchers, Purita Bilbao and Lourdes Morano to understand ways people in this area interact and intertwine with the natural world and how they are adapting to the effects of climate change on their environment. Denisha Jones used auto-driven photo-elicitation, photovoice, and action research to examine the ways low-income teens interact with their environment in a neighborhood of an American city. She found that these teens developed an identity of community that was not connected to the adults, but to the buildings and people outside of their homes and away from family. In Chap. 7, Kyle Miller uses an asset-based approach to working with participants using photo-elicitation to record the experiences of low income families around their experiences with the transition to school. Her method allows for a deeper understanding of the many ways parents and children participated in activities to prepare them for school. In Chap. 8, Gerald Walton troubles both the discussion of participant empowerment and bullying in schools by taking an intentionally cynical approach to the project, literature, and research. Using photo elicitation, he asked students to categorize photos of people taken from the internet. The resulting racial, cultural, and gendered lenses mixed with body type prejudices allowed the students to pick out which of the pictures would be of a student who would be bullied. In Chaps. 9 and 10, Sarah Mathews and Michael Boucher explore the thinking of teachers working across racial and cultural lines. Mathews examined the growth of American student teachers completing their practicum experience in Kenya and examined their global perspective development during their experiences. She found that these teacher candidates were powerfully changed through their cross-cultural experiences and explained that the act of reflecting on their photos allowed them to deepen their experience leading to transformation of their perspectives. Michael Boucher used photo elicitation to listen to teachers discuss their teaching relationships within the classroom with racially different students. These successful White teachers of African American students were able to theorize about race in ways that may not have been possible without the use of photos. The photos

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allowed them to reflect on their own position as the White teacher in the classroom and explore their own empowerment and deficit models. The conclusion attempts to trouble the notion of empowerment but also to give a bulwark to those who are attempting it in their research. All of these studies together, create a powerful narrative of researchers looking for answers to some of education’s most important questions. Along the way, they and their participants were powerfully changed. We hope that you will read each of these studies and share our enthusiasm for both the method and the intention behind this important technique.

References Anderson, G. L. (1989). Critical ethnography in education: Origins, current status, and new directions. Review of educational research, 59(3), 249–270 Baetens, J. (2001). “Going to heaven”: A missing link in the history of photonarrative? Journal of Narrative Theory, 31(1), 87–105. doi:10.1353/jnt.2011.0024. Banks, M. (2001). Visual methods in social research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Barthes, R. (1981). Camera lucida: Reflections on photography (R. Howard, Trans.). New York, NY: Hill and Wang. Bateson, G., & Mead, M. (1942). Balinese character, a photographic analysis. New York, NY: Academy of Sciences. Bauer, M. W. (2000). Analysing noise and music as social data. In M. W. Bauer & G. Gaskell (Eds.), Qualitative researching with text, image, and sound: A practical handbook (pp. 263– 281). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Becker, H. S. (1986). Photography and sociology. In H. S. Becker (Ed.), Doing things together: Selected papers (pp. 221–272). Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. Becker, H. S. (1995). Visual sociology, documentary photography, and photojournalism: It’s (almost) all a matter of context. Visual Sociology, 10(1), 5–14. Belting, H. (2011). An anthropology of images: Picture, medium, body (T. Dunlap, Trans., English ed.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Biella, P. (2002). The legacy of John Collier, Jr. Visual Anthropology Review, 17(2), 50–60. Böök, M. L., & Mykkänen, J. (2014). Photo-narrative processes with children and young people. International Journal of Child, Youth, and Family Studies, 5(4.1), 611–628. Boucher, M. L. (2017). The art of observation: Issues and potential of using photo-methods in critical ethnography with adolescents. International Journal of Adult Vocational Education and Technology (IJAVET), 8(2), 1–15. Bourdieu, P. (1962). The Algerians (English Trans.). New York, NY: Beacon Press. Cappello, M. (2005). Photo interviews: Eliciting data through conversations with children. Field Methods, 17(2), 170–182. doi:10.1177/1525822X05274553. Carspecken, P. F. (1996). Critical ethnography in educational research. New York, NY: Routledge. Chaplin, E. (2002). Sociology and visual representation (1st ed.). London, UK: Routledge Ltd. doi:10.4324/9780203416723. Checkoway, B., & Richards-Schuster, K. (2003). Youth participation in community evaluation research. American Journal of Evaluation, 24(1), 21–33. doi:10.1016/S1098-2140(02)00268-0 . Clark-Ibáñez, M. K. (2007). Inner-city children in sharper focus: Sociology of childhood and photo-elicitation interviews. In G. C. Stanczak (Ed.), Visual research methods: Image, society, and representation (pp. 167–196). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

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Clark-Ibáñez, M. K. (2008). Gender and being “bad”: Inner city students’ photographs. In P. Thompson (Ed.), Doing visual research with children and young people (pp. 95–113). New York, NY: Routledge. Clark-Ibáñez, M. (2012). Framing the social world with photo-elicitation interviews. In SAGE visual methods (pp. 1527). London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Collier, J. (1957). Photography in anthropology: A report on two experiments. American Anthropologist, 59(5), 843–859. doi:10.1525/aa.1957.59.5.02a00100. Collier, J. (1967). Visual anthropology: Photography as a research method. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. Collier, M. (2007). The applied visual anthropology of John Collier. In S. Pink (Ed.), Visual interventions: Applied visual anthropology (1st ed.). New York, NY: Berghahn Books. Conn, S. (2007). History’s shadow: Native Americans and historical consciousness in the nineteenth century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Crane, K. (2012). Photonarrative. In M. Sajatovic & S. Loue (Eds.), Encyclopedia of immigrant health (pp. 1195–1196). New York, NY: Springer. Darder, A. (2016). Political grace and revolutionary critical pedagogy. Rhizome Freirean, 21. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/28623236/Political_Grace_and_Revolutionary_ Critical_Pedagogy. Epstein, I., Stevens, B., McKeever, P., & Baruchel, S. (2006). Photo elicitation interview (PEI): Using photos to elicit children’s perspectives. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5 (3), 1–11. Fay, B. (1987). Critical social science: Liberation and its limits. Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press. Fetterman, D. M. (1998). Ethnography. In L. Bickman & D. J. Rog (Eds.), Handbook of applied social research methods (pp. 473–505). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed (30th Anniversary ed.). New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic USA. Godden, R. (2017). Participatory photography—Jack of all trades, master of none? Photography as a Social Practice. Retrieved from http://www.asocialpractice.com/participatoryphotography-jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none/. Goldston, M. J., & Nichols, S. (2009). Visualizing culturally relevant science pedagogy through photonarratives of Black middle school teachers. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 20(2), 179–198. doi:10.1007/s10972-009-9125-z. Gough, K. (1968). Anthropology and imperialism. Boston, Mass: New England Free Press. Guba, E. G., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1992). Effective evaluation: Improving the usefulness of evaluation results through responsive and naturalistic approaches. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Harper, D. (1988). Visual sociology: Expanding sociological vision. The American Sociologist, 19 (1), 54–70. doi:10.1007/BF02692374. Harper, D. (2002). Talking about pictures: A case for photo elicitation. Visual Studies, 17(1), 13– 26. doi:10.1080/14725860220137345. Hergenrather, K. C., Rhodes, S. D., Cowan, C. A., Bardhoshi, G., & Pula, S. (2009). Photovoice as community-based participatory research: A qualitative review. American Journal of Health Behavior, 33(6), 686. Hill, L. (2014). Some of it I haven’t told anybody else’: Using photo elicitation to explore the experiences of secondary school education from the perspective of young people with a diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder. Education and Child Psychology, 1(31), 79–89. Hunter, C. (2012). John Wesley Powell: Soldier, explorer, scientist and national geographic founder. Explorers Journal. Retrieved from http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2012/05/17/ john-wesley-powell-soldier-explorer-scientist/. Kaplan, I., Lewis, I., & Mumba, P. (2007). Picturing global educational inclusion? Looking and thinking across students’ photographs from the UK, Zambia and Indonesia. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 7(1), 23–35. doi:10.1111/j.1471-3802.2007.00078.x.

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Kaplan, I., Miles, S., & Howes, A. (2011). Images and the ethics of inclusion and exclusion: Learning through participatory photography in education. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 11(3), 195–202. doi:10.1111/j.1471-3802.2010.01192.x. Koro-Ljungberg, M. (2008). Validity and validation in the making in the context of qualitative research. Qualitative Health Research, 18(7), 983–989. doi:10.1177/1049732308318039. Lather, P. (1986). Issues of validity in openly ideological research: Between a rock and a soft place. Interchange, 17(4), 63–84. doi:10.1007/BF01807017. Loizos, P. (2000). Video, film, and photographs. In M. W. Bauer & G. Gaskell (Eds.), Qualitative researching with text image and sound: A practical handbook (pp. 93–107). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Madison, D. S. (2012). Critical ethnography: Method, ethics, and performance. United States: SAGE Publications. Mead, M. (1995). Visual anthropology in a discipline of words. In P. Hockings (Ed.), Principles of visual anthropology (pp. 3–10). New York, NY: De Gruyter Mouton. Oden, L. (2017). Ansel Adams. Retrieved from http://iphf.org/inductees/ansel-adams/ Onwuegbuzie. Onwuegbuzie, A., & Leech, N. (2007). Validity and qualitative research: An oxymoron? Quality & Quantity, 41(2), 233–249. doi:10.1007/s11135-006-9000-3. Pain, H. (2012). A literature review to evaluate the choice and use of visual methods. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 11(4), 303–319. Pink, S. (2007). Applied visual anthropology: Social intervention and visual methodologies. In S. Pink (Ed.), Visual interventions: Applied visual anthropology (1st ed., pp. 3–28). New York, NY: Berghahn Books. Pintchman, T. (2009). Reflections on power and the post-colonial context: Tales from the field. Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, 21(1), 66–72. doi:10.1163/157006809X416823. Pyyry, N. (2015). ‘Sensing with’ photography and ‘thinking with’ photographs in research into teenage girls’ hanging out. Children’s Geographies, 13(2), 149–163. doi:10.1080/14733285. 2013.828453. Quantz, R. A., & O’Connor, T. W. (1988). Writing critical ethnography: Dialogue, multivoicedness, and carnival in cultural texts. Educational Theory, 38(1), 95–109. doi:10.1111/j.17415446.1988.00095.x. Ramzy, R. I. (2008). Historiography as a means of power: “Otherization” and imperialism though the writings of Edward Said. In E. S. Nagy-Zekmi (Ed.), Paradoxal citizenship: Essays on Edward Said (pp. 85–93). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. Rania, N., Migliorini, L., Rebora, S., & Cardinali, P. (2015). Photovoice and interpretation of pictures in a group discussion: A community psychology approach. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 12(4), 382–396. doi:10.1080/14780887.2015.1019597. Rose, G. (2012). Visual methodologies (3rd ed., 1. publ. ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Said, E. W. (1979). Orientalism. New York, NY: Vintage Books. Samuels, J. (2004). Breaking the ethnographer’s frames: Reflections on the use of photo elicitation in understanding Sri Lankan monastic culture. American Behavioral Scientist, 47(12), 1528– 1550. doi:10.1177/0002764204266238. Seale, C. (1999). Quality in qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry, 5(4), 465–478. doi:10.1177/ 107780049900500402. Simon, R. I., & Dippo, D. (1986). On critical ethnographic work. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 17(4), 195–202. Torre, D., & Murphy, J. (2015). A different lens: Using photo-elicitation interviews in education research. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 23(11), 1–26. Tucker, S. A., & Dempsey, J. V. (1991). Photo-interviewing: A tool for evaluating technological innovations. Evaluation Review, 15(5), 639–654. doi:10.1177/0193841X9101500507. Wagner, J. (1979). Images of information. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Wang, C. C. (2006). Youth participation in photovoice as a strategy for community change. Journal of community practice, 14(1–2), 147–161.

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Wang, C., & Burris, M. A. (1994). Empowerment through photo novella: Portraits of participation. Health Education & Behavior, 21(2), 171–186. Wang, C., & Burris, M. A. (1997). Photovoice: Concept, methodology, and use for participatory needs assessment. Health Education & Behavior, 24(3), 369–387. Wang, C. C., & Redwood-Jones, Y. A. (2001). Photovoice ethics: Perspectives from Flint photovoice. Health Education & Behavior, 28(5), 560–572. White, A., Bushin, N., Carpena-Mendez, F., & Ni Laoire, C. (2010). Using visual methodologies to explore contemporary Irish childhoods. Qualitative Research, 2(10), 143–158. Winton, A. (2016). Using photography as a creative, collaborative research tool. The Qualitative Report, 21(2), 428. Worsley, P. (1966). The end of anthropology? Retrieved from https://www.scribd.com/document/ 246161657/Peter-M-Worsley-The-end-of-anthropology.

Author Biography Michael L. Boucher, Jr. Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Texas State University. Dr. Boucher received his Ph.D. from Indiana University after his work as an urban high school teacher and teacher-leader in Minneapolis, MN. Using photo methods in ethnographic case studies, his research investigates the pedagogy and practice of White teachers working in solidarity with students of color in segregated education systems. He teaches research methods, instructional methods, diversity, and adolescent development to graduate students.

Chapter 2

The Ethics of Visual Research and Participant Empowerment Kyle Miller

Abstract The ethics of research is integral to all studies involving people and communities. However, studies involving photographs, or other visual representations, present a unique set of ethical considerations. Those considerations present themselves through legal standards, institutional and professional guidelines, as well as personal morals. This chapter explores the different levels of ethical decision-making visual researchers face in designing and implementing photo-elicitation studies, as well as the dissemination of findings. The first portion of the chapter describes the ethical obligations and challenges associated with gaining research approval through institutional ethics committees. The second portion of the chapter addresses the more complicated realm of ethical decision-making that relies on researchers’ personal principles aimed at protecting what is in the best interest of participants.

As researchers, we are called upon to grapple with moral and ethical issues of power, right and wrong, and the effects of our inquiry when studying people and communities. The ethical decision processes linked to photography-based work are not markedly different from the decisions linked to text-based data (Rose, 2007). Historically, visual methods resided in the hands of anthropologists who shared a certain training, epistemology and ethical approach to studying groups (Wiles, Prosser, Bagnoli, & Clark, 2008). However, photography and other visually-based research have spread to a variety of disciplines in education and the social sciences that may not provide the same type of ethical training and care-based decision making that should coincide with the collection of visual data (Pink, 2003, 2006). These methods have spread because photography is a powerful tool to explore phenomena of interest and simultaneously empower participants (Bugos, Fitzgerald, True, Adachi-Mejia, & Cannuscio, 2014). But, with that power, come a variety of ethical issues that must be considered and supported throughout one’s research journey (Torre & Murphy, 2015). K. Miller (&) Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing AG 2018 M.L. Boucher, Jr. (ed.), Participant Empowerment Through Photo-elicitation in Ethnographic Education Research, http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64413-4_2

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There are three general ways to collect visual images for photographic studies: (1) gathering photographs from historical archives or popular media, (2) researchergenerated photographs, and (3) participant-generated (auto-driven) photographs (Prosser & Loxley, 2007). Limited research is related to the ethical issues of historical or popular images, and few researchers report dilemmas or complications with the use of contextualized photographs in studies. The use of pre-existing photographs do activate legal and ethical concerns if they are obtained without proper permission; however, those ethical guidelines are much more transparent and specific than creating photographs in a study (Powers, 1996; Thompson, 2003). For that reason, I focus on researcher and participant-generated photographs that receive the most attention in the ethical arena of photographic research. Designing and implementing ethical research is the centerpiece of quality research. As a visual researcher, I can attest to the old adage, ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’. But it should come with a footnote—it is worth a thousand words and comes with a myriad of ethical concerns. Hence, visual researchers are charged with emphasizing professional and personal ethics in their studies in order to guard the integrity of visual research (Wiles et al., 2008). I view ethical decision making and consciousness as a three-tiered hierarchy, which involves legal requirements, professional and institutional regulations, and personal ethics (see Fig. 2.1). The legal requirements serve as the base of decision making and require minimal effort in addressing the ethics of one’s study. Any given study might certainly have a legal foundation, but be quite unethical. Therefore, it serves as almost a preemptive step to review the legal mechanics of the study, such as copyright and licensing issues (Rowe, 2011). Next, each field describes their code of ethics through a set of professional guidelines that provide guidance for interactions with society at the micro and macro level. These guidelines often parallel institutional guidelines in the form of ethics committees that serve to review and approve research studies. Finally, each researcher’s personal morals or ethics rest at the top of this model to oversee and reflect on each aspect of the study and its impact on participants or communities. This chapter is divided into two sections, in order to focus on the middle and top tiers of ethics with photography. The first portion of the chapter describes the ethical considerations and challenges associated with gaining approval through institutional ethics committees to conduct visual research. The second portion of the chapter calls attention to the ethical issues that reside outside of the legal and ethical guidelines of higher education review boards—the unanticipated issues that engage researcher’s personal morals. I begin by describing how institutional ethics committees view the visual work of researchers.

2.1

Ethics Committees and Approval

The use of photography in research continues to grow, but few publications document the ethical and practical challenges of designing, gaining approval, and implementing a photo-based study (Bugos et al., 2014). The lack of sharing of

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Personal Ethics

Level of Ethical Consciousness Professional Guidelines & InsƟtuƟonal RegulaƟons

Legal Requirements

Fig. 2.1 Hierarchy of ethical decision making

experiences has slowed the progress of studies. Instead of learning from others’ ethical obstacles and dilemmas, researchers are forced to endure many of the same trials and errors. Internationally, there is much variability in how researchers gain ethical approval to implement their research protocol with participants (Redshaw, Harris, & Baum, 1996; Wiles, Coffey, Robinson, & Heath, 2012). In fact, in some countries it is even a matter of ‘if’ a formal process exists for committees to review a research protocol. The United States exhibits a more formal and rigid review of studies involving institution based ethics committees (i.e., Institutional Review Boards—IRBs), while other countries defer to each field’s professional guidelines to support ethical practices in research (Wiles et al., 2008). Yet, even within United States, ethical guidelines and review are not implemented uniformly across institutions (Lidz et al., 2012). Sometimes, securing IRB approval results from a matter of ‘luck’ on who reviews the study’s protocol, rather than on an objective and consistent process (Shah, Whittle, Wilfond, Gensler, & Wendler, 2004). What is consistently cited is that the ethical review process can be a lengthy and delicate process for visual researchers (Pitt, 2014; Yates, 2010).

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Ethics committees are an important checkpoint in the research process that researchers should keep in mind during the planning stages of studies. There are compelling arguments for their management of studies. The primary argument is that, historically, many researchers have behaved unethically, and committees were necessary to protect the rights and safety of individuals (Wiles, Clark, & Prosser, 2011). These committees serve as a strong force, because they can support or restrict one’s research agenda (Edwards, Ashcroft, & Kirchin, 2004). The committees charge is to evaluate each research protocol across seven categories to ensure that researchers are not bringing harm to participants. Those categories are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Risk minimization Risk/benefit comparison Equitable subject selection Informed consent Data monitoring to ensure safety Privacy, protection and confidentiality Protection of vulnerable subjects

The review process evolved from a conservative positivist perspective in the biomedical field, but is applied to all fields and areas of study (Lincoln, 2008; Pitt, 2014). Unfortunately, committees tend to lack understanding of visual ethics, placing these studies at a disadvantage when committees apply these categories during review (Wiles et al., 2011). It becomes the responsibility of the researcher to articulate their case for why photography is essential to their research design and pursuing certain research questions (Wiles et al., 2012). This requires visual researchers to deeply consider the advantages of employing their method, and how the benefits will outweigh the ethical concerns (Pain, 2012). In recent decades, the regulation of ethical governance and compliance has increased across the globe; most notably in the United States, Australia, and United Kingdom (Boxall & Ralph, 2009). This increase has been met with some resistance and some acceptance (Murphy & Dingwall, 2007). Some researchers fear that heightened regulation, coupled with a lack of understanding of the utility of photography, will limit its approved role in research. It may force, and in fact has forced, researchers to compromise the use of photography and dissemination of findings (Miller, 2015; Prosser & Loxley, 2007). Conversely, if ethnographic research is not held to the same standards and process as other methodologies, it may weaken the reputation and perceived legitimacy of the work (Wiles et al., 2011). Some scholars also argue that a higher level of ethical policing is important in this digital era of highly accessible data and dissemination of findings (Boxall & Ralph, 2009). However, for most researchers, ethics committees are merely a reality and can be viewed as an obstacle or an opportunity to reflect on one’s research intentions (Wiles et al., 2011). As a researcher using visual methods, researchers must understand the system and guidelines so that they can successfully argue a case to include photography in their research design.

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Informed Consent

Rose (2007) asserted that there is a general understanding and agreement that covert or deceptive research is unethical in most studies. As the studies in this volume demonstrate, the use of photography to empower participants means that it would be uncharacteristic or illogical to design a study where the researcher is taking photographs covertly. In fact, it would shift the power back to the researcher, instead of sharing power with participants in the study. Therefore, informed consent is a necessary process by which researchers provide participants with appropriate information to allow participants to make an educated decision as to whether they would like to participate in the study (Wiles et al., 2012). It often involves the researcher explaining, verbally or in a written document, the purpose of the study and what participation involves (i.e., contact information, duration of study, voluntary involvement, associated risks/benefits, financial implications, potential use of images). Although it is posed as a way to protect participants who volunteer for a study, some scholars argue it is merely a legal document that safeguards institutions if adverse events occur during the research process (Truman, 2003). However, as presented in the following chapters, many visual researchers place high value on the protection and empowerment of research participants, beyond just protecting their institution or reputation as a researcher. Depending on the country in which ethical approval is gained, different rules exist for informed consent. While required in North America, there is a move for most countries to require a written consent form to take and use photographs of participants. An example of an approved consent form involving photography can be found in Fig. 2.2. However, even when written consent is part of the protocol, researchers should still explain how the photographs will be used during and after the research study (Wiles et al., 2008). Some scholars have expressed concern that participants were not fully aware of how their photographs would be used as part of the study, even after reviewing and signing the consent form (Shohel & Mahruf, 2012). For example, the growing popularity of online networking sites, such as Academia.edu and Research Gate, propel the sharing and dissemination of articles to a wider audience. This suggests that “informed” consent should not end with a signature, and should be revisited. It also reminds researchers that the notion of “consent” is culturally-situated and may mean different things to different individuals (Simmons & Usher, 2000). For visual studies, informed consent involves gaining consent to photograph participants or a site, or to use participant-generated photographs in the study. This may involve gaining consent at various layers of a system or across different stakeholders. For example, I have conducted photo-elicitation studies with early childhood centers. This required me to propose and articulate my study to center directors who granted me verbal consent to approach teachers. I then met with teachers to explain the project and attend to their questions and concerns before gaining permission to approach their students’ parents. Finally, I was able to recruit families and gain written consent from parents. Identifying the gatekeepers to

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Consent Form The Camera Project: Sharing Learning Activities with Teachers Description of the Research: We are [researcher names] from [institution/agency], and are conducting a research study to better understand the variety of things parents/guardians do to support children’s early learning, and to see if photography can help strengthen the relationship between schools and homes. You are invited to participate in our research study because your child is enrolled in an early childhood center. For this study, you will be taking photographs of your child’s activities outside of the school day, and will share your photos with your child’s teacher. This research will take place in your home and at your child’s early childhood center, or a neutral location of your choice. Please note, you have to be 18 or older to participate in this study. WHAT WILL MY PARTICIPATION INVOLVE? If you decide to participate in this research, you will be provided with a digital camera for one week to take pictures of activities you engage in with your child. Once the photographs are developed, you will participate in an audio recorded interview about the photographs with your child’s teacher. You can delete any pictures you do not wish to share with the project, and should also consider deleting any photos of anyone who might not want their images shared with the research team as part of the interview. Your photographs will be printed and your interview will be audio recorded. Your participation will last one week and will include a 30-minute interview with your child’s teacher at the end of the project. ARE THERE ANY RISKS TO ME? Because we will be providing you with the research information and equipment, there is a risk that other people may find out that you are participating in this study. We are also required by law to report suspected child abuse or neglect to the Department of Human Services. ARE THERE ANY BENEFITS TO ME? We do not expect any direct benefits to you from participation in this study. However, your participation may help the early childhood teachers to better meet your child’s needs. WILL I BE COMPENSATED FOR MY PARTICIPATION? You will receive copies of your photographs for participating in this study. If you decide to withdraw prior to the end of the study, you will still receive copies of any photographs you have taken.

Fig. 2.2 Consent form

communities and respecting the hierarchical system that may be in place is an important piece of conducting ethical research. In some studies, researchers are requesting consent to both create and to use the images for dissemination purposes (Pink, 2006; Wiles et al., 2008). Some researchers approach the informed consent as one packaged deal that covers the creation of images and their dissemination. More frequently, ethics committees require that consent for both pieces remain separate. For example, if a researcher is requesting written consent from participants, one signature would be required for general consent to participate in the study, and produce or help to produce

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HOW WILL MY CONFIDENTIALITY BE PROTECTED? While there will probably be publications as a result of this study, your name or your child’s name and photographic images will not be used in any publications. The transcript of your interview will be assigned a number in place of your name. Your number and identifying information will be kept in separate locations. Transcripts will be used for research purposes only. They will be heard and viewed by researchers working on this project. We will keep the recordings for 10 years. WHOM SHOULD I CONTACT IF I HAVE QUESTIONS? You may ask any questions about the research at any time. If you have questions about the research, you should contact the Principal Investigators. [Names and contact information] If you are not satisfied with the response of the research team, have more questions, or want to talk with someone about your rights as a research participant, you should contact the [institution’s name and contact information]. Your participation is completely voluntary and you may withdraw from the study at any time. If you decide not to participate or to withdraw from the study, it will have no effect on any services or treatment you are currently receiving. Your signature indicates that you have read this consent form, had an opportunity to ask any questions about your participation in this research and voluntarily consent to participate. You will receive a copy of this form for your records. Name of Participant (please print):______________________________ _______________________________________ Signature _________

______________ Date

I give my permission to be quoted directly in publications without using my name.

Fig. 2.2 (continued)

photographic images. A second signature would then be required, often within the same document, for their permission to use the photographs for educational purposes. Some scholars believe consent should extended beyond requesting permission to use the photographs, and should ask participants to agree to certain formats (i.e., reports, publications, presentations, exhibition) (Smyth, 2004). This allows individuals to participate in the study without the obligation of being seen in the final product. There is no consensus as to whether consent should be negotiated separately or together (Pink, 2006). The researcher must determine what is the most appropriate within the context of the study; with the understanding that their decision may be trumped by the views of an ethics committee. For example, Shaw et al. (2013) studied Saudi Arabian students studying in the United States and waited until after participants shared the photographs and participated in the photo-elicitation interview to request consent to use the photographs in publications. Most of the participants gave permission to use the photographs, but for those who did not give permission, she honored their request by destroying their photographs. She made

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this ethical decision for her participants. Because students may not have anticipated the images they would contribute to the study at its inception, this design allowed the students to make an informed choice at a later point in the study. There are situations where gaining written consent would be an inappropriate feature of a protocol and put participants at increased risk (Coomber, 2002; Miller & Bell, 2002). For example, if a project involved immigrant populations, including undocumented immigrants, asking individuals to sign a form could elicit fear or uncertainty with participants. It could even jeopardize their current circumstances and, therefore, should be waived. In these situations, verbal consent should replace written consent. The most appropriate format should be determined within the context of the study and then negotiated with one’s ethics committee. Informed consent emerged as part of the ethical review process in the biomedical field (Beauchamp & Childress, 2013). Given the unique characteristics of photography, the traditional use of consent forms may be somewhat incongruent with nontraditional process of visual research (Boxall & Ralph, 2009). Cox et al. (2014) advocate that we re-imagine the consent process for photographic research. It may be more ethical to think of consent as a working document or fluid commitment that is continuously revisited and renegotiated. Allowing an openness to the consent process may be practical up to the point of publication. Once photographs enter into a public space, they are difficult to remove or manipulate (Brady & Brown, 2013). However, until then, it should become an ethical standard to continue to ask permission from participants along the research journey.

2.1.2

Informed Consent and Children

Inviting children to participate in a photography-based research creates a noteworthy dynamic in a study. Children are not legally allowed to consent on their own and require developmentally appropriate explanations that differ from an adult population. Children are often studied through the perspective of adults through direct observation, parental reports and standardized testing (Alderson, 2000). They are consistently voiced over by adults, rather than provided with opportunities to share their authentic perspectives and realities (Luttrell, 2010b). It is rare to see children as the primary managers of their data, which creates an ethical consideration in itself. Researchers who include children in their studies, or have attempted to include them, know that it is rare to gain approval because institutional regulations make it more difficult to study children than adults. This is highly defensible because society must protect the rights of children as minors, but researchers must also create opportunities for children to speak their minds. Puzzlingly, nothing alarms an ethics committee more than suggesting that a researcher will give a child full control over a camera to document their own lives. Ethics committees take special precautions when research involves children, especially when it involves children and visual images (Wiles et al., 2008). Although I study children’s early learning experiences, and children serve as the

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focal points for photographs, parents are ultimately in charge of the cameras. This releases concerns about involving minors but it also can disempower children, in that, again, an adult is making decisions about what data are collected about their lives. Therefore, I greatly respect the efforts of researchers who focus on the perspectives of children, because of the wider range of ethical issues to address before, during, and after the study (Barker & Weller, 2003). As described earlier in this section, informed consent is necessary when engaging in ethical research. This becomes somewhat more complicated when desired participants are not of legal age to consent to the study. Therefore, a parent or guardian must sign the formal consent form, while a secondary assent form can be used with the minor (Alderson, 2004). Depending on the age, children may or may not be able to read and comprehend an assent form. The assent form should be written for the literacy level of the child. Researchers should carefully select language that is familiar to the children. Additionally, the researcher should verbally explain the project and allow children to ask questions. The written and verbal explanation should meet the child at his or her cognitive level. In a study about children’s grief, children were provided an assent form with the instructions that they would ‘take pictures of anything that reminded them of their loved one who died’ or that would help the researcher understand ‘how things have been for them since they died’ (Stutey, Helm, LoSasso, & Kreider, 2016). In Luttrell’s (2010b) study about fifth graders’ lives, she instructed participants to ‘imagine you have a cousin who is moving to town and coming to your school. Take pictures of the school, your family and community that will help him/her know what to expect’ (p. 227). Alderson (2004) used leaflets with pictures to explain the projects to child participants, which may be a more developmentally appropriate approach depending on the child population of the study. Even when power is shifted into the hands of a child, researchers must still acknowledge that an adult-child power differential will always exist. Although a child can withdraw from a study at any point, they may not feel as though they are actually able to make that decision without consequences or disappointing a parent or researcher (Einarsdóttir, 2007). Formally, individuals are asked to consent at the beginning of the study. However, children might forget what they consented to or might not have fully understood the project. Therefore, it is recommended that children are continuously asked before each activity or interaction whether they would like to participate or what images they would like to contribute to the project and discuss (Alderson, 2000; Flewitt, 2005; Connors & Stalker, 2007).

2.1.3

Privacy and Confidentiality

Confidentiality is an issue for almost any study involving human subjects. Researchers should never assume that the assignation of a pseudonym will mask the identity of a person or place (Mannay, 2016). For example, Vidich and Bensman’s

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(1958) study of a small-town community led to a great deal of resentment by community members who were able to identify themselves within a published book based on participant descriptions. Assuring confidentiality can be difficult in text-based studies, which means photography adds an additional layer of responsibility and conscientiousness when protecting identities of participants since photography yields visually identifiable participants (Wiles et al., 2011; Rose, 2007; Papademas, 2009; Wiles et al., 2008). Unlike purely text-based studies, images cannot be masked or de-identified in the same manner. Therefore, anonymity of a location or person cannot be guaranteed and should never be promised (Sweetman, 2009). Assigning a pseudonym to each participant and using caution with identifiable descriptions does not conceal participants’ visual representation in a photograph. Regardless of whether photographs are researcher or participant-generated, researchers must decide how the visual images will accompany the analysis and dissemination phases of the study. Researchers must communicate to participants how the photographs will be used and who will have contact with the images before beginning the study (Mannay, 2016). Bugos et al. (2014) further endorsed, “Until the moment of publication, the participant should be given permission to ask that their images not be used, shared, or distributed. If participants request it, photographs should be destroyed, deleted or returned to participants” (p. 15). Researchers are often unaware of the data that may emerge from the study, much like the participants who may not have anticipated the types of activities that would be captured on camera and their feelings connected to sharing those moments with a research team or wider audience. This may create ongoing tension of what to reveal and what to conceal in photographs, as well as who should be involved in those decisions (Cox et al., 2014; Lomax, 2011). With the use of digital equipment, those decisions are easily resolved, as participants can simply delete photographs they do not wish to share with the research project (Miller, 2015). However, if researchers print the images for the participants to view, it requires more agency on the part of the participant to request their removal from the project. In some cases, it may lead to embarrassment for the participant or awkwardness in the participant-researcher relationship (Rose, 2007). Ethics committees view photography as a threat to participant confidentiality, and will often request modifications to the protocol or restrictions placed on how and if photographs can be used for dissemination purposes. In many cases photography may only be approved if the images do not include people. For example, one study that used photographs to investigate the barriers and supports to healthy living were restricted from including people in the photographs (Bugos et al., 2014). Based on ethical concerns for the vulnerable population they were recruiting, the review board believed the topic was too sensitive to include identifiable individuals in the data. Similarly, in Dai O’Brien’s study of the deaf community highlighted in Chap. 3 of this volume, participants were instructed to avoid photographing any individual who had not signed an informed consent form as part of the study (O’Brien, 2013). Instead, they were asked to take a picture of an object or place that represented that person or idea.

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In other cases, researchers are required to pixelate or cover faces before including images in presentations or publications (Sweetman, 2009; Macintosh, 2006). This may be a realistic compromise with the ethics committee if capturing individuals on camera is essential to exploring the research questions. However, there has been significant objection to these compromises. Some researchers argue that these steps will render the data meaningless or distort its central message (Prosser & Loxley, 2007). Part of the frustration stems from speculation that the management of these images is rooted in fear of litigation rather than in protecting the rights of participants (Gunsalus et al., 2007). Some ethical committees are even more conservative in approving the use of photographs in any type of dissemination or viewing beyond researchers listed on the research protocol. This was my experience with a review board that deemed the photographing of young children too risky. In fact, I was advised to remove photography from my study and explore my questions through interviews and observations. After several months of negotiations with the ethics committee, I was allowed to include photographs as long as they only served as prompts in interviews and were not actual pieces of data that would be analyzed or disseminated. I was not able to share the visual images beyond the research team, which limited their contributions to the study. Since the photographs captured contextual components of preparing children for school, the photographs contain important information that may not have been identified by participants or the research team. These types of institutional roadblocks may prohibit the full use of photographic material. I attempted to argue that the photo elicitation process would benefit from pairing images with the text to provide the audience with a complete panorama of the data and allow the audience to further question and interrogate my findings, which is important in any study. As many visual researchers advocate for the inclusion of photographs in dissemination efforts, others caution the production and dissemination of digital images. Boxall and Ralph (2009) wrote: In contrast to the huge numbers of images placed on websites by journalists and the general public in recent years, researchers usually take a much more cautious approach to Internet publication…Care needs to be taken to ensure there are no signs in pictures or present on websites which will deny individuals’ anonymity and inadvertently allow others to locate them in the community. (p. 49)

They reference their work that focuses on individuals with disabilities, and further interrogate the issue of whether participants fully understand the ramifications of publishing in a web-based product. They conclude that many populations may not be equipped to make that type of consent. I extend this concern by suggesting that with the fast-paced advances in technology and dissemination efforts, even researchers may not entirely comprehend the implications of their actions. On the other side, is it ethical to deny a participant’s desire to be seen? This is a question that many visual researchers face when images are not part of the dissemination plan (either by choice or ethics committee request). In many projects, participants want to be recognized or visible in their work, but may be denied that

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opportunity (Heath & Cleaver, 2004; Miller, 2015). When the project desires to empower participants, this stifles that drive. In some cases it draws upon the notion of time immemorial, where time reaches beyond one’s memory. Participants may move on and forget about their involvement in the study, but the data still exists. Researchers must openly discuss the long-term consequences of being seen or socially labeled in a study (Mannay & Morgan, 2015). The products from the study will last forever, while their disposition towards a certain identify or label may alter at a later point in life. For example, involvement in projects related to sexuality, health/disease, or political positions may lead to regret in adulthood. Allowing a participant to be “seen” should always be weighed against long-term consequences (Brady & Brown, 2013). Finally, there is the issue of protecting the privacy of other individuals who may appear in photographs. This may result from the social nature of many projects that ask participants to photograph their daily lives. Individuals they interact with on a regular basis are likely to appear in the images. This is often the case with studies that take place in educational settings, such as schools or after school programs. For example, as Boucher explained in Chap. 10 of this volume, the ethics committee was concerned with the protection of student privacy within the school building (Boucher, 2016). This required the researcher to gain administrative assurance that students had previously signed a school-based release form that photographs could be used for educational purposes. As the photos taken in the classroom were not shown to anyone other than the teacher and the researcher, the photographs could be legally used in the study, and met the committee’s criteria for ethical compliance. Taking pictures in public spaces will likely result in capturing the images of individuals who are not part of the study. To protect the privacy of others, some researchers may require a signed release form from any identifiable individual who is photographed (Bugos et al., 2014). Depending on the specifics of the study, that may not be a practical approach to protecting privacy of individuals, so researchers may encourage participants to avoid photographing people or delete these images from the data set (Miller, 2015). Other studies have required participants to gain verbal consent from individuals to be photographed; however, some remain uncomfortable with the ethics of asking participants to ethically manage that task (Wiles et al., 2011). Moreover, it may not be possible to approach strangers in public places to gain consent (Harper, 2002).

2.1.4

Safe Spaces

An important obligation to participants is that the researcher is not putting those participants at risk while taking photographs of her or his life. For example, in a photo-elicitation study of students attending a liberal arts college, students were asked to take photographs of objects on campus that they believed represented a liberal arts education (Schimek, 2016). The first rule for participants was to remain physically safe while taking pictures. The ethics committee wanted the researcher to

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stress that their safety was paramount. Climbing walls or maneuvering in unsafe spaces to capture a certain angle or image was unnecessary. Likewise, in studies that are situated in high-crime areas, participants should always prioritize their personal safety (Bugos et al., 2014). This may require participants to discuss certain spaces or objects in the interview, rather than enter a space to photograph it. Participants need to know from the outset that their personal safety should never be jeopardized to participate in the study. It is also important to locate a safe space to interact with participants. Since photographs are often accompanied with an interview, identifying a private location to share and reflect on the photographs is an important decision. If the study includes students, it may require finding a private classroom or conducting the interview after hours so that participants do not feel uncomfortable or exposed (Bugos et al., 2014). Safety, privacy and convenience should help focus the researcher’s options. For example, in a study on South African adolescents who were orphaned from AIDS, interviews took place in the AIDS awareness center, in a private room, where privacy could be assured for participants (Tshweneagae & Mokomane, 2013). In my experience, allowing participants to choose the location they feel most comfortable (e.g., home, library, community center) has been the easiest process. In sum, the code of ethics that exist within institutions and professional communities aim to protect the safety and well-being of participants. Wiles et al. (2008) summarize the central ethical issues of visual research: (1) Researchers should strive to protect the rights, privacy, dignity and well-being of those that they study; (2) Research should be based on voluntary informed consent; (3) Personal information should be treated confidentially and participants anonymised unless they choose to be identified; (4) Research participants should be informed of the extent to which anonymity and confidentiality can be assured in publication and dissemination and of the potential re-use of data (p. 8). These ethical areas help to protect participants and the integrity of photographic research studies. It is the ethical gateway at the onset of a project, but should not be the endpoint of ethical considerations and decision-making. Instead, each researcher’s personal ethics should oversee the full project from beginning to end.

2.2

Beyond the Ethics Committee—Personal Ethics

Gaining approval through an ethics committee requires researchers to justify that the potential benefits of the study outweigh the risks for participation in the study. The process of rationalizing that one’s work will lead to minimal consequences for participants is not the highest level of ethical decision making and care of participants (Wiles et al., 2008). While it will grant permission to conduct the research, it

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is restrictive in its view of the ethical responsibilities you have in working with individuals. If visual researchers believe their ethical responsibilities have ended once they have met the requirements of professional guidelines and institutional requirements, they are missing the most important piece of supporting ethical practice—personal ethics (Simmons & Usher, 2000). Moral crevices exist even within the most well-established ethical policies, which then requires researchers to make ethical judgments and decisions that will impact participants in the study (Luttrell, 2010a). For individuals who engage with sensitive topics and employ photography as a research tool, it is recommended to take additional and ongoing steps to ensure that care, compassion, and beneficence guide your work with participants. Personal ethics is the humanistic and relationship-based side of leading a research project. This requires researchers to place participant interests and needs before their own through the principle of beneficence (Rose, 2007; Pink, 2006; Beauchamp & Childress, 2013). It requires ongoing reflection, critical conversations with peers and open dialogues with the research community. Many issues related to the use of photography can be anticipated before beginning the project, while others may surprise researchers along the journey. In those cases, researchers can engage in critical conversations with peers to best navigate the situation or draw upon literature in the field to determine next steps (Wiles et al., 2008). Still, advice and recommendations must still be filtered through the researcher’s personal beliefs as well as the ethical standards of their field. Ethical dilemmas may overlap with issues presented in other studies; however, they are always unique to the specific project and principles and codes may not always be the definitive moral compass for what is in the best interest of the participants or community of study. Each ethical dilemma must be addressed within the context of the site or relationships.

2.2.1

Exposing Realities

Photography is a useful tool by which individuals can empower themselves. Nonetheless, engaging with creative representations of their lives, can lead participants to emotional places that may alter their comfort level with the study (Mannay, 2016). Participants are often asked to slow down their lives when they enter into a visual study. They may be asked to look at physical images or representations of life they may not have recognized or acknowledged prior to the study (Gurevitch, 1998). Researchers must be sensitive to the types of emotions that may emerge during this process, and adjust their questioning or interactions accordingly. In all qualitative studies, there is a general concern for the unintended consequences of participation. Research is an undeniably an intervention in itself, and being part of a research study will leave an impact. With photography, participants are often guided to think more deeply on a topic and analyze their lives and/or context (Pain, 2012). As a researcher, I always strive for beneficence and my desire to leave a

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positive impact on participants. However, beneficence cannot be a promise or a guarantee depending on the topic, facilitation of the process, and findings (Zartler & Richter, 2014). Conducting visual research with children offers enormous potential to demystify the lives of a group that is almost exclusively described and viewed through the eyes of adults. As discussed earlier, gaining approval from the ethics committee is a challenge, but more importantly is the application of one’s personal ethics to these projects. Children may lack a full awareness of the information they are divulging in photographic images. In fact, it may result in revealing aspects of their lives they do not want to display or that may lead to negative consequences (Zartler & Richter, 2014). Once the project is in motion, it becomes a balancing act to provide an uncensored space for participants who are often silenced or misrepresented in research, while at the same time protecting those participants, especially children, from foreseeable and unforeseeable consequences (Kallio, 2008; Thompson, 2008).

2.2.2

Beneficence and Ethics

If you begin a study, it is your ethical responsibility to complete the study (Corbin & Strauss, 2015). Participants invest valuable time and reveal personal aspects of their lives to explore a research phenomenon. Therefore, you owe it to the participants to fully analyze data with integrity and disseminate findings to key stakeholders. This holds true even when data collection uncovers unflattering or negative realities of a group or community. It raises the issue of beneficence and non-maleficence, the inclination to help and not harm participants (Mauthner et al., 2002). Some researchers may feel in order to “do no harm” to their participants they should abandon the project. However, it may just require reframing the study or capitalizing on a few non-malevolent aspects of the study. For example, I conducted a study with families and teachers at early childhood centers that aimed to strengthen positive relationships between parents and teachers. Families took photographs of their home-based learning practices and then shared them with teachers who were trained in facilitating the photo-elicitation interview exchange. It became clear at an early stage of the project that the photographic sharing was reinforcing previously established assumptions about families and deficit thinking, rather than help teachers recognize the variable ways in which families support early learning. Instead of abandoning the project, the other researchers and I shifted the analysis to analyze power dynamics between parents and families for publication purposes at the higher education level. Additionally, we analyzed photographs and transcripts to identify family strengths and practices that were then shared with each center. It was not the original intent, but I believe the reaction to the emerging data allowed for the preservation of some participant empowerment. Some researchers choose to make their aim of beneficence clear to participants at the beginning of the study. This may be an important step in alleviating concerns

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with vulnerable populations who may face greater risks in exposing aspects of their lives. In the South African study on children who were orphaned from AIDS, the researchers asked adolescents to take photographs of their lives that helped them cope with loss and brought their life meaning (Tshweneagae & Mokomane, 2013). This investigation focused on the assets and positive aspects of participants’ lives; however, there is always some uncertainty as to the types of images and emotions a study might expose. It could put the adolescents in a sensitive position, as well as the AIDS Awareness Center, where the research was conducted. Therefore, the researchers addressed this during the recruitment and consent process: The research participants were made aware that the study results would be disseminated in a research report…However, it was made clear that the report would not expose the strengths or weaknesses of the research sites where the study was conducted or result in negative consequences for the people involved (p. 91).

Making such a statement holds the researchers accountable and brings this awareness to the forefront of the study and their relationship with participants. Of course, this can always become rhetoric embedded in a consent form or obligatory discussion with participants. It becomes beneficence when researchers continuously assess how participants experience the process of taking photographs and reflecting on them, as well as how the findings are framed in a report. Even if permission is in place to publish photographs, researchers should always reflect on this choice. Stutey et al. (2016) wrote about their ethical decision to only publish interview data as a limitation to their study. Given the age of our participants [six to nine], we felt it was not in their best interest to include images in this manuscript; however, we were aware that this might have sacrificed some of the depth in representing the data. While we felt strongly that this was an ethical decision, future researchers may find other ways to balance protecting participant confidentiality and allowing for a more vivid way of representing the data (p. 10).

Similarly, in Chap. 10, Boucher discussed his choice to only publish text-based explanations of researcher generated photographs, and not include the interviews’ corresponding images. These examples show the ethical complexities of determining ‘if’ or ‘which’ photographs should enter publication. The choice should always return to what is in the best interest of the participants.

2.3

Conclusion

Ethical issues are tied to every method available to researchers (Mannay, 2016), and ethical practice should serve as the foundation to all ethnographic work (Wiles et al., 2011). However, the ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’ of research are inherently tied to the researcher’s research community, discipline of study, individual experiences, and research tools (Gregory, 2003). The lack of ethical agreement surrounding the utilization and dissemination of photography in research has slowed the widespread use of this method (Banks, 2001; Pitt, 2014). Photography presents a unique set of

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ethical circumstances that require reflection and care in order to responsibly empower participants and communities. Ethics committees serve to protect participants by minimizing anticipated risk in the study. However, research is unpredictable, and researchers must remain reflexive in their relationships with participants and photographic data. Photography is not the guaranteed solution for redistributing power to research participants or empowering marginalized populations (Zartler & Richter, 2014). Rather, it is the careful and conscientious application of this method that places ethical practice at the center of a research study.

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Author Biography Kyle Miller Assistant Professor of Elementary Education at Illinois State University. Dr. Miller holds a background in education and human development. She has worked in a variety of educational settings including schools, afterschool programs, and Peace Corps Nicaragua. Dr. Miller completed her graduate training at Harvard Graduate School of Education and the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she served on a variety of studies that investigated the social and academic development of children. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Child Growth and Development in the College of Education at Illinois State University. Dr. Miller serves as the coordinator for the child development courses and mentors undergraduate students on honors research projects. Additionally, she teaches courses related to child and adolescent development, elementary education, working with diverse populations, and qualitative research methods. Her research interests include the areas of low-income families and school readiness, strengthening home-school relationships, and strengths-based work with families and communities. She uses photography as a tool in her research projects as well as in her courses to deepen student reflections and awareness of educational topics.

Part II

‘Listening’ to the Silenced

Chapter 3

Auto-driven Photo-Elicitation Interviews with Young Deaf People Dai O’Brien

Abstract This chapter explores the suitability of auto-driven photo-elicitation interviews in qualitative research with young deaf participants. Deaf people are often called ‘people of the eye’, with much cultural and biological research supporting the view that they have a uniquely visual experience of life (Bahan in Memoir upon the formation of a visual variety of the human race, 2004; Bavelier et al. in Trends in Cognitive Science 10(11):512–518, 2006; Thoutenhoofd in See deaf: on sight in deafness, 2011). However, it is also the case that educators are failing to take advantage of this visual way of experiencing the world, and as such deaf young people are leaving school with poor language skills in both spoken/written and signed modalities, placing limits on their ability to communicate and express themselves (Knoors and Marschark in Teaching deaf learners. Oxford University Press, London, 2014). Meaningful research with deaf people requires an understanding of the following; (1) the visual nature of being deaf; (2) the importance of using visual research methods so that research performed with deaf people benefits from this unique visucentrism; and (3) how to empower deaf young people, a traditionally oppressed minority, within the research situation. This study found that visual methods, such as photo-elicitation, ease communication difficulties within the interview process for deaf participant(s) as well as for the researcher particularly when mixed communication methods (i.e. a mixture of spoken and sign language) are used, as photographs are a tangible reference point (Marquez-Zenkov in Visual Studies 22(2):138–154, 2007). Auto-driven photo-elicitation interviews can also equalise power relations within the interview dyad by allowing the research participant to take the lead, a consideration of particular importance when working with people from traditionally oppressed communities, such as the deaf community. Finally, the use of visually motivated research not only supports communication in interviews with young deaf people, but also offers a uniquely appropriate method to understand deaf ontologies, or ways of being (O’Brien and Kusters in Innovations in deaf studies: the role of deaf scholars. Oxford University Press, London, 2017). D. O’Brien (&) York St John University, York, UK e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing AG 2018 M.L. Boucher, Jr. (ed.), Participant Empowerment Through Photo-elicitation in Ethnographic Education Research, http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64413-4_3

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3.1

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Research Problem

In the United Kingdom, statutory transition planning for young people with Special Educational Needs (SEN) has been present in the government’s education policies since 2001 (O’Brien, 2012). In 2014, this transition plan was replaced with the Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan, but the aims of the plan, to focus on ‘what a young person wants to achieve and what support is needed to do this’, remained the same (DfE, 2014). SEN has been used as a blanket term in the UK to refer to any kind of special educational need. However, the educational needs of a young person with a physical disability are very different from those of deaf young people, for example, and the use of this blanket term has the effect of hiding the specific needs or requirements of different groups. This difference can make it extremely difficult to explore the experiences and attainments of young people through official figures released by the government (Warnock, 2005; Powers et al., 1999). In 2012, a government sponsored cross-party report in the United Kingdom revealed that 30% of young people with SEN were not in education, employment, or training at the age of 18 (HCCPA, 2012). These figures supported the findings of previous research (Aston, Dewson, Loukas, & Dyson, 2005). However, these reports did not sufficiently differentiate between the different needs of the young people involved in the research, so were of limited utility when considering the effect of a particular need on a young person’s outcomes. The lack of differentiation between different types of SEN was particularly significant for those interested in the outcomes of deaf1 young people. Deaf people have specific, ongoing needs which are not easily met in mainstream settings. In contrast, access to the mainstream classroom for those with mobility needs may be a matter of making things physically accessible and may require only a single, one-time investment to make a classroom accessible. For deaf people, however, communication access is something which must be continuously ensured at all stages and all times. Thus, the unique educational needs of deaf young adults also present unique challenges as they transition into adulthood which are hidden by the use of the umbrella term ‘SEN’. In this study, the experiences of young deaf people in their transitions from childhood to adulthood were explored using the research questions: “What are young deaf people’s experiences of transition from childhood to adulthood? What is the effect of the statutory transition planning on these young people’s outcomes?”

In the field of Deaf Studies, it has become the convention to capitalise Deaf when referring to those who are members of deaf communities, and keep the non-capitalised form of deaf when referring to those who do not sign and do not identify as members of the deaf communities. However, this form has increasingly been problematized over recent years (see Kusters, De Mulder, & O’Brien, 2017). Instead, in this chapter I will use deaf to refer to the state of being biologically/corporeally deaf. This term can then be prefixed or suffixed with several other identity markers (e.g. signing deaf people, deaf people who use speech, deaf people of colour, and so on).

1

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‘Transition’ was defined as not only the institutional transitions from school to further or higher education, or into employment, but also the emotional and identity transitions which come with greater self-awareness and experience of the wider world outside the shelter of home and the development of greater independence. The personal reports from the young deaf participants’ transitional experiences, along with their understanding of, and involvement in, the statutory practice of transition planning, shed new light on the relative success or failure of the policy and practice of transition planning in preparing young deaf people for adulthood and independence.

3.2

Why Auto-driven Photo-Elicitation Interviews Were Used for This Study

Signing deaf people are often called ‘people of the eye’, with much cultural and biological research supporting the view that they have a uniquely visual experience of life (Bahan, 2004; Thoutenhoofd, 2011). To understand research with deaf participants, the concept of visucentrism is used, as opposed to audiocentrism, which refers to the focus placed by wider society on hearing and speaking (O’Brien & Kusters, 2017). The cultural research around visucentrism has uncovered stories and jokes which revolve around the punchlines or ideas that deaf people do with their eyes what hearing people rely on their ears to do, or that deaf people are visually more attentive to or aware of their surroundings. There has been research into brain function and visual acuity in recent years which suggests there are indeed differences in the way in which deaf and hearing people see the world. For example, findings indicate that deaf people have better peripheral vision than hearing people (Bavelier, Dye, & Hauser, 2006). Some of the apparent advantages conferred by being deaf on the visual sense seem to rely on the use of sign language, which, of course, takes place in the visual mode. However, other advantages could be conferred simply through the nature of being deaf, relying on visual information in the absence of auditory information. Of course, people who are deaf blind have different sensory capabilities again, which involve much more haptic or tactile sensory experiences. The emphasis on visual experience in deaf people’s lives, or their visual ontology, could have marked influences on the ways in which deaf young people are educated in schools. Indeed, much research has been conducted on the educational experiences of deaf people (see for example, Wauters & Knoors, 2008; Powers, 2003; Ladd, 1991; Mason, 1991), but it is only relatively recently that these experiences are being analysed in light of deaf people’s visual ontologies. Marschark et al. (2015) claim that “it should not be assumed that deaf learners are essentially hearing learners who cannot hear” (p. 326, emphasis in original) due to evidence suggesting that deaf and hearing students use different cognitive abilities when performing the same tasks. However, very little is actually known about the

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ways in which deaf and hearing learners differ, and how these differences are associated with the visucentrism of deaf people. One example of the way in which hearing and deaf young people may differ in educational settings due to differences in visual processing can be found in Bavelier et al.’s (2006) study that suggested deaf people were more likely to be distracted by visual distractors in the peripheral field compared to hearing people. Conversely, they were less likely to be distracted by central distractors. This, as they point out, can be seen in the common point of view in deaf education “that deaf individuals are easily distracted, cannot stay on task, and lack the ability to focus attention” (p. 515) in standard educational settings which involve tasks which require a central focus of attention. Other work suggests that deaf people’s eye movements and ability to take in information while reading are different from hearing people when participants were matched for reading ability (Bélanger & Rayner, 2015). Deaf readers showed better ability to make use of peripheral vision when reading, and display faster word-processing efficiency, both factors closely associated with visual perception. This is only a small sample of the possible impacts of visucentrism on the experiences of deaf young people, and there remains a gap in the literature exploring these areas. One such area in which this information could have an impact, and indeed, could have repercussions throughout deaf young people’s lives, is that of education. Despite the evidence pointing towards this different sensory experience of the world, it remains the case that educators are failing to take advantage of deaf young people’s visucentrism in educational settings. (Cigman, 2007) Particularly in mainstream schools, it has been recognised that communication impairments, of which deafness is an example, are “intrinsically more disabling in mainstream environments than physical disabilities” (Cigman, 2007, p. xxvii). In such environments, visual approaches to teaching could be beneficial for not only deaf students, but also those who have a more visual approach to learning. It is a matter of record that deaf young people have been consistently leaving school with lower scores in reading, writing and oral comprehension and production over the last 40 years, with little improvement. It is also the case that very few mainstream schools in the UK provide high quality access to teaching in British Sign Language (BSL). As a result, deaf young people are leaving school with poor language skills in both spoken/written and signed modalities, placing limits on their ability to communicate and express themselves (Knoors & Marschark, 2014; Parasnis, 2012). In other words, these young deaf people have low linguistic competence (Branson & Miller, 2002, p. 60) in both spoken and signed modalities. In the case of these young people, how can research be conducted in such a way which bypasses this lack of linguistic competence? Much social research with or on young deaf people in recent years has been conducted through the use of interviews of various kinds. However, all of these interviews require that participants have a level of linguistic competence, in whichever medium the interview is being conducted. Linguistic competence is required in order for the interviewer to ask the questions, and for the interviewee to understand the questions which are asked and

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be able to articulate replies that address those questions. Low levels of linguistic competence can affect a participant’s ability to meet both of these requirements. Not only this, but linguistic competence can also affect the power relations within an interview. Interviewers usually hold the balance of power in an interview, because they set the agenda and also hold the “monopoly of interpretation” (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009, p. 34) of elicited information. This monopoly of interpretation is magnified in interviews in which the original utterances are unclear, inarticulate, or incomplete. In these cases, there could be a much stronger risk of the monopoly of interpretation resulting in misrepresentation of what the participant meant, but was unable to articulate. How might one try to bypass the difficulties that arise from the fact that these participants are potentially disadvantaged both by the reliance on linguistic competence in an interview, but also by the verbal (in this case, verbal refers to both signed and spoken languages) nature of the interview itself? The method used in this research project with deaf young people was auto-driven photo-elicitation interviews. To create impactful research with deaf people requires an understanding of the visual nature of being deaf, an understanding that deaf people might feel more comfortable utilising a visual, rather than verbal modality of communication, and utilising methods which make use of that visucentrism. Another reason for using auto-driven photo-elicitation interviews in this project was the reputation of these methods as an empowering method for participants who are from minority or repressed groups. Many authors have written on the potential for this method to empower dispossessed young people or people who suffer from social exclusion (see, for example, Aldridge, 2014; Meo, 2010; Newbury & Hoskins, 2010; Kaplan, 2008). In a way which may not happen in an interview in which the schedule was written solely by the researcher, the re-balance of power afforded by these methods offers members of these excluded groups a chance to express themselves and puts their concerns and priorities into clearer focus (Padgett, Smith, Derejiko, Henwood, & Tiderington, 2013). Researchers often come to a project with their own preconceptions and ideas, and it is often the case that these frames of reference must be broken so that the opinions of the research participants can be foregrounded (Samuels, 2004). This is particularly important for young deaf people from mainstream schools, who consistently report that they feel excluded due to bullying in class. This is corroborated by observations from teachers and teachers’ assistants who report that deaf young people often lack engagement in class due to frustrations at lack of communication (Salter, Pearson, & Swanwick, 2015). If this is the case in school, the traditional interview situation could also potentially re-create the atmosphere of oppression and thus needs to be addressed.

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3.3 3.3.1

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Method Photo Elicitation

Photo-elicitation is, simply put, “inserting a photograph into a research interview” (Harper, 2002, p. 13). These photographs encourage interaction within the interview, forming a “communication bridge” (Collier & Collier, 1986, p. 99) which enables discussion and interaction. The photographs used in photo-elicitation interviews could be taken by the researcher, found in the media, selected from stock footage, or from other sources. In auto-driven photo-elicitation interviews, the photographs are taken by interview participants, and these participants then lead the discussion of the photographs in the interviews. The auto-driven aspect of these interviews allows participants to “interview themselves” and “raise issues that are significant to them” (Heisley & Levy, 1991, p. 260), although these interviews still require a facilitator, that is, the interviewer, to run the interview. Some have argued that in auto-driven photo-elicitation interviews, the photographs should not be considered as data (Pauwels, 2010; Newbury & Hoskins, 2010). However, others have argued that these photographs provide important data in and of themselves, not simply as cues or prompts for discussion. The approach taken in this research was that some photographs were analysed alongside the interview data to reveal the context of the young people’s interview contributions. Others were used to explore in more depth what participants were able to express in photographs that they might not have been able to articulate in the interview itself.

3.3.2

Visucentrism and Research with Deaf Participants

There has been very little engagement with visual research methods by researchers in Deaf Studies, although there is a growing interest in exploring the possibilities and potentials of these creative methods in recent years. There has been some work published on the philosophical grounding of deaf people’s visucentrism (for example, Sacks, 2012; Ingold, 2011; Rée, 2000), but there are very few attempts to explore this visucentrism through the use of visual research methods. The first attempt to use visual research with deaf people was Ernst Thoutenhoofd’s See Deaf (2011). Thoutenhoofd not only explored the philosophy which lay behind what he called the “visual disposition” of deaf people, but also used a “photodocumentary approach” to explore the visual and spatial experiences of deaf people in a deaf club, and an “auto-photography approach” to uncover the experiences of deaf young people in a residential college. He took the approach that “photographs are not unpredictable jumbles of pictorial elements; rather, their production and consumption is regulated by social agreement which predetermines their content and ‘panorama’ along normative lines” (p. 11), meaning that the photographs taken by

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certain individuals should reflect the social and cultural norms of their class (for a similar argument, see Bourdieu (1996)). Thoutenhoofd’s (2011) findings suggested that through the use of photography and the analysis of the photographs taken, he was able to describe the use of a kind of “scopic social space” (p. 216) by deaf people in their deaf clubs. This scopic space was defined by the way in which deaf people used their vision, what they could see, and how people who want access to the social space of the deaf club must display “a basic minimum of visual skill” (p. 217) in being able to understand and interpret the behaviours and interactions between deaf people. Thoutenhoofd (2011) also explored the idea that deaf people may have a particular way of visual expression, which he attempted to capture by providing 10 young deaf people with cameras, and asking them to take photographs of a single event “like a photo-story” (p. 228). He also provided 10 hearing youths with cameras and asked them to perform a similar task, as a kind of ‘control group’ against which he could compare the deaf young people’s photographs. Thoutenhoofd found that there was evidence that deaf students treated the “representation of events in a significantly different manner from that witnessed in the sets of photographs taken by the hearing students” (p. 243). Both of the elements of Thoutenhoofd’s work suggested that there was a unique visucentric nature on display in his participants’ contributions to the project. Other work which looked to utilise visual research methods with deaf participants included Sheridan’s (2001, 2008) use of photographs and drawings in interviews. Sheridan used pictures cut out from magazines showing both deaf and hearing people to “Allow the children an opportunity to relate to and create stories about pictures involving both deaf and hearing children and adults” (2001, p. 42). Rather than using pictures because they might be particularly suited to deaf people’s visual take on the world, she instead used them as cues for further discussion and exploration of the participant’s views. While Sheridan did not make any specific claim to the visucentrism of her young deaf participants, she strongly advocated creative arts and visual media as potential ways to reach out to and include deaf young people and adolescents in school environments. The author suggested that these methods “utilize and refine the strengths of deaf and hard of hearing children and adolescents and take them to greater depths” (2008, p. 219). Subsequent research projects have also sought to make use of the visucentric nature of deaf people to gain greater insight into their life experiences and ways of seeing the world. Sutherland (2008) and Sutherland and Young (2007, 2014) describe using a combination of creative visual research methods in their work with young deaf children, including video diaries, drawings, making posters and taking photographs. The photographs were taken by the children themselves, using disposable cameras, and the photographs were then discussed in subsequent interactions, in which the children were asked to explain the meanings the images held for them. The use of photographs was chosen as a means of “prioritising the child’s visual sense and enabling the way the world is ‘seen’ to be the basis for how it is ‘told’” (Sutherland & Young, 2014, p. 376).

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The study upon which this chapter is based (O’Brien, 2012), built on these previous exploratory studies which utilised visual and creative methods to explore the world and experiences of deaf people. Subsequently, there has been more research which has made use of visual research methods, including the use of ethnographic documentary making (Kusters, 2015) to create an anthropological film documenting the use of gesture-based interactions between deaf and hearing people in Mumbai. Despite this, there remains a dearth of published research with deaf young people utilising these visual methods as ways of tapping into the essential visucentrism of deaf people (O’Brien & Kusters, 2017). It is hoped that greater awareness of the potential that these methods hold to unlock previously undisclosed aspects of deaf people’s experiences of the world will inspire more of those who work with deaf people in various research areas to take advantage of these methods.

3.3.3

Ethical Considerations and the Ethics Committee (IRB)

Once the decision had been made to utilise photo-elicitation interviews as part of the data collection methods for my project, the first step in the process was to apply for ethical approval for my project from the university Ethics Committee (the UK equivalent of achieving IRB approval). For me, that involved filling out an eight-page ethical review form covering potential hazards of the research and ways to avoid these hazards. I accompanied this form with examples of interview topic guides, information sheets and consent forms. There was no scepticism within my supervision team of the validity or reasons for using visual methods in this research project, in contrast to some reports (see Miller’s Chap. 2 in this book, Miller (2015), or Clark (2013), for example). While my ethics application was returned with a request for some minor adjustments before being given approval, the principle of my use of visual research methods was broadly accepted. It will be useful to outline some of the perceived difficulties with the ethics of visual research methods, and how I dealt with each of these below. A key question on the ethical approval form asked for was a justification of the method chosen. Some have reported that ethical review boards question whether it is necessary for the research project to use visual research methods as opposed to more traditional text or voice based methods (Miller, 2015). However, as can be seen in the preceding section of this chapter, visual methods are clearly well suited to researching the experiences of deaf young people, both to overcome potential communication difficulties and to tap into the unique visucentrism of deaf people’s experience. This was made clear in my initial proposal, and so seemed to be accepted by the Ethics Committee without reservation.

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The Photo-Elicitation Interviews

The photo-elicitation interviews were designed as the second step in a two-step interview strategy. These interviews were conducted in the participants’ preferred language, which could have been spoken English or BSL, or a mixture of both. The first step was to conduct semi-structured interviews with participants, for three main reasons. Firstly, to gain initial data which could be compared across interviews, such as age, educational and family background, language preferences and so on (O’Reilly, 2005). Since the control of the photo-elicitation interviews was handed over to the participant through the auto-driven nature of the interview, it could not be guaranteed that such data would be forthcoming in the photo-elicitation interviews. Secondly, these interviews were intended to build some rapport between the participant and myself. For many people, sharing photographs can be considered to be an intimate experience (Clark-Ibáñez, 2004, p. 1511), particularly when the subject of the photographs is particularly important or meaningful. In order to build up a relationship of trust with participants, the semi-structured interview was intended to allow us to get to know one another a little bit, and to build a relationship to prove to them that I could be trusted with their photographs. Thirdly, at the end of the semi-structured interview, I took the opportunity to explain to the participants face to face what I wanted them to do for the photo-elicitation interviews. While I had prepared a written explanation and information sheet to be shared with participants outlining the guidelines for taking photographs, I wanted to have a chance to explain these face-to-face to all participants, regardless of their preferred language choice (see Appendix A for an example). As I am bilingual in English and BSL, I was able to explain to participants exactly what I wanted them to do in the language of their choice, and to discuss any questions they had, something they would not have been able to do if I relied on written instructions.

3.3.5

Sampling, Self-identity, and Recruiting Participants

Initial issues in the research project were associated with recruitment of participants. By their very nature, mainstream educated young deaf people are usually not involved in deaf communities, and so can be very difficult to find unless you have personal direct contact with them. This lack of involvement is often due to lack of enculturation into signing deaf communities. Deaf young people at deaf schools have opportunities of enculturation into deaf communities, something which those at mainstream schools, who are often the only deaf child in their class, lack. My initial recruitment strategies depended on both personal contacts and the use of gatekeepers. I contacted local schools, colleges and charities to ask them to pass on an email to potential participants and their parents which explained the aims and objectives of my research and my contact details. Initially I had hoped to recruit 20 participants, but in the end had to settle for eight. There simply was not enough

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interest from potential participants to meet hoped for sample size. On reflection, I think there could have been a number of reasons for this. Firstly, many deaf young people from mainstream schools struggle with their self-identity, and may not have self-identified as deaf (DEX, 2003). The idea of discussing this element of their identities or experiences with a stranger may have deterred them from taking part in the interviews at all. Secondly, there is no guarantee, of course, that gatekeepers actually passed on information to the target population. Thirdly, the two-stage interview process, while designed with good intentions, actually may have deterred some potential participants who may have felt that it would make too heavy demands on their time, thus causing what some have termed research fatigue or participant fatigue (Clark, 2008). I did, however, get the Ethics Committee to agree to let me give each participant £10 in vouchers for a shop of their choice as a recompense for their time. The Ethics Committee were reluctant to allow me to give cash in case it was spent in an unethical way, but agreed that I could provide vouchers for shops or restaurants. In retrospect, I may have done better to keep the interviews as a single-stage process and instead merge the two, collecting data for cross-comparisons at the beginning of the interview and then handing control over to the participant to run the photo-elicitation part. However, this would require a re-thinking of how to provide the necessary information to the participants about what kind of photographs I would like them to take and how to build the rapport required for this method.

3.3.6

Placement, Power, and Language

Once I had contacted the participants and they had agreed to take part, I made an appointment to meet them for the initial interview at a venue of their choice. For some, this meant booking a room in my university in which to conduct the interview, for others, it meant visiting them at their home. All interviews were videoand audio-recorded, as I did not know what the participants’ language preference (BSL, spoken English, or a combination of the two) was until I met them. The initial interaction in the first few minutes of the interview, in which I was setting up the recording equipment in negotiation with the participant, deciding who would sit where, which seat was most comfortable, which wall provided a better background for the shot, and so on, served a number of purposes. Firstly, it allowed me to assess the participant’s language preference, whether they preferred to use spoken English, BSL, or a mixture of the two. Rather than ask outright what their preference was, which may have influenced their choice of language depending on which language I asked the question in, I was able to subtly match the preference they exhibited in informal conversation. Secondly, the input that this negotiation allowed into how the interview was set up helped to balance some of the power imbalances implicit in the interview

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situation. Rather than controlling the interview by telling the participant where to sit and when to start, passing over some measure of control to them avoided making the participant an object of research and allowed them to become a participant in the interview conversation. Before the start of the interview, once the camera was in place and recording, I gave the participant an information sheet about the project and a consent form which set out how I would use the data from the interview. I explained the information on each written document in their preferred language, either spoken English, BSL or a mixture, and gave them ample opportunity to ask questions about each sheet before I asked them to sign the consent form. The semi-structured interview, for which I had designed a schedule beforehand, covered such information as the participant’s educational experiences, their experience of transition planning, whether they recalled being part of the planning process, and other specific information which I needed for comparative purposes. These conversations met with mixed success. While I am able to produce relatively clear spoken English, my receptive ability is mixed. I cannot hear enough to rely solely on the spoken word, and my lipreading skills are very much dependent on the person who is talking, their clarity, accent, lip movements and so on. Some of the young deaf people I interviewed who preferred to use spoken English did not have clear speech, and lacked the ability to use BSL to clarify problematic utterances. While these interviews were transcribed professionally, so data was not missed out in the analysis stage, my inability to react to some of their contributions in the interview had an effect on the quality of data gained from these interviews. I had no such problems in the interviews conducted in BSL. At the end of the semi-structured interview, I gave the participant a written information sheet outlining what kind of photographs I wanted them to take (see Appendix A). Again, I explained the sheet in their chosen language to ensure that it was clear, and to offer them a chance to ask any questions they might have.

3.3.7

Gathering, Storing, and Using the Photographs

I provided each participant with a disposable camera, and a stamped addressed envelope with which to return the camera to me via my university department office. A disposable camera was used because at the time of conducting this research (2010–2011), smart phones and digital cameras were still outside the budget of many young people. There were additional problems with my initial proposed use of camera-phones or the young people’s own digital cameras to send me photographs. The first was cost. At the time, there were very few, if any, Wi-Fi networks through which photos could be sent from camera-phones for free. The cost of sending media messages was prohibitive. Similarly, there were still many young people with no access to the internet at home at that time, which meant expecting them to email me photographs would have had a financial impact on them. A final concern which was brought up in the ethical application form was

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storage of the photographs. All photographs would have had to be stored in a secure, encrypted hard-drive on the university system, which was inconvenient for me as throughout the study, I worked from home. The Ethics Committee preferred that I keep hard copies of the photographs locked up securely, rather than held electronically. Of course, in the current time, with the ubiquity of smartphones and free Wi-Fi hotspots, along with secure data transfer services such as WeTransfer with encrypted storage and transfer of files, a different decision might have been made. Indeed, some participants felt a little self-conscious taking photographs with ‘old-fashioned’ disposable cameras, which may have inhibited their motivation to take photographs in public. One of the key ethical issues here, one that has been highlighted over and over in the literature (see, for example, Miller, 2015; Meo, 2010; Prosser, Clark, & Wiles, 2008; Wiles et al., 2008) is the issue of getting consent from those who appear in the photographs taken. It is relatively easy to anonymise interview transcripts, simply by removing or changing names and other identifiable features from the record of the interview (although this itself is not without its problems, see Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009, p. 272 for example). It is less easy to do this with photographs. Some researchers attempt to (or are told to) address this ethical issue by asking their participants to get informed consent from all people who might be shown in the photographs they take (Rose, 2012; Allen, 2008). However, rather than imposing rules and the added burden on the participants about gaining consent from anyone they took photographs of, my approach to this was to request that participants did not take photographs of any people (O’Brien, 2013, p. 160). One reason for this was that I anticipated that participants might want to take photographs of friends or siblings who might be under the age of 18 and thus unable to provide consent (Prosser et al., 2008), but also because I worried that I would only have the participant’s word that consent had been granted (Clark, 2013). It was not that I did not have faith in the participants, but more that they may not fully understand the importance of informed consent, and that having to ask for consent might inhibit their desire to take photographs. I instead asked that if they wished to represent a person in the photographs they took that they captured images of things which represented those people, such as possessions or something that reminded them of the person they wanted to represent. For the most part, this was successful, although some young people found creative ways around this ‘no people’ rule (see O’Brien & Kusters, 2017). Once the cameras were returned to me, I had two copies of each photograph developed. One was for the participants to keep for themselves, the other was for my use. Unfortunately, this process was not fool proof. One camera was lost in the post (mail) and so the follow up photo-elicitation interview with that participant had to be cancelled as there was insufficient time to re-arrange, and another film was only partially developed, so only five of the 20 or so photographs the participant reported taking were usable. Three of the remaining participants did not return their cameras for development. One dropped out of the study because he was facing pressures at work and so did not have time to complete the photo-elicitation part of the research. Another did not take any photographs because she went through a

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major personal transition at the time of the research and, understandably, her motivation to complete the photo-elicitation interview waned considerably. The final participant simply dropped out of contact with me after our initial interview. It is possible that, as with the first participant who dropped out, participant fatigue was responsible for this lack of engagement. Once the two copies of photographs had been printed, I returned one to the participant by post, and requested that they pick out a few of the most important, meaningful photographs to discuss in the photo-elicitation interviews. Before the interview, I also made sure that I was familiar with the photographs which were taken, so that I could ask questions about any interesting features which came up. I also numbered each photograph so I could quickly and surreptitiously sign to the camera which photograph the participant was talking about without having to interrupt the flow of talk to show the photograph to the camera. Again, the choice of venue for the interview was left to them, and arrangements were made for the interview to go ahead.

3.3.8

Conducting the Interviews

The photo-elicitation interview began with a similar setting-up process as the semi-structured interview, in which the participant played an active role in the placement of camera and chairs. Once this had been completed, I went through another consent form with them on camera, explaining how I wished to use their photographs and that they could drop out of the study at any time. When the participants had signed the consent form, I handed over control of the interview to them. I started by asking which photographs they had decided to discuss, and then simply followed up any interesting points they made with relevant questions and prompts. At the end of the auto-driven period of the interview, that is, when participants had run out of things to say about the photographs they wished to discuss, I took the opportunity to ask more questions about things which had interested me in the preliminary analysis. Sometimes this was simply clarifying things I had missed or misunderstood in the first interview, but sometimes these questions sparked more in-depth discussions of new topics. Upon the completion of the interview, I handed over the voucher that the participant had requested, and then took my leave. As mentioned above, interviews which were conducted in spoken English were professionally transcribed. However, interviews which had been held in BSL, or in a mixture of the two which I was able to understand clearly from the recording, were transcribed by myself. I felt it was important to stay close to the data as possible, hence transcribing interviews myself where possible (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009, p. 180). Of course, since these transcriptions were also translations (Temple & Young, 2004, p. 162) from one language to another (BSL to English) and from one modality to another (visual-spatial to written), great care was taken to try and reflect the participant’s mannerisms or style in BSL in the written

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English transcript, for example, using equivalent slang terms or colloquialisms where possible. I also had to attempt to show the ‘intonation, rhythm, gesture, gesticulations and body language’ (Bourdieu, 1999, p. 622) of the interview in the written English transcript, which was a laborious process, as each of these has specific cultural meanings in BSL for which equivalents in written English had to be found. Especial care had to be taken to ensure that my interpretation was not biased or misleading—all participants were offered the chance to read through the transcript to ensure it was representative of their feelings.

3.3.9

Data Analysis and the Unique Challenges of Analysing Visual Communication

Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis, a method that seeks to “unearth the themes salient in a text at different levels” (Attride-Stirling, 2001, p. 387) with themes arising from the data, as well as from my own previously defined categories, as “one cannot anticipate all the themes that arise before analysing the data” (Ryan & Bernard, 2003. p. 88). There were no major issues related to this stage of the project, apart from the laborious and intensive nature of the transcription process. It has been claimed that each minute of signed communication can take up to 10 min for initial translation, and double that to produce a final polished version (Ladd, 2003, p. 290), and my own experience with this project supported that assertion. This was one of the most grueling parts of the project for me, with each interview lasting for around an hour, meaning that each interview took a number of days to transcribe completely to a level with which I was happy.

3.4

Findings

As mentioned above, findings from this research project have been published in different publications already (see O’Brien and Kusters (2017) for discussion of the visual aspects of the project, O’Brien (2015) for perspectives on transition planning from professional’s perspectives, and O’Brien (2013) for discussion of themes of belonging, identity, and independence elicited by photographs). In this section, therefore, I will focus on one aspect of this project not yet discussed outside my published work, the experiences of young people during statutory transition planning. Specifically, I will discuss the experiences of the four participants, Valerie, Jen, Zoe and Rob, who returned cameras and took part in the photo-elicitation interviews. It was notable from the photographs taken that only one participant, Valerie, chose to capture life in a formal institution, her university. Even then, these photographs did not have any real link to transition, or life after university. Instead, the

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photographs focused on her identity as a signing deaf person, the struggles she faced having that identity accepted, and the friends that she had made in university. Jen also took photographs of her room in university halls of residence, but again, this was not related to the educational aspect of the institution, but her feelings of belonging in the hall. She did report that she felt that the student support in the hall offered a lot of support to her, but this was offered to her on an informal basis rather than having any association with formal transition planning. Neither Zoe nor Rob took any photographs which were related to institutional aspects of transition. Despite this, the wide range of topics which were elicited from the photographs meant that transition planning did come up in the interviews we held. Interestingly, of the four participants, only Jen remembered taking part in formal transition planning meetings in school, and her comments on the process were not complementary. She was involved in transition meetings each year in her school, but couldn’t remember whether her plans for the future were discussed as they should have been, in accordance with the transition planning policy laid out by the government at the time. Her transition from the children’s to adult’s audiology service, which should have taken place at the age of 13, did not actually occur until much later. As Jen explained: Yes…erm…my transition thing was a joke…you were supposed to move from the children’s unit to the adult unit when you are in year 9, but I wasn’t moved until I was in year 12 so I was about 15, 16, 17 still in the children’s unit…

While the transition was eventually made successfully, it was not without its problems. I asked Jen if she was given much notice before the change: I can’t really remember, but I think it was more of you’re not in the children’s unit, you’re in the adults unit – go to the adults unit. I used to walk past it quite a lot because it’s on the way to the children’s unit, so technically I’d looked inside but I didn’t really look inside until I was actually transferred there.

Despite this, Jen was in university and enjoying her course and the social life that went with it. She also had a very firm plan for what she wanted to achieve in the future: It’s all planned out…get my degree; finish my degree – a 2:1 or a first if I’m lucky. Then hopefully, a Masters in politics or politics and society or the Labour Party. Then go into government, work in government, or get a PhD… maybe the other way round… then be an MP and become Prime Minister and rule the world!

Zoe was aware of the different support that she was receiving to support her through the transition to adulthood, but didn’t feel that it was particularly focused on helping her to decide what to do once she finished school. Her family was preparing to move house at the time of the interview, so the support she was getting seemed to be more focused on that, rather than her transition to adulthood. When asked about what she wanted to do in the future, she said: Yeah, I was thinking about doing films because I like films.

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And this interest in media and visual arts was also expressed in the photographs she took for the photo-elicitation interview of magazine covers and DVDs: I like how they design the cover that draws your attention in and make me want to read it. Because I think it is better than what I could have done… DVDs! I have loads and loads of DVDs, yeah. Cause I like films…cause I’m very interested in camera angles, the actors and the script and the settings and the location shots, it’s quite interesting.

Zoe’s family was very close, and offered her most of the support she felt she needed. She did not particularly enjoy her time in school, worrying about being singled out because she was deaf. However, she was supported by a very close family, and had a very positive attitude to her future: I’d like to be very successful and have a high salary, lots of money and a big house and that’s all. I would like to go out there and prove that deaf people are not…I don’t know the word…not, erm, stupid really.

Rob also used his photographs to show his feelings about his ongoing transition to adulthood and independence, although this came about in a rather round-about way. Many of his photographs were taken outside in places which he said he enjoyed visiting, such as neighbouring villages, the gym and swimming pool he worked out at and so on. After discussing the different places he liked to visit and the different hobbies he enjoyed, he expressed his frustration at not being able to find work and the prospect of having to go back to college. I realised that the photographs he had taken were not simply a record of how he spent his time, but a record of ways in which he had had to find to spend his time because of his lack of access to employment or fulfilling educational opportunities. That is not to say he did not enjoy these pursuits, but that if he had access to employment, he would prefer to be working. Rob did recall some of the support he was offered for his transition to adulthood, but it seemed that the support had been quite ineffectual. He reported that he had been to see an advisor from the Connexions service2 “lots of times” and would probably continue meeting her. However, it was clear that this support was having a limited impact on his life, even though he said that his advisor was “trying to help me”. My initial impression, gleaned from the photographs he took, was that he was fairly satisfied with the way his transition to adulthood was going, and that he had a secure network of friends and family supporting him. While it was certainly true that he had a very supportive family and friends, his frustration at the lack of employment opportunities offered to him came through in our discussion of the photographs he took. In this interview, he ‘broke my frames’ and was able to articulate his frustration at his situation in a way which would not have been

2

Connexions was a UK government service aimed at supporting young people between the ages of 13–19, which offered support and guidance on employment, housing, education and health. It has since suffered major funding cuts and has in effect disappeared from most of the country.

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possible if the interview had not been auto-driven in the way it was (Samuels, 2004). This was particularly important as Rob was not only deaf, but had a learning difficulty as well. This meant that communication between us was problematic at times, as we each tried to find a way of articulating ourselves in a way in which the other would understand. Indeed, Rob’s foster mother had to step into facilitate our communication at some points, becoming, in effect, a third participant in the interview. Giving Rob the opportunity to take photographs also allowed him the chance to set the agenda for our interview, ensuring that it covered issues and themes which he felt were the most important, despite our difficulty in communication. Valerie was one of the oldest participants in the research project, in her mid-20s, and so was able to reflect on the process of transition to adulthood. When making the transition from school to college and deciding what to do in the future, she reported that her parents were much more of a source of support and guidance than any official transition process. Similarly, while her college was supportive during her transition to university, she said that the college had not been her main source of information or support, instead, she relied on her friends and her own initiative: I did my own research really. Plus, I had a good friend, he works in deaf awareness himself, he gave me lots of information about different support resources.

So, in conclusion, these young people’s experience of the statutory transition planning process was not one which they considered to be a great success. While most of them seemed to be making some kind of progress and were broadly happy with their lives, this was mostly due to the support given to them by family and friends rather than from professionals. All of them recognised the potential that the transition planning process held in supporting them through what could be, and was, a difficult time for them, but felt that this potential was not being fulfilled. Instead, they felt that they were being left to their own devices, and their parents were their main sources of support.

3.5

How This Method Empowered My Participants

For those participants who returned to this project for the photo-elicitation interviews, the experience was one of empowerment and communication. Setting the interviews up as participant-led, rather than researcher-led, also helped to address power imbalances in the interview. Rather than feeling themselves to be limited or constrained by the questions and preconceptions I would have brought to a more structured interview, handing over the reins to the participants allowed them to freely express what they felt. The young people were given the opportunity to communicate their own feelings about their transition to adulthood, maybe for the first time, not only in response to my questions, but in a way which allowed them to pose questions of themselves and answer these questions through the photographs they took, and subsequent discussions in the interviews.

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By allowing the participants to author the script of the interview, I handed over not only the steering of the interview itself, but also the power of interpretation to the participants. Samuels mentioned the importance of ‘breaking the frames’ of the researcher (Samuels, 2004) in order to prevent the imposition of pre-conceived ideas and assumptions on the experience of the participants. This happened on a few occasions in these interviews, where my own frames were broken with regard to what I saw in the photographs and what the participants intended for them to portray. This also deals with the monopoly of interpretation as Pauwels (2010) explained, “visual researchers today are routinely using the reactions of their subjects to correct and improve their visual account and interpretations” (p. 559). Doing participant checks in this manner can break the monopoly that researchers have on the data. This dual level of reflection/interpretation hands some of the power in the interview situation back to the participant in that they have immediate feedback on the interpretations I may have put onto their photographs. These photographs not only enabled the participants to articulate their answers to my questions, but they composed their own questions for themselves and for me through the photographs they took. They were able to articulate particular points of view or feelings about things which I may not have considered to be important or significant otherwise. By offering their photographs as answers to my (or their own) questions, through the discussion of the photos in the interview, they also interpreted their initial answers, offering a dual level of interpretation of their feelings, beliefs and opinions. For example, these factors can be seen in the way in which the meanings of Rob’s photographs only became clear during our interview. Using a visual method in these interviews also empowered the participants through the use of the visucentrism of their experience. All participants reported that they enjoyed the experience of taking the photographs and using them to illustrate their feelings and beliefs. Many of them also suggested that this was because they had a particularly visual experience of the world (O’Brien & Kusters, 2017). Of course, many could argue that this visual experience is not something that is unique to deaf people. Indeed, many would say that our current society is increasingly visual in nature, with the prevalence of visually-oriented GIFs and memes on social media networks like Facebook or Twitter replacing more text-based interactions, or the prevalence of visual advertising. However, as Zoe said, “I think when you are deaf, you use your eyes more!” This emphasis on vision is not simply because of a burgeoning ‘visual culture’, but a specific trait of deaf people’s experience of the world. This is an important point, and is one that must be developed in future research projects. There is a difference between the visible materials created by projects such as this and their visual meanings (Rose, 2014). It has been argued that using visual research methods without understanding the difference between these two is to neglect the effect of the “range of visual knowledge and skills” a participant may hold on the tasks which the participants are asked to perform (Rose, 2014). I have argued above that deaf people have a specific visucentrism, an understanding of the

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world which provides a unique perspective and understanding. Thoutenhoofd attempted to explore these visual capabilities of deaf people in his See Deaf (2011) research. These capabilities are demonstrated and exploited every day in videos uploaded to Facebook, YouTube, and other social media and content sharing sites by signing deaf people, young and old. They are taking the opportunities this technology offers to author their own thoughts, beliefs, and cultures, expressing these through appropriate visual media in a way which has not been possible before. While this research project joins others (Kusters, 2015; Sutherland & Young, 2007, 2014; Sutherland, 2008) in showing that visual research methods are useful in getting to the core of the deaf experience, they also highlight the limitations of such projects. My use of photo-elicitation interviews certainly added depth to the data gathered and exposed deeper meanings of how my participants experienced the world around them, but it stopped short of explicitly exploring the specific visucentric nature of that experience (Sweetman, 2009). Photo-elicitation interviews, in which this visucentrism is a central subject of investigation, along with other visual research methods, will be essential in the future to further examine this visucentrism and fully understand what deaf people’s visual culture is. We have not yet seen the full potential of visual research methods to explore a way of life which is so firmly grounded in the visual.

Appendix A: Transitional Experiences of Young d/Deaf People in England Information Sheet for Taking Photos (Abridged) What do I want you to do? As part of this project, I have given you a camera and asked you to take photographs of things that are important to you in your life. These important things could be: • • • •

Places you go Things you do Your hobbies Your favourite possessions

And so on. However, if you want to show me the important people in your life, it would be better to take a photo of something that represents them, rather than a photo of the person themselves. This is because it is important for me to make sure that people’s privacy is respected in this project. This means you could take a photo of something that belongs to this important person, something that reminds you of them, or something that they like.

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What happens next? When you have finished taking the photographs, please put the camera in the envelope attached to this information sheet and post it back to me. You don’t have to put any stamps on the envelope. I will get two copies of each photo developed, one for you to keep and one for me to use in my project. When the photos have been developed, I will get in touch with you again and organise another meeting so that you can tell me about the photos you took. This talk will be video-recorded so that I can write down what we said and use it in my project. What happens to the photos? Like I said before, I will get two copies of each photo you take developed. One of these will be yours to keep and do whatever you like with. I will keep my set of photos very securely, and only me and my supervisors, John and Debbie, will see them, unless they show that you or another young person is at risk of abuse or neglect, in which case they will be shared with the relevant authorities. If I want to use any of the photos you took in my project, that is, print them in my report, use them in presentations or in a display, I will ask your permission for each photo I want to use. You can say you don’t want me to use the photos, in which case I won’t use them. Do you have any questions? If you do, please get in touch with Dai via email at (email), or write to him at— (University address). Sources of support. If this research brings up any issues you have trouble dealing with, or with which you want support, the following organisations could be of some help: NDCS Buzz website (www.ndcsbuzz.org.uk), this offers advice and support to d/Deaf young people and has a message board where you can get in touch with other young d/Deaf people and chat about issues that affect you. Childline (www.childline.org.uk), this offers the chance to talk to trained counsellors on the telephone (0800 1111), using a text-phone or minicom (0800 400 222), by email or one-to-one chats on the internet (using links on their website) or by post (Childline, c/o NSPCC, Weston House, 42 Curtain Road, London, EC2A 3NH). You can contact them to discuss any problems you might have. This service is available to people under the age of 18. Samaritans (www.samaritans.org), this offers support to people over the age of 18. You can speak to trained counsellors on the phone (08457 90 90 90) at any time of day or night, email them ([email protected]) or write to them (Chris, P.O. Box 9090, Stirling, FK8 2SA). You can talk to them about any problems you might have in your life.

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Sacks, O. (2012). Seeing voices: A journey into the world of the deaf. London: Picador. Salter, J., Pearson, S. E., & Swanwick, R. A. (2015). Teaching assistants’ perspectives of deaf students’ learning experiences in mainstream secondary classrooms. In Proceedings of the 22nd International Congress on the Education of the Deaf. Samuels, J. (2004). Breaking the ethnographer’s frames: Reflections on the use of photo elicitation in understanding Sri Lankan monastic culture. American Behavioural Scientist, 47(3), 1528– 1550. Sheridan, M. A. (2008). Deaf adolescents: Inner lives and lifeworld development. Washington D. C.: Gallaudet University Press. Sheridan, M. (2001). Inner lives of deaf children: Interviews and analysis. Washington D.C.: Gallaudet University Press. Sutherland, H. (2008). Deaf children’s perceptions of sign bilingual education (Unpublished PhD thesis). University of Manchester. Sutherland, H., & Young, A. (2007). ‘Hate English! Why?…’ Signs and English from deaf children’s perception results from a preliminary study of deaf children’s experiences of sign bilingual education. Deafness and Education International, 9(4), 197–213. Sutherland, H., & Young, A. (2014). Research with deaf children and not on them: A study of method and process. Children and Society, 28(5), 366–379. Sweetman, P. (2009). Revealing habitus, illuminating practice: Bourdieu, photography and visual methods. The Sociological Review, 57(3), 491–511. Temple, B., & Young, A. (2004). Qualitative research and translation dilemmas. Qualitative Research, 4(2), 161–178. Thoutenhoofd, E. D. (2011). See deaf: On sight in deafness. https://www.academia.edu/527261/ See_deaf_On_sight_in_deafness. Last accessed July 7, 16. Warnock, M. (2005). Special educational needs: A new look. Impact: Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain. Wauters, L. N., & Knoors, H. (2008). Social integration of deaf children in inclusive settings. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 13(1), 21–36. Wiles, R., Prosser, J. Bagnoli, A., Clark, A., Davies, K., Holland, S., et al. (2008). Visual ethics: Ethical issues in visual research. ESRC National Centre for Research Methods. http://eprints. ncrm.ac.uk/421/. Last accessed July 7, 16.

Author Biography Dai O’Brien Ph.D. is a lecturer in British Sign Language (BSL) and Deaf Studies in York St John University (YSJU) in the United Kingdom. He teaches on the Beginners and Continuation BSL modules at YSJU and is the coordinator and creator of the Advanced BSL modules and the Sociolinguistics of BSL module. He is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy and currently supervises two PhD students. His other professional activities include running an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded research project, and co-founding the Bridging the Gap conference series in the UK, which aims to promote collaboration between Deaf Studies academics and deaf people and communities. He also holds Masters degrees in Deaf Studies and Social Science Research Methods (Sociology), both from the University of Bristol. His current research focus is on using creative and visual research methods to explore the spaces and places of deaf people and communities.

Chapter 4

Using Photo-Elicitation to Break the Silence Kharon Grimmet

Abstract Inspired by my former students, who are now adults, I began researching the perspectives of individuals with intellectual disability on their quality of life. Even though communication for some individuals with disability can be difficult, my use of photo elicitation helped participants take abstract concepts and make them concrete, resulting in a multitude of stories, details of events, personal emotions and ideas from each, individual participant. These stories and details allowed me to share their story, a story that has been tucked away, hidden from society. This chapter explores the use of photo-elicitation with adults with Intellectual Disability (ID). Using Bronfenbrenner’s ecology theory (2006), I sought to discover how adults with ID perceive their Quality of Life (QoL). Stories and detailed information were elicited from the participants’ photos which resulted in observations, interviews, and additional photos, purposed for further elicitation, taken by the researcher. From these stories, I developed case studies that provide insight to the thoughts and perceptions of adults with intellectual disability on their quality of life, a story that has been historically undocumented.

4.1

Research Problem

Historically, individuals with disability have been perceived as incapable, therefore isolated and mistreated and even today, their perspectives are seldom taken into account when it comes to their own care (Wickham, 2014). Petry, Maes and Vlaskcamp (2005) note that [disability] research typically seeks the input of parents, siblings, teachers, and caregivers. In an EBSCO search for research from the years 2000–2016 using the keywords: perspectives, individuals, disabilities, only 612 peer-review articles were identified. Of those 612 articles, only one peer-reviewed article (Miller, 2012) described the perceptions of individuals with disability as it pertained to their health care experiences. The other 611 articles K. Grimmet (&) Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing AG 2018 M.L. Boucher, Jr. (ed.), Participant Empowerment Through Photo-elicitation in Ethnographic Education Research, http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64413-4_4

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identified sought to understand the perspectives of parents, caregivers, family, support workers, teachers, nurses, employers, case managers, and healthcare workers. As researchers, it seems that we are, indeed, asking important questions, and I would affirm our efforts in understanding the perspectives of family members and service providers. However, when our questions seek information about, on, or of individuals with disability, we need to talk to the individual him or herself. As researchers, we should “…listen to the people with whom we profess to be working” (Flynn, 1989, p. 133). The perspectives of individuals with disability is an important perspective missing throughout the literature. These missing perspectives represent a vital gap within disability and educational literature, given the importance of self-determination as best-practice and overall quality of life for individuals with disability. Self-determination allows individuals to control and make decisions affecting their lives such as work, education, or social activities (Agran & Krupp, 2011). Wehmeyer (2014) refers to self-determination as an opportunity where an individual is empowered to initiate and respond to a given event, can regulate his/her behavior, and act autonomously fulling understanding his/her actions and/or consequences. Self-determination is important to the life-long development of all individuals, including individuals with disability. Kuh’s research (1990) confirms that individuals with disability were not as free as their typically developing peers to make decisions, thus hindering their life experiences and impeding the development of autonomy. Kuh (1990) explained that self-determination is a skill that must be taught and practiced across instructors (parents, teachers, caregivers, service providers, researchers) as well as across settings (home, school, throughout the community, health care system), including research. Research about people with disability lacks an important voice when it comes to the study of individuals. Though we seek to understand how to better educate, develop, and support individuals with disability, we continue to seek the voices of stakeholders and neglect the voice of the individual him/herself (Grimmet, 2016).

4.2

Why Photo-Elicitation Was Used for This Study

There are many reasons individuals with disability have been historically silenced. They have been segregated from their communities and separated from the general population within their schools. Sometimes the nature of a specific disability can add a physical and/or cognitive barrier to communication, thus silencing individuals. The ability to articulate an idea, a desire, or need, even the ability to ask and respond to a question—basic communication—can be limited by disability. Unfortunately, society interprets many of these limitations as the individual (him/herself) being incapable or unintelligent, and as a result, many parents, teachers, caregivers, and service providers will assume the role of voice for the

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individual (Grimmet, 2016). Research has acknowledged this phenomenon over the last 20 years with articles that describe learned helplessness. Over time, we have conditioned individuals with disability to look to others for the answers, thus sustaining their continued silence. Folkestad (2000) noted that individuals with disability are typically eager-to-please or provide acquiescent responses and when asked questions, they have the tendency to answer ‘yes’ whenever possible. He suggested that the individuals may, “feel powerless or [have] feelings of being tested and [need] the ‘right’ answers,” (p. 5–6). Folkestad continued to outline concerns regarding the individual’s cognitive competence and ability to express him/herself clearly (articulation), all of which confirms the apparent dependence upon parents, teachers, service providers, those who are typically-developing. To further her research, Folkestad turned to Collier and Collier (1986) who used photography as a method to study the views of individuals with disability. She developed a study that used photo-assisted interviews to elicit responses about the living arrangements of individuals with disabilities in group homes (Folkestad, 2000). Participants were given Polaroid cameras and asked to take photos about their living arrangements. Folkestad used these photographs to stimulate conversation and elicit stories about the lives of her participants and concluded that the use of photos can “evoke responses that would give [perspective] based on the [participants’ experiences] resulting in a spontaneous flow of detailed information” (p. 7), thus avoiding many of the concerns about interviewing individuals with ID reported throughout the literature (Collier & Collier, 1986; Harper, 2002). In addition, Folkestad observed her participants using their photos to report on experiences and ideas not evident within the images. Using this technique allowed Folkestad to keep the participant engaged within the conversation, allowing for a way of “hearing what people with disability think about their daily life circumstances” (p. 19). The use of photo-elicitation with individuals with disability is one way to combat some of the communication barriers experienced between those with and without disability. The use of photos provides the symbolic representation (visual image) the brain uses to process information more rapidly than verbal information. In addition, the visual image(s) stimulate deeper levels of human consciousness, thereby accessing the individual’s prior knowledge, experience, and emotions (Harper, 2002). Photo-elicitation can be used with a continuum of photos, such as “visual inventories of objects, people, and artifacts…[to] images that depict events [from] collective or institutional pasts (work, school), [or]…photographs [that] portray intimate dimensions of the social family or social group…” (Harper, 2002, p. 13). Folkestad (2000) identified this continuum within her study, noting that photographs do not hold meaning, only information, and meaning can only come from the individual who took the photo; the individual who has a story, an experience, a memory, or an emotion to share.

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Method

When using photo-elicitation with individuals with disability, it is important to consider social context and ensure all data gathering techniques are appropriate to the age and developmental level of the participants (see Miller’s ethics Chap. 2 in this volume). In the study used for this chapter, I worked with young adults with intellectual disability and considered the age-appropriateness of the devices to be used (Grimmet, 2016). Today, it is socially appropriate to carry an iPhone and to use that iPhone to take selfies and other photos. Therefore, the act of taking the photos requested/encouraged in no way segregated or drew unwanted attention to the participant as it may have in the past where cameras were not as prevalent. The iPhones I provided for each participant were not equipped with cellular service but were useful for taking photographs. Cellular phones are an age-appropriate, socially-appropriate system for taking pictures of oneself, friends, family, and daily activities. The iPhone was provided so that the participants would blend into society/the community with no evidence that he/she was participating in a special study. I provided verbal instructions and visual cues that described how to power on/off, charge the phone, and use the iPhone’s camera application. I also provided a calendar of visual prompts in case the participant struggled with what kinds of pictures s/he could take. Each study participant was given two weeks to take an initial set of photos, but study participation was staggered over the course of this research. As one participant was concluding his/her initial interviews and observations, a second participant began with his/her two-week photo essay collection. As a result, each case informed the next case study. In following this procedure, I was able to apply lessons learned from one case to inform the next case. In each case, after the second week, I returned to the participant’s house to download a copy of the photos taken. While sitting down at the participant’s kitchen table, the photos were downloaded and I began eliciting data by asking the participant to describe what was happening in the photo. I asked where the photo was taken, who was the participant with, “how did this make you feel?” The participants’ responses were full of significance, which led to additional questions to further my understanding of the participant and the event(s) documented throughout the photos. It is important to note that my own perceptions were, at times, very different from the participant’s. For example, photos that seemed meaningless to me elicited detailed stories full of emotion. Specifically, this initial set of data (photos and responses) allowed me to identify potential stakeholders who would be other important interviewees as well as events and places that would be key places to conduct observations. After reviewing the initial data, each participant worked with me to identify key settings for observations and stakeholders to interview. With the participant’s permission, I contacted key stakeholders, scheduled interviews, and arranged for a series of observations within the context of the participants work and personal settings. While conducting observations, I took additional photos of the participant,

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as well as people, places, events, and activities that focused on a few areas of the participant’s daily life. These included personal relationships and work relationships. I also sought to document evidence of skills development, degree of self-determination and independence in his/her personal life and at work. These photographs were analyzed in conjunction with participants’ photos and aided in the development of interview protocols by identifying stakeholders and specific topics of interest to the participants. Observations lasted an average of one hour per session. In my previous writing on this data (2016), I explained that that we seldom experience events alone. There are key stakeholders in each of our lives who influence events and experiences. After receiving permission from each participant, I interviewed parents, friends, colleagues, job coaches, supervisors, or other service providers identified by the participant throughout photos and interview data to be an important part of his/her life experiences. These interviews supported and enriched the understanding of participants’ perceptions and experiences. Interview sessions with stakeholders were semi-structured, utilizing protocols designed with the participant’s initial set of photos. Key stakeholders were asked to describe or expand upon the information and potential meaning of each photo. The goal of collecting this data was to develop a case study written to describe a Day in the Life of… and all data were condensed into a story that took place as if it occurred across a single day (Grimmet, 2016). These cases helped me to convey emerging themes and concepts coming from the data for individual participants. This information was used to describe contributions to the individual’s quality of life.

4.3.1

Institutional Review Board (IRB) and Other Hurdles to Research with People with Disability

When conducting research that concerns individuals with disabilities, the researcher (s) should consider the time and attention to detail needed to gain Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval. One important feature is to define the disability area and characteristics of the potential participants. This will help the Board conceptualize the reality of disability instead of any stereotypes members may have. As you develop the IRB application and research protocol, be explicit and outline as many details as imaginable. Protecting individuals with disability (your potential participants) will be your top priority. Make sure to include all efforts you will take to ensure protection, anonymity, and that the individual will in no way be harmed. Remember, the review board’s job is to ensure the safety and security of vulnerable populations, so you may experience a series of revisions or additional questions during this process. The researcher should consider challenges associated with interviewing key stakeholders (parents, employees, teachers, etc.). Many parents or individuals who

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are closely involved with individuals with disability are innately protective of that individual and can be intentional in painting only a positive perspective of the individual with disability and his/her work ethic so parents and stakeholder expectations could also be considered as a challenge. The expectations others have of individuals with disability may not be the same as the expectations they have of their typically developing peers, thereby painting the individual with disability in either a negative light or an overly positive light. Finally, stakeholders may perceive that the individual with disability cannot speak for him/herself and therefore, the stakeholder’s personal perspective should be considered fact. We see this throughout the literature as parents, teachers, caregivers, and service providers’ perspectives are sought instead of the individual with a disability. Thus, these perspectives become those of the caregiver/service provider rather than the perspective of the individual with a disability. Depending upon the intent of the research, this may be appropriate, but if the intent is to elicit the voices of those with individuals with disability, researchers should be intentional in eliciting those perspectives.

4.3.2

Using Photo-Elicitation in a Time of Digital Photos

It is important to remember to download photographs often and to save photos in multiple formats, along with your other data (field notes, interview transcripts, etc.). Ensuring photos are named using a naming protocol, labeled, and categorized for easy access will also help save time as you retrieve and review your data. It is recommended to have an external hard drive in addition to a secure, cloud-based storage structure to save all your data. While saving and labelling data in multiple arenas, the investigator must also ensure anonymity of participants throughout the data. As with most qualitative studies, transcription can be time consuming, but it is powerful. When transcribing conversations with individuals with disability, communication, specifically, articulation, can be an issue. Taking notes during the interview process and transcribing the recording immediately following the conversation will help the investigator remember and articulate in writing the perceptions, thoughts and feelings of the individual. Also, the investigator should note the tone of voice and facial expressions that the participant uses during an interview. These items cannot be seen with a typical audio transcript, therefore, taking explicit field notes or video recording your sessions may help provide context and details that may or may not be expressed through audio recordings. As stories change from topic to topic, be sure to note the number of the photo being reviewed at the time of the interview and the context that photos brings to the conversation. Finally, researchers may face challenges from dissertation committee members who may have low expectations for individuals with disability and do not believe you will be able to gain reliable information from an individual with disability.

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Regardless of these obstacles, the perspectives of individuals with disability should be the priority. With studies surrounding self-determination and self-advocacy being key to life-long outcomes, researchers should focus more on incorporating the individual’s perspectives into research and the literature. If we claim the importance of individuals with disability advocating for him/herself and the importance of self-determination, we must lead by example. We must allow individuals to make choices and decisions for him/herself and accept the natural benefits and consequences of those decisions. If this is our commitment, we cannot continue to support only the perspectives of others, we must be more active in seeking the perspectives of individuals with disability.

4.4

Findings

For this chapter, I will divert from the typical way of presenting the findings of my research. Instead, I will present the findings as four lessons that were revealed to me as I sought to understand the perceptions of three young adults with intellectual disability in their quality of life, including: Balancing Belonging, Quality of Life is Fluid, Personal Rights, and Judge More Wisely. This approach allows more flexibility to discuss the method as I explain how this study affected both myself as a researcher and my participants.

4.4.1

Introducing Three Participants

Faith Ann Yount, Zeke Justice, and Carter Sullender were all adults identified as individuals with an Intellectual Disability (ID) and are the pseudonyms of the three participants highlighted. Their listed places of work are also pseudonyms. For the purpose of this study, ID is defined as “a disability characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior, which covers many everyday social and practical skills… originat(ing) before the age of 18… generally (measured by) an IQ test score of around 70 or as high as 75 indicat(ing) a limitation in intellectual functioning” (American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 2013). At the time of this study, Faith Ann Yount was a 29-year-old female with Down syndrome. Faith lived in her childhood home along with her mother, father, and younger brother. Zeke Justice was a 27-year-old male with cerebral palsy and an intellectual disability. The year prior to this study, Zeke moved out of his parents’ home and into a group home for adults with disability. He had also recently left the sheltered workshop, where his group home roommates worked, to gain community employment at Stafflen Industries, an international wholesale retailer of tools and metals. Zeke’s activities are limited due to logistical restraints related to his group home involving travel. Carter Sullender is a 25-year-old male with an intellectual

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disability. He is the middle of three Sullender children and the only one living at home. He is employed by two local, community businesses, Grace Memorial Hospital and the Shiloh 16 Movie Theatre. In addition to the three primary participants, there were several secondary participants, including family members, work supervisors and work colleagues, friends, and case workers were also included in this study. Carter’s mother, Jeannette was very involved in her son’s care and frequently interacted with the people charged with Carter’s work and independence. Employment status is key to understanding the individual’s perspectives of QoL; thus, all three primary participants selected for this study were employed for a minimum of twelve (12) hours per week. Primary participants were all native English speakers and possessed sufficient receptive and expressive language skills to: (1) respond to simple requests or questions, and (2) form complex sentences or replies to questions/requests. Hagan and Thompson (2013) pointed out how an individual’s ability to listen and understand language as well as to communicate with others is key in allowing informants with ID to follow and contribute to the conversation (Folkestad, 2000).

4.4.2

Lesson 1: Balancing Belonging

The first lesson learned over the course of this study involves the notion of balancing a sense of belonging. We live in a time where inclusion of people with disability in classrooms and workplaces is an encouraged practice, yet individuals with disabilities remain excluded from many opportunities and experiences available to non-disabled people. Some are beginning to argue for a raise in the federal minimum wage, yet individuals with disabilities remain excluded based on legislation from 1938, discriminating against them presumably under the assumption that they are less productive than their typically-developing peers (Fair Labor Standards Act, US Department of Labor). As a result, sheltered workshops and some thrift shops that employ individuals with disabilities pay them less than that of the federal minimum wage. In the cases of Faith, Zeke, and Carter, all three were employed within the community and worked with colleagues who were typically developing. Although those working with Zeke and Carter respect them, Faith’s peers struggled with working alongside an individual with a disability. Faith describes herself as, I…I…I am just like e…e…everybody else. I have a disability but take it out and I…I…I am just like anybody else, put it [the disability] in and that m…m…makes me, me!

Yet, Faith’s colleagues at JC Penney did not always treat her or a second colleague, Dana, who also has Down syndrome, as equals. Even though Faith reported that these colleagues mistreated and made fun of both Faith and Dana for their perceived lack of ability, Faith believed it is because of Dana’s perceived socio-economic

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status, instead of the physical resemblance and stereotypical intellectual perceptions of individuals with Down syndrome. Faith viewed herself better, or different from Dana because of her socio-economic status and level of disability. When asked if she ever invited Dana to meet for dinner or a movie, Faith responded, No, sh…sh…she rides [public transportation]! I would never ride on [public transportation]! I don’t kn…kn…know where sh…sh…she lives. Sh…sh…she may have people who take care of her.

Not only was Faith’s perception of those who use public transportation negative, but her idea of how ‘other people’ with disability live was also negative. Additionally, Faith had trouble relating to some of her friends with disability. During Book Club, she liked to help those who could not read. During Special Olympics, Faith took on the role of a peer-coach supporting individuals at bat, in running, or assisting with catching the ball. Faith viewed herself as a helper and a protector of individuals with disability, while at the same time distancing herself from relating to them as a person with a disability. It is evident that Faith’s personal identity was not wrapped up in having Down syndrome. This struggle with identity seemed to be a culmination of parental and family expectations, the particular opportunities she had had in her life, and other community influences that recognized her as a high functioning young adult. Faith struggled with her sense of belonging. She seemed driven by a determination to prove to the world that she was just like everybody else, worthy to stand in comparison to any of her typically developing work colleagues. Her struggles with her own identity may, in some respects, have hindered her own ability to feel a sense of belonging. In not identifying with her disability, she denied the reality she encountered, making it difficult to cope. Both Zeke and Carter’s stories suggest they were needed and important within their positions; both had evidence of the respect of their employers by being asked to train new employees in the day-to-day routines of their department or positions. Zeke and Carter were both recognized for their work ethics and enjoyed relationships with their work colleagues. One of Carter’s colleagues said; I cannot tell you what Carter means to me and the rest of us. We all love working with him. He brings so much joy and love to our day. He is just a fun guy and so very happy. I don’t know how he does it, or why he even cares, but he knows the names of my children, knows their birthdays and he reminded me [when their birthdays are coming up]. If you tell him anything, he remembers it.

Zeke’s employer noted, I appreciate his hard work. I know I can always count on him. He seems to get more done in the few hours he is here than some do in a full eight-hour day!

Interestingly, Faith, Zeke, and Carter were all members of organizations and groups for individuals with disability. Faith and Zeke were both involved in Special Olympics, while Faith and Carter attended book clubs specifically for individuals

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with disabilities. These examples provide further evidence suggesting the primary social opportunities for individuals with disabilities are segregated. Seldom do we find athletic teams or activities within the community prepared to serve children or adults with disabilities. Instead, we create segregated opportunities like Special Olympics or book clubs for our children, students, and families to participate. The Beacon Hill Book Club was started by an organization of parents who all had adult children with disabilities. The book club was established to provide opportunities for adults with disabilities to make friends, socialize, and enjoy a good book. This club sponsors 3 different book clubs throughout the area. Even though this club proclaims to be inclusive of all adults, they specifically target those with disability. It is important to balance belonging. I am not advocating for total inclusion nor am I saying that there should be no segregated activities. For example, as a teacher, we have segregated awards that only teachers can win. People like to be with those with whom we share common likes, dislikes, hobbies, gifts, and talents. I believe there needs to be a balance of opportunities in which individuals with disability can belong to and find meaning and worth as members or participants. When we only provide opportunities within segregated environments (i.e. Special Olympics, Book Club), I question if those segregated groups represent individuals and opportunities within the participant’s spheres of influence. A person’s spheres of influence are an example of Bronfenbrenner and Morris’s (2006) framework which demonstrates how multiple systems (spheres) interact with one another (influence), thus playing a vital role in the development of the individual. Are these segregated environments representative of the communities and people who directly and indirectly interact and impact their everyday lives, their spheres of influence?

4.4.3

Lesson 2: Quality of Life Is Fluid

The first lesson helped me identify this second lesson of Fluidity. Regardless of specific strengths or needs, all three participants recognized they have good QoL, yet at the same time they recognized their desire to make changes, to learn and to grow, noting that QoL is fluid, ever growing and changing. Harris (2006) specifically reminded us that “…intellectual disability is not a static condition; but a dynamic condition that can change over time” (p. 3). In the case of Faith, part of her QoL was her educational attainment. She challenged the educational assumptions associated with Down syndrome or disability when she completed her Child Development Associates degree (CDA) and landed a job at a small daycare facility. The owner’s [Claudia] motto was to ed…educate…educate yourself out of a job. So the… the…the daycare p…p…paid for all of [the workers] to take all five…five classes [needed to get a Child Development Associates (CDA)]. I took all of the classes and passed the test. I…I…I have my CDA! We…we…we all worked together. It was fun.

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During the time of the study, the daycare that had given Faith so much satisfaction closed, but she was immediately shifted her focus to a new challenge, retail, and loved it. I want to get my TASC because I want to prove I can do it and I want to be a manager at JC Penney’s. I also want to find Mr. Right and have eight kids! I am still looking for him, you know!

Faith’s father, Ray continued; Driving and getting her TASC are definitely two milestones she has set for herself. She wants to achieve just like everybody else. She wants independence. She wants others to view her as someone who accomplishes great things.

Faith’s QoL was deeply attached to her achievement as a worker and a valued employee. Though she saw herself as someone who eventually wanted to start a family with or without work, she took joy in challenging the assumptions that people have about adults with disability. In the meantime, her work with the public brought her satisfaction and made it possible to have a high QoL. In the case of Zeke, I saw personal behavior change during the duration of the study and he more easily adapted to new environments to become a leader at work and within his community. [Zeke] is one of the hardest working employees I have. I know I can always count on him. I was out on the floor during his first week [here at Stafflen]. We were back in shipping and he was stacking order crates on the pallets. I walked over to show him how to use our shipping scanners. Zeke had been stacking the crates on the pallet not paying attention to where the order [and shipping] label was [located]. I explained [to him] one time that he should stack the crates with labels facing outward…and he has not deviated from that ever sense. I remember him unstacking and restacking those crates, he was so fast. Once I showed him the appropriate way of stacking the pallets, he has made sure not only that he has done it correctly, but that everybody else on the shipping floor does it correctly. I appreciate his hard work. He seems to get more done in the few hours he is here than some do in a full eight-hour day!

It was evident that Zeke continued to develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to grow along the continuum of self-determination as a part of his transition and Zeke contributed to the community around him. The photos I examined demonstrated Zeke’s successful employment in a community business and how within his position, he had mastered multiple positions. He was able to collaborate with colleagues, both with and without disabilities on the job site. The data reflect Zeke’s ability to receive guidance and follow directions from his supervising manager, and that Zeke was held to the same accountability measures as his work colleagues. Like Faith, work and meaning were intertwined in Zeke’s QoL and work was a catalyst in his ability to grow and become more independent, thereby increasing the quality and the purpose of his days. In the case of Carter, different expectations allowed for growth and fluid development over time. As a young child, Carter participated in an inclusive preschool in which he was surrounded by peers with and without disabilities. When he transitioned into elementary school, he received special education support within

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the general education classrooms he was included throughout grades kindergarten through sixth grade. It was not until his transition into the junior high school that Fred and Jeanette became concerned. Carter became withdrawn from activities both at home and at school. “It was stressful!” Jeanette recalls. Fred added; …at first, all of the teachers were very optimistic [because Carter had functioned well socially in elementary school]. It wasn’t until they started working with him [and the academic content became more difficult] that [we all] realized he wasn’t going to be able to catch up [academically to his peers]. I saw what happened to him [he shut down] when he had a lot of stress in his life [such as the homework and assignments from the general education classes he had been placed in]. He doesn’t need to have expectations that he cannot fulfill.

Agreeing, Jeanette commented: He couldn’t keep up with the writing and the math. Even though he can read, he struggled with homework. I was really stressed just trying to keep up with [Carter’s homework]. Our other two kids were being ignored and that is not good for any family. Our other two have suffered because we… [pausing as she reconsidered her pronoun] I, was focused on Carter all of the time.

When Carter transitioned into high school, and in consultation with the school administrators and staff, the Sullender’s decided to move Carter from a diploma track to a certificate of completion. Students on a diploma track complete high school by taking and passing required courses, and by meeting the required academic standards and graduation requirements. A certificate of completion is not an academic credential as there are no course or grade requirements. Instead, a Certificate of Completion signified Carter had successfully worked toward his individualized education program (IEP) goals while in high school. This program has since ended and is no longer available as an option in the state. After switching graduation tracks, Carter was placed in a self-contained special education classroom for students with moderate and severe disabilities. He continued to develop his functional academic skills and as a part of his transition plan, he was placed at a local movie theatre for a work experience. Supported by a job coach, Carter mastered the position of a theatre usher. Eight years later, Carter continued to enjoy working at the Shiloh 16 Theatre. Carter graduated from high school in June 2006, just shy of his eighteenth birthday. As legal guardians, his parents decided Carter would graduate with his peers and take advantage of a post-secondary education opportunity called Project Search. Project Search is a business led school-to-work program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Students in Project Search begin in August, with a three-week orientation followed up by three, ten-week internships, and a graduation program in June. After several months of training and on the job experiences, many of these internships lead to permanent, paid employment opportunities within the sponsoring business (Project SEARCH, 2012) Jeanette and Fred reported that Carter completed three internships within a local Children’s Hospital. His first internship was working in the cafeteria. After several other jobs in the hospital, Carter was trained to work in the Medical Surgery

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Department where he cleaned instruments and stocked towels and other supplies for each of the surgery rooms. When asked what he enjoyed most about Project Search, Carter responded, “I just like the jobs. I like working…I’m busy doing something and I get to meet people.” Carter found that work improved his QoL and his expanding independence not only while he worked at the hospital, but also in his work at a local movie theatre. One colleague, Joel, had just begun working at the theater two months before reported; …Carter trained me [on] my first day. He really knows this job and does it well. He doesn’t slack. The theatres must be put together. Carter takes his job seriously and yet likes to joke around with [us] and have a good time.

The trust and responsibility that the management at both the hospital and theatre placed on Carter demonstrated just how dynamic personal or career development can be over time. Thus, as people grow, the QoL changes. As we age, we have continuous opportunities to develop skills and try new adventures—all of which provide personal and career development and occasions for developing self-determination. Maybe our skills lead us to more money, which can change the places we live, the food we eat, the continued opportunities we may have. This fluid or dynamic nature is evident as one’s employment status, financial security, or health may waiver at any point in life, resulting in a positive or negative shift in one’s personal QoL. Life is ever changing, in a permanent state of transition, and thereby one’s QoL if fluid, modifying and adjusting according to the ups and downs, the new and the old, and other variations life throws our way.

4.4.4

Lesson 3: Personal Rights

A third lesson from this study centers around the personal rights of the three primary participants; this is seen particularly as it involves work, family, and socialization. All three participants were employed in a community setting; however, all three were unable to work full-time for a multitude of reasons. Zeke was unable to be employed full-time due to the restraints of state-funded Disability Waiver designed to support Zeke’s living, work, and medical needs. Faith and Carter’s families decided not to participate in the state-funded waiver services, therefore their employment was not necessarily restricted by state mandates. In all three cases, however, their employment was restricted by limited expectations of family, caregivers, and/or coworkers. In the case of Faith, a lack of understanding of disability and a societal belief that those with disabilities are ‘lesser than,’ equated to a supervisor and work colleagues who failed to give Faith the same respect and opportunities as others had. As a Floor Clerk, Faith’s job was to keep the Junior & Misses Department as well as the Women’s Department fitting

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rooms cleared out and to restock all articles of clothing. At first, she was responsible for one of the departments, but as fellow employees called off work or quit, Faith found herself taking on increasing responsibility. Faith described her day in a sarcastic tone, “Guess what? G…G…Guess who had all th…th…three departments…and was…was…was all by herself? Yep, that’s me! I couldn’t keep up. It was crazy! I wou…wou…would get done with one [fitting] room and then it was… was full again!” Faith complained but it was evident throughout the observations and interviews she enjoyed being needed and was very proud of what all she was able to accomplish working at JC Penney’s. In the case of Carter, his parents applied for guardianship over him prior to his eighteenth birthday. His dad reflected on their decision to apply for guardianship, …at some point, we have to be realistic…we set it up so that we would have legal guardianship. We assumed he would just stay with us until [we passed away] and that we would figure out [Carter’s] future later. I am pretty pragmatic. I don’t envision Carter going to school to get a degree. If Carter is having fun and enjoying life, that is what matters [to us]. I want him to have a fulfilling life.

Carter’s situation was even more unique as his restrictions were not from the state or society, but his family, specifically his mother, Jeanette. “I am ‘Top Usher’ now” Carter announced referring to his current position. “I take tickets and show [the customers] where to go. I clean up [spilled] popcorn [in the hallways]. I take out the garbage and set up [the theatre] after the show is over…and the people leave,” Carter said laughing. Carter explained what he enjoyed the most about working at the theatre. He responded, “I like the people. I tell them ‘enjoy the show!’ Sometimes I see people I know [from church, school, community].” After taking tickets and directing customers to the correct theatre, the ‘top usher’ and his colleague, Joel, began their sweep throughout the building. This sweep included picking up any spilled popcorn in the hallways. Each of the ushers had a broom and pan, but Carter’s favorite way of cleaning the hallways was to use the “lawnmower!” The lawnmower was a non-electric vacuum cleaner that resembled an actual lawnmower. Carter’s mother, Jeanette felt responsible for Carter’s disability and this colored all her decisions about how to provide for Carter’s long-term wellbeing. For example, she felt that Carter was unable to take part in the study without her being responsible for taking the photos on his behalf. Jeanette’s apparent sense of guilt extended beyond Carter’s disability; she reported frequent worries about whether she paid enough attention to her other two children. Jeanette remembers how stressed she became trying to “keep up with [all of Carter’s homework]. [I felt like I] ignored our other two kids.” Throughout the study, Jeanette remained preoccupied by guilt she placed upon herself for his disability and struggled with the additional responsibilities that come with having a child with a disability. From the interviews, field notes, and observational data, it became apparent that Carter’s parents typically make decisions for and about Carter without consulting him. In addition to employment, family, society, and state mandates infringe upon the personal rights of young adults with disability as many are deterred from

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making decisions about their finances, social opportunities, and living arrangements, as well as important choices regarding their future with or without family. Zeke received waiver funds and services from an adult service agency. That sometimes made the simplest things in life, like fixing his own lunch for work, a struggle. One day at lunch, Zeke unpacked a grocery bag lunch sack, prepared by the staff at the group home. Glancing over, I noticed a sandwich bag that looked as if the creation inside had exploded. Brown, white, red, and purple colors were smeared across the sides of the clear baggy. Zeke unzipped the bag and carefully removed its contents. Pulling the two slices of bread apart, we discovered what we thought was a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich was a ham, peanut butter, jelly and mayo sandwich. Zeke’s look of disgust quickly turned into frustration. Zeke was upset. They can’t even make a simple sandwich. If I try to do it myself I get in trouble for being in the kitchen! I can’t get anything out of the vending machines because I don’t have any cash. Besides that, I wouldn’t be able to show a receipt for it! I am a grown man! I need to eat!

Zeke’s inability to make himself a sandwich was imposed upon him from a variety of sources and caused frustration when he felt that he was capable of being independent but these outside forces kept him from reaching that level of self-sufficiency that would allow him to be satisfied with his QoL. In the case of Faith, her parents, Ray and Shirley, discuss the plans they have made for Faith after they both are gone. A plan that seemed to have included Faith, as she was the one who paid for this policy, but the question remained if she truly understood the purpose behind her monthly payment. Shirley explained, …we know we will not live forever…so we had Faith take out a life insurance policy on Ray and me so that when we die, she will be [financially] set.

Ray continued, Instead of relying on a waiver, knowing that she would not be allowed to keep all of her assets, we decided to do it the same way any other family helps to provide for one another in case of death, life insurance. Faith will be able to live independently when we are gone. She pays every month for both of these policies with her own money.

Shirley reiterated, Both [her siblings] Providence and Corbin know about the policies she has and will be here to support her however they can.

Faith’s parents described their greatest worry to be people taking advantage of Faith financially, sexually, and emotionally. “[People] treating her poorly, making fun of her…having her feelings hurt,” Ray confessed are his greatest fears. Shirley added a little more detail when it came to identifying her greatest fear, She trusts people. She wants to be independent. It drives her crazy that I will not let her cross the JC Penney’s parking lot by herself to grab lunch over at Wendy’s. She informs me every time, ‘Mom, if someone tries to [abduct] me I will call you on my cell phone.’ No matter how many times I tell her, someone can throw you into a car and your cell phone will be left on the ground…she doesn’t understand. She is so high functioning in many

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Personal rights and responsibilities are something we all look forward to as we transition into adulthood. Good, bad, or ugly, we accept them one by one as they come. Not only is it a ‘rite of passage’ to become responsible for making decisions, act upon those decisions, and reap the benefits and consequences of those decisions, but these opportunities are how we grow and develop QoL as adults.

4.4.5

Lesson 4: Judge More Wisely

This study reified my understanding that any person’s Quality of life (QoL) cannot be judged by outsiders. It is personal. The quality of experiences and the quantity of opportunities individuals have to develop independence and self-determination, to be socially included, and to address their physical well-being all impact QoL. QoL is a messy concoction of elements (material, physical, emotional well-being, self-determination, interpersonal relations, personal development, social inclusion, and rights) that work together to create positive life-long outcomes for individuals with disability. As researchers, we may be able to identify components or develop a framework that contributes to QoL, but we cannot assign a given value to any of the identified component(s) nor suggest what QoL should or should not represent. In the case of a Faith, decisions about one’s future can impact personal desires and dreams. The issue presented through interviews was whether or not Faith could successfully obtain a typical high school diploma. Her interpretation of her own education is an example of how we must judge more wisely. After maintaining Bs and Cs throughout her educational career, school faculty and administration began posing questions that disempowered Faith and her parents. They asked us questions like, do you really want to put her through the grind of term papers? Do you really want her to be required to take standardized tests for graduation? She is not going to go to college… So I thought to myself, why would I make her stress out…all she talks about is working in a child care facility. If that is her goal…then I need to help her accomplish that goal. I must admit, that will be one of my biggest regrets!

Faith, agreed stating: I…I…I like babies and little kids. I know how…how…how to take care of them. I want to be a teacher.

Faith successfully completed her training at the vocational school and graduated from high school with a Certificate of Completion, representing that she successfully worked toward her individualized education program (IEP) goals while enrolled in high school. This certificate is not an academic credential. When asked what her certificate of completion means to her, she stated,

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It means that I settled. [But now] I want to accomplish something. I want to show people I can do [something]!

Faith went on to complete a Child Development Associates degree (CDA) as well as complete her General Equivalence Degree (GED) to obtain a high school equivalent diploma. In the case of another participant, Carter, we see a discrepancy between expectations set in the home versus the expectations set for him within the working environment out in the community. Reflecting upon our own personal or professional expectations of individuals with disability is an example of how we, as individuals and as a society may need to judge more wisely. As an example, Tom, Carter’s supervisor at the hospital said; Once I set my expectations and modeled what I wanted Carter to do, he did it. He had been volunteering [in the cafeteria] for about a year when I had a job come available. Carter had done such great work for me that I offered [the job] to him.

There had been issues between the people who were in place to help Carter to maintain his independence. To illustrate, Tom claimed that both Mrs. Sullender and Ryan, Carter’s job coach, were ‘useless.’ They speak for him and do not help him be the independent man Carter can be. One time Jeannette (Carter’s mother) called into report Carter was sick. That is not the proper procedure as per the hospital guidelines. She called [the hospital] instead of Carter and claimed she did not know the protocol, but Carter knew [the protocol]. I insisted that Carter be the one to call in sick because that was Carter’s job! He can do lots of things if people would just step back and allow him to try!

Similarly, in the movie theatre, Carter was recognized as showing initiative, as well as being fully capable of completing a series of routine tasks over the course of his shift independently. Carter helped train all new hires, which is evidence of the responsibility he was entrusted with at work. This trust contrasted with the way Carter was perceived and treated by his parents, the Sullenders. The Sullenders did not encourage Carter to consider independent living, nor did he have family members or friends willing to provide future supports for Carter. The Sullenders took the responsibility, for and from Carter, by obtaining legal guardianship over him and putting all future decisions within their hands. Could we have judged Carter’s desires, gifts, and abilities more wisely? The discrepancy between Carter’s independence at home versus at work and out in the community is notable. Carter’s ability to successfully navigate two different work environments, multiple community settings, and groups of people demonstrated his ability to adapt across settings and expectations. Zeke struggled with anger management. But after years of grief, multiple sets of dishes and glassware, calls to police, and behavior therapy, when given opportunities, positive or negative, Zeke was able to grow and mature. In initial interviews discussing his own personal journey that led him to living in the group home, Zeke blamed his parents for forcing him into it:

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K. Grimmet I didn’t choose to live here. My parents sat down with people from the state and said, ‘Let’s get him out of here today.’ They didn’t tell me they were having this meeting. [There was my] behaviorist, community [support] person, my case manager, and a table load of [family support service] people I worked with. [My dad] said if we can pack him up and get him out of [the house] this evening…and I am like…I didn’t know anything.

After four months together and more than a year and a half living in the group home, Zeke’s attitude toward his parents drastically changed. He often praised his parents and appreciated their support. I want them to know I will step up and do whatever they need done. My parents asked me why I was doing so much and I just said, this is me supporting you guys [for all you do for me]. I want them to see that I [have changed]. I am closer with them. The only down side is that I don’t always get to be with them all of the time. They go to the house in Ohio and I am stuck at [the group] home. They come get me but not every single weekend. They usually give me a choice of one weekend or the other. It is just weird being here and not with my family. Basically, I did everything for everybody else but whenever I came home I didn’t do anything [for my parents].

Through these interviews and interactions, I found that sometimes we may need to judge more wisely when to hang on and when to let go of our loved ones with a disability. Our perceived protection over their lives could be the one thing that hinders them the most. In the case of Zeke, would our judgement of Zeke’s dreams and abilities prior to his transition to the group home have been wise? Judgement may sound like a harsh word, but it is what we do on a daily basis. We make decisions based on our perceptions. The trouble with judgement, especially when it comes to judging individuals with disability, is that disability is dynamic; not static. It is ever-changing because people are ever-changing and growing as we learn new skills, have new experiences, and influences within our lives. As a researcher with her own biases, I did not judge as wisely as I could have at the beginning of my study. I assumed the outcome would point to Zeke having a lower QoL than Faith or Carter because he lived in a group home environment, which is not my preferred placement. I believe adults with disability should be able to live as independently as possible within the community and be supported as appropriate. Although living with parents may not be an ideal situation, I assumed Faith and Carter would have a better QoL than Zeke because of the familiar, safe living environment, open access to transportation, (via family members) as well as other resources and daily needs like money, food, personal items. What I learned was the opposite. Zeke’s living environment may not have been ideal but that environment challenged him to develop self-determination, personal skills, and social inclusion. He experienced natural positive and negative consequences for the decisions and personal choices he made daily. I incorrectly assumed that Faith and Carter would not have a care in the world living at home with family with the ability to access all that their hearts desired, yet their situations hindered their personal growth and QoL by keeping them contained and static. Their personal rights, opportunities to make decisions, and ability to develop self-determination, all components of QoL, seemed to be squashed by the control and oversight of family members. Whereas the opportunities Zeke had to experience, even what we

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may have judged negative or hurtful, was an experience that changed his life and allowed him to grow and make decisions about his behavior in ways that may not have happened has he remained with his family. The construct of QoL is similar to the photographs used in this study. Like those photographs, outward behaviors or components of QoL are only informational; these components themselves do not hold meaning. Meaning or identifying QoL as satisfactory can only come from the individual.

4.5

How Photo Elicitation Empowered My Participants (and Changed Me)

This particular study may be finished, but the impact of this research on me, both personally and professionally, over the last few years leaves me driven by new thoughts, questions, and challenges resulting in prime opportunities for continued research. Personally, this study challenged me as a teacher and advocate of individuals with disability to think and understand their lives and to consider what they may encounter or need for support. I find it easy to speak to parents, community members, pre-service and in-service teachers about the need for all of us to raise our expectations of children with disabilities, but I learned quickly that even I tend to put limitations on these students. One memorable example of this occurred during an observation. Faith invited me to attend church with her. I had never experienced a Catholic service and found myself alone as Faith’s family was running late. I quickly discovered that my previous experience and background knowledge growing up in a Southern Baptist church was not helpful in this new environment. As the chanting and singing began, I assumed I could reach for the ‘hymnal’ in the pew back in front of me. Opening the book, I quickly discovered this hymnal was different from what I was accustomed to. Thankfully, Faith arrived with documents in hand that assisted me to, at least partially, participate in and understand the service. She knew the structure, the readings, the songs, and would reach over every so often and point to the place in various booklets where I needed to read or sing. During communion, she was adamant I cross my arms and receive a blessing from the priest. Looking around the very large sanctuary, I observed nobody else crossing their arms and questioned Faith many times before she grabbed my arm and swept me out from the pew and down the aisle toward the priest. I was scared, embarrassed, and frustrated as I walked down the aisle. I did not want to look like a fool, draw attention to myself, or get in trouble—not doing the right or expecting thing. I had to trust and rely on Faith, someone with an intellectual disability. Did she know what she was doing? Reflecting upon that experience, I realize that I was the one with a disability. I had no adaptive behavior skills, no prior knowledge or experience, no tools to use in this new environment. I had to trust a young lady with a disability to get me through that experience…and I confess, in that moment, I did not expect her to

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successfully lead me through that situation. I comforted myself with the thought that I would never see these people again, and vowed to accept any social consequence that would come my way. This situation revealed my own weakness, but it also revealed to me why seeking the perspectives of those with disabilities is so important. An investigator can never fully know the complete impact a study will have on his/her participants. However, there are a few new behaviors exhibited by each of the participants over the course of this study. All three participants were excited to have someone who was interested in them. They seemed to feel valued and important. Zeke moved out of the group home and into a supported living environment. During the study, Zeke used the free Wi-Fi from Starbucks and the iPhone provided for the study to create a Facebook account. Both Faith and Zeke remain active on Facebook documenting their days and special activities. Carter’s routine remains unchanged in the last two years—same work hours— same social activities. But, as his father’s retirement draws near, it is evident from recent conversations with Carter that he is saving up money to take a trip to Florida with his mother. However, Carter has not expressed any desire to permanently move there after his father retires. From my observations, Carter seemed content and was always excited to see me when I stop by for lunch. This study also challenged me professionally to rethink how we prepare teachers to meet a continuum of services in our school communities. All three participants graduated high school with a Certificate of Completion. However, after graduation, Faith returned to school to complete her General Equivalence Degree (GED). If a young lady with Down syndrome was able to return to school and obtain her GED, one must ask, were her previous placements the best placement for her? How do we prepare teachers to think beyond a one-size-fits-all approach and dream of a continuum of services? How do we prepare teachers to think about transition across the lifespan and not just as a one-time, isolated event? How would these three lives have been different had they been given a typical diploma instead of a certificate of completion?

4.6

Final Thoughts

Overall, it is policy that governs education, and in very large measure, it is policy that shapes the thought processes and perspectives of those within society. Historically, we have witnessed small but meaningful shifts in our culture around how we include individuals with disabilities and the degree of respect we afford them. As evident from the experiences of the three individuals profiled in these case studies, it is clear more can be done to support and expand the educational opportunities of individuals with disability. Further, what we do must go beyond the current age-range of birth to age 22. Additionally, we can do more to support parents, siblings, and caregivers.

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Public and private businesses, hospitals, recreational environments, and other community resources and agencies, along with disability service providers all have a role in ensuring quality of care in the services and interactions they have with individuals with disabilities. Additional disability education beyond the age of 22 years could further expand opportunities for employment, recreation, independent living, and social experiences. Ultimately, we need new policies that further raise the bar on society’s overall expectations of individuals with disabilities; policies that will impact families, educational entities from preschool to post-secondary, transition, adult services, business, and whole communities. The themes of family coping and great expectations speak to one’s QoL. A family member’s ability to cope personally and socially with having an adult-child with a disability can directly impact the personal development, emotional well-being, interpersonal relationships, social inclusion, and self-determination of the adult-child with a disability, all of which are dependent upon opportunities that may or may not be hindered or advanced by the family member’s ability to cope. Additionally, expectations family members have for the adult-child, directly impact the development of those constructs (self-determination, interpersonal relationships, personal development, personal rights, emotional, physical, and material well-being). The data and themes found within each of the case studies tell stories, all of which were retold and confirmed by others within his/her spheres of influence. Demonstrating that we can trust individuals with disability to, in fact, speak for themselves, provide insight and context for their lives, and share what they think, feel, and do. Using photo-elicitation allowed for adults with intellectual disabilities to process interview questions to share their stories, memories, thoughts, emotions and overall perceptions of their lives. Each photo acted as a concrete symbol of an abstract thought, concept, or memory, thus allowing each participant to articulate a free-flowing thoughts, ideas, and answers to the research questions.

References Agran, M., & Krupp, M. (2011). Providing choice making in employment programs: The beginning or end of self-determination? Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 565–575. Bronfenbrenner, U., & Morris, P. A. (2006). The bioecological model of human development. Handbook of Child Psychology. Collier, J., & Collier, M. (1986). Visual anthropology: Photography as a research method. Albuguergue, NM: University of New Mexico Press. Flynn, M. (1989). Independent living for adults with mental handicap. London: Cassell. Folkestad, H. (2000). Getting the picture: Photo-assisted conversations as interviews. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 2(2), 3–21. Grimmet, K. (2016). Examining the quality of life of young adults with intellectual disability: Using photo elicitation to empower an unknown voice (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Full Text. (10195731).

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Hagan, L., & Thompson, H. (2013). It’s good to talk: Developing the communication skills of an adult with an intellectual disability through augmentative and alternative communication. British Journal of Learning Disabilities. doi:10.1111/bld.12041. Harper, D. (2002). Talking about pictures: A case for photo elicitation. Visual Studies, 17(1), 13–26. Harris, J. (2006). Intellectual disability: Understanding its development, causes, classification, evaluation, and treatment. New York: Oxford University Press. Kuh, D. (1990). Opportunities for living, employment and social activity. Children and Society, 4 (1), 51–56. Miller, S. (2012). A qualitative study of the perspective of individuals with disabilities about their health care experiences: Implications for culturally appropriate health care. Journal of the National Medical Association, 104(7–8), 360–365. Petry, K., Maes, B., & Vlaskamp, C. (2005). Domains of quality of life of people with profound multiple disabilities: The perspective of parents and direct support staff. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 18, 35–46. Project SEARCH. (2012). Our Program: High School Transition. Retreived from http://www. projectsearch.us/OurPROGRAM/HighSchoolTransition.aspx. Wehmeyer, M. L. (2014). Self-determination: A family affair. Family Relations, 63(1), 178–184. Wickham, P. (2014). Idiocy and early modern law: Intellectual disability in early modern times. In M. L. Wehmeyer (Ed.) (2013), The story of intellectual disability. Baltimore: Bookes Publishing.

Author Biography Kharon Grimmet Clinical Assistant Professor of Special Education at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. As Coordinator of Purdue’s Online Masters of Education and Licensure Program in Special Education, Kharon works diligently to ensure Purdue is developing effective special educators who are ready to enter the field and make a difference.

Chapter 5

Photovoice as a Tool for Understanding Sustainability in the Anthropocene Deborah J. Tippins, Sophia (Sun Kyung) Jeong, Purita P. Bilbao and Lourdes N. Morano

Abstract This chapter considers how a learning community comprised of prospective and practicing teachers, together with university faculty, engaged with issues of sustainability in a rural community of the Philippines. Photovoice methods enabled the learning community to explore complex tensions mediating their understanding of sustainability in the Anthropocene. In a move towards Ecojustice, this chapter illustrates how members of the learning community reflected on narratives which challenged them to think about deeply embedded cultural assumptions central to their understanding of what it means to know, act, and think sustainably.

5.1

Research Problem

The Philippines is a country comprised of more than 7100 islands north of the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It stretches from mountains to the sea and is among the most diverse areas in the world. Its fragile ecosystems such as mangroves and coral reefs comprise unique “biodiversity hotspots” important on a global scale. It is one of the 17 megadiverse countries in the world; these countries occupy only 10% of Earth’s surface but their habitats are home to more than 70% of the world’s biodiversity. The more than 170 distinct languages and dialects spoken in the Philippines carry with them indigenous names, practices, oral traditions and taxonomies that are essential to biodiversity conservation. The biotic richness of the Philippines, together with languages and intergenerational cultural and ecological knowledge, are critical to sustaining life on Earth, as we know it. In recent years, the country has grappled increasingly with “cultural and biodiversity losses at rapid rates as a consequence of urbanization, globalized commercialization, changing patterns of weather and climate, increased migration, and war” (Bilbao, Tippins, & D.J. Tippins (&)
S.S.K. Jeong University of Georgia, Athens, USA e-mail: [email protected] P.P. Bilbao
L. Morano West Visayas State University, Iloilo, Philippines © Springer International Publishing AG 2018 M.L. Boucher, Jr. (ed.), Participant Empowerment Through Photo-elicitation in Ethnographic Education Research, http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64413-4_5

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Jeong, in press). The importance of protecting vulnerable first languages, cultural knowledge, and ecological knowledge is recognized through initiatives at policy levels and within the education system. The recent shift from multilingual instruction to Mother-Tongue Multilingual Education for the teaching and learning of science and mathematics in the primary grades is just one example of efforts to protect the cultural and linguistic diversity of local communities. Sustainability, an integral educational philosophy practiced at all levels, has risen to the forefront of educational reform in the Philippines as a response to increased concern over ways migration and urbanization impact linguistic, ecological, and cultural biodiversity (Moseley, 2011; Thomson & Tippins, 2013).

5.1.1

Sustainability and the Coming of the Anthropocene

The Anthropocene has been popularly conceptualized as a new geological epoch characterized by human impact on the Earth’s natural processes, including climate. It is described as “a new phase in the history of both humankind and of the Earth, where natural forces and human forces become intertwined so that the fate of one determines the fate of the other” (Zalasiewicz, Williams, Steffen, & Crutzen, 2010, p. 231). While there is some debate regarding the actual dates when humans began to leave a visible impact on the Earth, there is a growing recognition of the need to move beyond traditional nature/culture binaries in ways that shed light on the interconnections between multi-species and their environments. In the wake of recent super-typhoons, the Philippines has been faced with broken dams, flooded communities, environmental destruction and the relocation of climate refugees. Considering these challenges, educators, schools and communities are being called on to respond to the challenge of the Anthropocene through education for sustainability. The concept of sustainability is complex with various meanings attached to it. A common definition of sustainability is often drawn from the United Nations Brundtland description of “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their economic needs (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). Spring (2009) articulated a different vision for sustainability, one that emphasizes efforts to better understand the relationships between self, society and all aspects of the living world. While there are nuances surrounding the meaning of sustainability, in the context of the Philippines, it is often discussed in relation to three main areas. These are: (1) community and economic development, (2) redistribution of wealth, and (3) advocacy and empowerment of people in their local communities. Because particular people and places are constituent of many commonalities and differences, sustainability perspectives, which acknowledge cultural and ecological pluralism, are more likely to be successful in the diverse geographies of the Philippines. With the recognition that the concept of sustainability has become part of mainstream discourse in higher education as well as the public at large, our study grew out of an interest in expanding our notions of what sustainability might look like in a rural community

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(barangay) of Iloilo province on the island of Panay in the Philippines. The community that agreed to participate in our study will be referred to at Lotac, a pseudonym. Photoessay, a form of image-based research, was selected as a narrative tool of inquiry to explore tensions mediating sustainability in a rural agricultural and fishing community.

5.1.2

Using Photo as a Research Tool: Locating Ourselves Methodologically and Theoretically

The designation of the Anthropocene as a geological period of unprecedented impact on climate and the environment has brought with it a wave of interdisciplinary scholarship reflecting shifts in how scholars methodologically and theoretically engage with ontological, material and epistemological aspects of life. In our own work, we are drawn to critical questions and insights about sustainability generated through posthumanist and new materialist perspectives and methods— perspectives which seek to de-center humans and acknowledge the multi-species nature of our existence (Haraway, 2008). At the same time, photography appealed to us as a way to “touch on the limitations of language, especially language for descriptive purposes” (Walker, 1993, p. 727). Our use of photography as a tool is similar to how Wertsch (1998) described its mediational rather than intrusive function. After considering various methodological and conceptual tools that might fit with our interest in learning about sustainability as practiced in Lotac, our learning community selected photoessay as a primary tool for data collection and analysis. Historical documents, field notes, artifacts and our group reflections served as secondary sources of data. Our use of photoessay involved the processes of photo-elicitation, photo-feedback, and photo-interviewing. The process of photo-elicitation involved an orientation to the use and operation of automatic cameras followed by participants’ collection of photographic images in the community. Working in teams of three, we collected many photos over the course of several weeks as we explored tensions mediating sustainability in Lotac. In many cases, we engaged in conversations with community members about the photos we found interesting and relevant. As Prosser and Schwartz (1988) explained, photo-elicitation is based on the “assumption that the chosen images mark some significance for the participants” (p. 124). Because Lotac depended on a generator for electricity, power was available only three hours each day. Without access to computers, we decided to use cameras with film in lieu of digital cameras. After the film was developed in the city, each team selected photos to include in their photoessay and collaboratively engaged in a process of photo-feedback by developing written narratives to accompany each photo. Photo-feedback can reduce the feelings of vulnerability and anxiousness that might be caused by talking directly to individuals in positions of power (i.e., university instructors, community leaders), particularly when sensitive

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issues emerge in the process. However, the depth and breadth of participants’ responses may be limited if photo-feedback is used exclusively instead of photo-interview (Dempsey & Tucker, 1991). For this reason, each team engaged in the photo-interview process by discussing their photos in ways that enabled other members of the learning community to learn more about their perceptions and sense-making. A semi-structured interview protocol with open-ended questions guided each team as they shared their photos with the group during the photo-interview process. Our preliminary group discussion of the data and our interpretations were followed by team coding, analysis, and elicitation of patterns. Each team brought their analysis to the group, where, through a process of debate and critique, we collectively identified tensions and themes relevant to our interest in sustainability. The photoessay is one representation of photovoice, which Wang (1999) initially developed as a participatory action research method, enabling women to employ cameras to identify and represent their health. Wang, Yi, Tao, and Carovano (1998) explained how photovoice can be used by participants to document participant’s everyday lives, record and reflect on their thoughts about community strengths and concerns, promote dialogue, encourage action, and inform policy. In this sense, our use of photovoice provided a look at the social voice of the Lotac community members and their cultural preferences. It provided a voice to individuals, in some cases multi-species, that otherwise might not be heard and lead us to reflect on deeply embedded cultural assumptions about sustainability. Our research was framed theoretically by assumptions of EcoJustice philosophy (Bowers, 2002; Mueller & Tippins, 2011), which calls for the equitable sharing of resources. It extends social justice theories to argue that the unequal distribution of power that ranks humans over non-human species and physical aspects of the environment, or even some humans over other humans (in terms of race, class, gender, etc..) is unjust and passed on through cultural norms such as language. Bowers (2002) emphasized that knowledge and language carry forward particular memories and root metaphors, which reinforce particular beliefs, cultural knowledge and traditions, which shape our actions and values. EcoJustice emphasizes local community and intergenerational knowledge, empowering the voices of disenfranchised people or places and a focus on the relationship between society and ecological awareness and sustainability. We used photoessay, in our movement towards EcoJustice to uncover and analyze these deeply rooted assumptions, with the ultimate goal of revitalizing the cultural and environmental commons of Lotac and other communities like it.

5.1.3

Why Photo-Elicitation Was Used for This Study and Some Caveats Regarding Its Use

From the beginning, the acceptance and use of photographs in the science education research community has been a slow and gradual process, perhaps as Schratz and Walker (1995) noted because “researchers have trusted words (especially their own)

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as much as they have mistrusted pictures” (p. 72). During the photo-interview process, our learning community came to realize that the pictures we did not take (but wish we would have taken) were equally as important to us as the actual images we had assembled. As part of the research process, we discussed the affordances and constraints of photoessay as a tool for inquiry. We were deeply aware of the need to consider the ethical, practical and theoretical implications that come with the very act of picking up a camera and generating photos. For this reason, it is important to define the purposes of using photovoice methods in research. The process of photovoice, by its very nature, lends itself to critique of particular situations or individuals in community settings such as Lotac. As a consequence of such critique we realized that members of our learning community could potentially be placed in positions of vulnerability. In an ethical sense, the camera is a symbol of power, which, as Sontag (1977) pointed out, has the potential to both expose and protect. To ensure that all members of our learning community felt comfortable and safe as they engaged in the photovoice process, we used the photo-erase strategy recommended by Sampson (2001). This strategy emphasizes the importance of discarding any photos that might place individuals in awkward or compromising positions within the community. In addition to the ethical issues surrounding the use of photography, theoretical and practical issues may surface during the research process. For the most part, we did not encounter any technical difficulties, as the members of our learning community were familiar with automatic film cameras that did not require any specific adjustments for film speed, exposure, focus or similar variables. The Regional Science Teaching Center (RSTC) provided us with a sufficient number of cameras on loan for use during our community immersion stay in Lotac. We can imagine that digital camera technologies may lend themselves to a completely different set of issues and unanticipated consequences. More importantly, our learning community wrestled with several unexpected theoretical issues during the photovoice process. Our daily conversations and interactions with community members left little room for us to stand back as external observers engaged in rational thought. By contrast, we found that at times we could hide behind the camera in a manner that reinforced the illusion of independent observations and judgments, free of any cultural influences. We also concur with Sontag (1977) who warned of the inherent problem of the photographer’s attempt to “show what’s out there.” In this regard, the narratives produced through photo-feedback were an important part of the process, situating our photographic images in particular contexts. As a learning community, we struggled to understand how our individual beliefs framed the way we made decisions about the photos we generated and the interpretations we brought to them. At times our understanding of sustainability in Lotac was alternately viewed as essential to democracy, a threat to indigenous ways of knowing or as essential to competing in a marketplace economy. In spite of these caveats, our experience with photovoice was dynamic and inspiring and provided us with opportunities to interact with community members and each other in ways that might otherwise not have been possible.

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Method Context of the Study

Lotac is a rural community nestled between ocean and mountains. The majority of the people in this community earn their living through rice farming or raising fish in ponds, which are located in the bordering mangrove ecosystem. Pseudonyms are used throughout to describe Lotac and the participants in our action research learning community. Our learning community was comprised of three university teacher educators, three elementary teachers at Lotac Elementary school and eight prospective teachers participating in a “community immersion” course as part of their undergraduate science teacher preparation. Community immersion is a course with an intensive field component, which provides prospective teachers, together with their university instructors, an opportunity to live in a rural community and immerse themselves in the lifeworlds of its people. An important goal of the community immersion model of teacher preparation is the formation of learning communities which enable prospective teachers and community members to engage in action research, service learning, co-teaching and trust-building activities which inform and enrich both students and the community (Handa et al., 2008). Prior to our community immersion stay, we first traveled by jeep, passing bridges damaged by typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) to barangay (term for a ward or district) Lotac where we met with teachers at the elementary school and other community officials. We conducted a rapid rural appraisal in which community leaders shared with us information concerning the barangay population (1778 people), total hectares of arable land (196 ha), number of fish ponds (19), religious organizations (Catholic church), livestock (80% carabao, 10% goat, 10% poultry) and much more. We discussed the goals of the community immersion experience and the action research focus on sustainability in the community with the teachers and other community members. We were wondering where we would stay during our immersion, suspecting we would be housed at the local Catholic church or elementary school. Before we left, community officials informed us that we would be staying in a nipa house1 that was vacant while the owner was working overseas. Bernadette, Joyce, and Maricel were the teacher participants in our learning community. All three were born and raised in Lotac. They were sent by their families to the city to obtain a higher education degree. Bernadette and Joyce married and returned to Lotac to teach at the elementary school where their children were also studying. Maricel, who was single, worked in Manila for several years before returning to Lotac. All three expressed concerns related to the sustainability of the cultural and ecological commons of their community. The prospective teachers were elementary science and health majors in their junior year at a 1

The Nipa [house], Kamalig, or Bahay Kubo, is a type of stilt house indigenous to the vast majority of lowland Austronesian cultures of the Philippines. It often serves as an icon of Philippine culture or more specifically, Filipino rural culture (wikipedia.org/wiki/Nipa_hut).

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university located approximately 80 km from Lotac. Five of the prospective teachers (Jeprey, Cheryl, Tomas, Martha, Caroline) described themselves as “city people” who had lived in large cities their whole life, rarely experiencing rural community life. The three other prospective teachers (Leah, Estrella, Febbie) had grown up in rural communities of Iloilo province somewhat similar to Lotac, although they did not speak the local dialect. The teacher educator members of the learning community (Purita, Lourdes, Deborah) were all university science educators. Two of the three teacher educators had been raised in rural communities of the province and were committed to enriching the educational opportunities for rural students and their teachers. The third teacher educator, a faculty member at a university in the southeast United States, had lived in the Philippines for a significant amount of time as a Fulbright Scholar and Rotary Fellow. Our study was conducted as an action ethnography (Erickson, 2006) using narrative and photoessay methods. A hybrid form of inquiry, action ethnography enabled the prospective teachers, classroom teachers and teacher educators to learn side by side as they elicited photos and narratives that could be used to understand underlying assumptions about sustainability in Lotac. As a learning community, we were inspired by ideas of trust, autonomy and social responsibility. We hoped to learn alongside community members and plan, implement and enact change. To this end we engaged in trust-building activities as a research team, sharing meals together, and participating in research retreats, so that we had the opportunity to get to know each other. We were cognizant of the need to carry out our action research in a culturally sensitive manner that would enrich all participants and avoid exploitation. This entailed being thoughtful as not to impose Western theoretical frameworks on research and seeking out relevant literature from Filipino authors. The focus of our inquiry was to understand the tensions surrounding sustainability as it was experienced and practiced in the Lotac community. It is important to recognize that the Philippines is a trilingual country where the national language is Tagalog (Filipino). Science and mathematics are traditionally taught in English, while other subjects such as social studies are taught in Tagalog. Furthermore, everyday language used at home is a local language. To explore these tensions, interviews were often conducted in the local language of the Lotac community in order to ensure that vernacular expressions could be captured. Also, conversing in their local language put the participants at ease, as English was not their first language. We followed the Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocols to obtain informed consent to use the photos. In the spirit of action research, teacher educators and prospective teachers worked collaboratively to make sense of the data. To analyze the data, we worked in teams of three, and each team engaged in the photo-interview process. The photo-interview process entailed having a dialogue about the photos, which enabled other members of the learning community to learn more about participants’ perceptions and sense-making. Furthermore, a semi-structured interview, with open-ended questions, was used to guide each team, as they shared their photos with the whole group during the photo-interview process. Our preliminary group discussion of the data and interpretations were analyzed through a process of independent and collective coding, analysis, and

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elicitation of patterns. Each team brought their analysis to the group where we collectively debated, critiqued, and identified tensions and themes relevant to our interest with respect to sustainability.

5.3 5.3.1

Findings Common Worlds and Emerging Tensions

At the heart of sustainability is the question of how all species, as well as non-living forces, can live in balance through encounters which are generative and transforming in nature. Taylor and Giugni (2012) describe this shift away from a sole focus on human-human encounters as a “notion of common worlds which encourage us to move towards an active understanding of and curiosity about the unfolding and entangled worlds we share with a host of human and more-than-human others” (p. 111). Our findings are depicted as emerging themes and photo-feedback with a discussion of the tensions and common worlds they represent. Theme 1: Vulnerability of the Cultural and Ecological Commons from Forces Within and Outside the Community The photovoice process revealed complex and challenging tensions in relation to sustainability facing the people of Lotac. These tensions reflect the ways community members’ lives are intertwined with natural systems and all living and non-living aspects of the environment daily. The place-based narratives emerging from the photo-feedback stories of mangroves, water, and climate change suggest that understanding the peoples’ relationships with the natural world is central to sustainability. For the most part, the tensions depicted in the photo-feedback reflected human concerns, although there was a clear awareness that the health and well-being of all species (including the familiar carabao) are affected by the quality and availability of water coupled with changes in climate. Mangroves in Trouble (Photo-feedback A p. 101) highlighted the tensions that exist surrounding the loss of biodiversity in an ecosystem, which is out of balance. At the heart of this narrative is the question of how the people of Lotac create and maintain a respectful and balanced relationship with the mangrove ecosystem and its aquatic life. As our learning community reflected on the photos of fishponds and mangroves, we were reminded how sustainability is deeply rooted in relationships. As Reis, Ng-A-Fook, and Glithero (2015) noted, “our connections with other-than-human systems and also one another are essentially the same: one does not exist without the other” (p. 39). Place-based narratives also emerged in the photo-feedback stories embedded in the long history of peoples’ relationships with water in the Lotac community. Linked to a community perception that climate change is “real,” these are stories where the past and present now meet in ways that call for new thinking about humans’ relationship with water.

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Photo-feedback A: Mangroves in Trouble. Bernadette, Jeprey, Martha, Deborah. Mangroves are vital to the ecological and economic well-being of this community. They are important habitats for a large variety of aquatic animals and plants. For many years, the people of this community earned their livelihood from the mangroves, harvesting fish and shellfish that were important parts of their diet. When the floods from the typhoons came, the mangroves helped to prevent erosion and clean the water, sometimes. Sadly, many people in their quest to make more money have cleared the mangrove forests to make room for aquaculture such as shrimp and fishponds or salt beds. Some parents even cut the mangrove trees to have lumber or charcoal for fuel. You can see in these photos where farmers have cleared the mangroves to create fishponds and install cages and pens above the seagrass beds. At an early age, we teach our children about the natural benefits of the mangroves so that they will become good stewards of the Earth. But at home some children hear a different message from their parents who work at these fishponds. Photo A

Photo-feedback B: Water is the source of life. Cheryl, Febbie, Lourdes, Tomas, Joyce. Water is known as the universal solvent. Why is this so? It is because every living and non-living thing needs water in every aspect. During dry spells when there is little precipitation, water shortages may reduce the moisture in the soil, diminish the supply of groundwater, and reduce stream flow. These factors may result in crop losses and a shortage of water for consumption by humans and other animals. In the city, we take water for granted. It is delivered to our homes, or in some cases, we simply turn on the spigot and water flows out. But here in Lotac, people depend on two wells for the water they use to cook, drink, bathe and farm. The nearest well is located about two kilometers from the school. As you can see in this picture, at lunchtime teachers or students walk to the well to get water for the school. It is a long walk back carrying two buckets of water over their shoulders— they are careful not to spill any! Back at the school, the well water is stored in a “banga” which is a type of jar that keeps it cold. The white cloth is used as a strainer.

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Photo B

Photo-feedback C: Our salty water. Cheryl, Febbie, Lourdes, Tomas, Joyce. Some community folks say that the water in this place is unsafe to drink. The old wells date back to the time of the Spanish colonization and were built by the Spaniards. They have not been maintained or repaired since that time. Some people came and tested the water many years ago. At that time, there were a lot of cracks and leaks and it was determined that the water was unsafe to drink. The barangay officials would like to have the well water tested again, but this is very expensive. Community people in this place are also concerned that water shortages are reducing the supply of groundwater. They notice that the well water now has a salty taste to it. They are worried that saltwater may be intruding into the supply of well water. Photo C

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Photo-feedback D: Typhoons and droughts—Climate change is real. Caroline, Maricel, Estrella, Purita, Leah. In our country, there are noticeably only two seasons—the alternating rainy and dry seasons. Changes in the Earth’s atmosphere and weather are causing serious imbalances to the hydrologic cycle. In Lotac, people observe that the rainy season is harsher, with frequent and stronger typhoons. The traditional dry spells are now becoming droughts, lasting for much longer times than ever before. Even the wildlife and animals are suffering. The carabao in this picture needs water to survive, but not only for drinking. Unlike humans, the carabao has no evaporation pores and must wallow in the rivers or ponds to cool off on hot days. The people of this community believe that climate change is real and that human impact is accelerating the rate of climate change. They have heard stories from overseas workers who have returned to Lotac during vacation times of people fishing on the streets of Vietnam during floods. Photo D

Theme 2: Tensions Between Ethical Responsibility to Renew and Revitalize the Commons to Protect Cultural and Ecological Diversity and Economic Livelihoods Lotac community members have bonds with nature that are simultaneously economic and cultural as illustrated in the photo-feedback narratives of soil, labor practices, technological development and diversity. These narratives draw our attention to deep cultural assumptions and taken-for-granted patterns of thinking carried forward by root metaphors of individualism, progress and diversity. The people of Lotac are susceptible to rapid enclosures, which have the potential to

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accelerate declines in cultural and ecological diversity. From new technologies for rice farming to new patterns of communication (i.e., cell phones) the narratives challenged our learning community to consider whether technological changes are inherently progressive. We wondered how new ideas and technologies will ultimately impact both ecology and human diversity in this community. As we reflected on the photo-feedback narrative of unfair labor practices, we questioned whether free market economic practices could be equated with progress. Lotac is a community which is steeped in traditional Catholic values and beliefs. As the population of Lotac increases and people move in, bringing with them different religious beliefs (including Islam and non-Christian beliefs), will the community respond in ways which are inclusive of this diversity? At the same time, in our conversations with community members, including teacher members of our learning community, there was evidence to suggest that there are deeply rooted assumptions which define success in terms of opportunities and jobs which encourage people to leave the community. To what extent are these assumptions about diversity and success sustainable or unsustainable? We were reminded of Ehrlic and Holdren (1971)’s IPAT equation (I = P  A  T) in which environmental impact multiplies as world population increases, people become more affluent consumers and there is an escalation of technology. What seems to be missing from this equation is a feedback loop, which considers how the people of Lotac will respond to the tensions of individualism, progress and diversity to conserve and revitalize the cultural and environmental commons in ways which ensure a sustainable way of life for future generations. Photo-feedback E: The soil at the heart of rice farming. Cheryl, Febbie, Lourdes, Tomas, Joyce. Rice has always been a staple of the Filipino diet. Only recently has the Philippines had to import rice to have sufficient quantities to feed its population. As we were taking this photo of a rice farm, we had the opportunity to speak with Manong Desvarro, a rice farmer in the community and owner of this farm. According to Manong, productive soil is essential to a good crop yield because good soil provides the nutrients needed for plant growth. We asked Manong how he could tell if the soil was good quality. We found that he was very knowledgeable about soil. He told us that good soil must have a particle size which is porous enough to hold water and let it flow through it. He explained how the soil must be deep enough for the roots to take hold and grow. When Manong began to talk to us about the pH of the soil, we wondered if he was more than a simple farmer. He later shared with us that he holds a degree in agronomy. In this photo, we see a productive rice farm. But this is not the case with many of the rice farms we observed

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in Lotac. Manong explained that many farmers’ poor soil management was ignored as long as the crop yields continued to rise. The problem with this, as Manong explained, is that sustainable rice production is not possible because while crop yields seem to be increasing, they are increasing at a decreasing rate. Photo E

Photo-feedback F: Unfair labor practices. Bernadette, Jeprey, Martha, Deborah. These ladies, residents of Lotac, were busy weaving bracelet-like objects. After obtaining permission to take their picture, we asked about the bracelets. The ladies explained that the bracelets would be exported to Taiwan when they were finished working on them. They explained how the bracelets would be sold in Taiwan by the kilogram rather than by the piece which seemed unfair to them. The ladies explained that they did not mind as they needed to persevere just to earn money. We wondered what we would do if we were in their shoes to deal with this injustice. Later, as we reflected on this photo, we realized that we needed to take care not to interpret the photos we were taking, and the conversations surrounding them, from a position of privilege.

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Photo F

Photo-feedback G: Science and technology are inherently progressive. Caroline, Estrella, Maricel, Purita, Leah. We found this photo to be full of irony. Lotac relies on a generator which supplies electricity to the community only for three hours each day. Consequently, many people still use the kinky, a traditional type of kerosene lantern, to light their homes. Children do their school homework by the light of the kinky, similar to the one captured in this photo. Members of our learning community would gather around the kinky in the evening to discuss what we had learned that day and make plans for the next day. Lotac does have cell phone service and this photo captures some of the tensions that surround the idea of modern technological “progress.” Reflecting on this photo, we wondered to what extent modern technologies such as the computer and cell phone reflect autonomous ways of thinking and communicating that might run counter to the type of interdependent relationships that foster sustainable ways of living.

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Photo G

Photo-feedback H: redefining success: the challenge of religious diversity. Cheryl, Febbie, Lourdes, Tomas, Joyce. We took this picture because it is symbolic of the Catholic church, the only religious institution in Lotac. The church is located at the center of Lotac and the majority of community events revolve around the church or the school. However, we observed signs that this is changing as people are moving into the community where they can find jobs with the fish ponds and related industries. Another church of a different denomination was under construction and signs were posted announcing different religious events. In terms of sustainability, diversity is highly desirable—but we can’t help but wonder how Lotac will respond to this increasing diversity. Like the previous photo, we find some irony in this image. While people are moving into the community we wonder how cultural assumptions regarding the definition of “success” may also be contributing to migration out of the community.

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Photo H

Theme 3: Framing Sustainability Around Local and Intergenerational Knowledge The community immersion experience was one way of pushing the prospective teachers beyond traditional educational contexts that emphasize disconnected ways of knowing that are often experienced in university courses. It provided them a space to wrestle with the tensions between school learning and the natural world, enabling them to think about sustainability in new ways and sensitizing them to the fragility of ecosystems and all life. This kind of place-based learned experience illustrated how science can be understood through emotions, spirituality and other ways of knowing that holistically develop the hearts, hand and mind. In contrast to what we perceived as the harsh treatment of the mangroves, soil, and other ecologies, the herbal gardens and the school girls’ interaction with a bird (Photo-feedback I on next page) were suggestive of the many possibilities that exist for fostering an ethic of care and inter-connected relationships with other-than-human species. While photoelicitation and photo-feedback generated many images representing disconnected relationships with the natural world, they also pointed to locations of possibilities for place-based education. Place has often been theorized as place-as-land/or natural environment (Greenwood & Smith, 2008) or place-as-community (Theobald, 1997). Moving beyond these conceptions of place, the photo-feedback images inspired our learning community to also think of place in terms of relationships humans experience with each other as well as other species, a type of place-as-being. Place-based approaches often focus on ecological issues set apart from the social, cultural, historical and political aspects of place or independent of issues such as sustainability. As we learned through the example of the barangay captain’s use of mari-it (see

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Photo-feedback K on p. 110) to encourage the digging of compost pits, place must fundamentally be understood as more than a location with boundaries between human and non-human inhabitants. Photo-feedback I: Respect for all life: Do birds have souls? Caroline, Estrella, Maricel, Purita, Leah. We came across these two schoolgirls tenderly holding the bird in this photo. We wondered if they were keeping the bird as a pet or were engaged in a school bird identification project. We gravitated towards the girls and knelt in front of them. Caroline reached out and gently touched the bird. One of the girls shyly asked Caroline if she would like to hold the bird herself. Later, as the girls were discussing their bird with us, we were surprised when one of the girls asked us if we thought that birds had souls. This photo and experience reminds us that science is not separate from emotion and passion. The kind of connections the girls were making with this bird was deep and profound and could not come from a textbook. Photo I

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Photo-feedback J: Embracing local knowledge in the herbal garden. Bernadette, Jeprey, Martha, Deborah. This is the herbal garden near the school. We often observed community members, young and old alike, working in the garden. Children learn about names and purposes of the various herbs and plants found in the garden in their mother tongue dialect. Bernadette shared with us her experience as a teacher using the garden for instructional purposes. On the one hand, she teaches her students traditional plant classification and the use of a simple Linnaean classification taxonomy based on such characteristics as the number of petals or arrangement of leaves. At the same time, she encouraged the preservation of local knowledge by also sharing how community members sometimes classify plants according to their impact on humans—she showed them which plants were poisonous, nutritious or could be used for medicinal purposes, pointing out that there could be some overlap between these categories. We thought that Bernadette’s approach was sustainable in terms of protecting intergenerational knowledge of the community. Photo J

Photo-feedback K: Using Mari-it to foster sustainability. Cheryl, Febbie, Lourdes, Tomas, Joyce. We initially took this photo because we were disgusted to see the trash that had been carelessly tossed in this natural area. When we later asked Febbie about this place where we observed the trash, she told us that it used to be a huge dumping area, but now only a few people leave their trash in that place. She told us about the ingenuity of the barangay captain who used the cultural beliefs of the community to stop the dumping. She explained how many of the people believed in particular places that were Mari-it, inhabited by small dwarfs (dwindes) or spirits. People avoided these places, fearing that they might catch an illness of some kind. In order to stop the dumping and encourage residents to dig compost pits the barangay captain told the community members that she had observed dwindes living in this place. People soon began to change their habit of dumping trash in this place. We were amazed at the unique way the barangay captain used the local beliefs and knowledge to foster more sustainable practices.

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Photo K

Empowering Prospective and Practicing Science Teachers to Meet the Challenges of Sustainability in the Anthropocene The questions and narratives that emerged from our community immersion experience were complex and go beyond simplistic solutions. Through photovoice, diverse perspectives and conversations were generated around sustainability as practiced in Lotac. These conversations led our learning community to consider the need for counter-narratives to globalized forces, which often commodify or exploit nature. What kind of changes will matter to today’s youth as they navigate the Anthropocene? From our community immersion experience, we are drawn to counter-narratives, which embrace the need for not only youth, but all humanity to act ethically, sensitively and in relation with all species so that we might live more lightly on planet Earth.

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Author Biographies Deborah J. Tippins is a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Science Education at the University of Georgia. Her scholarly work focuses on encouraging meaningful discourses around environmental justice and sociocultural issues in science education. She draws on anthropological and sociocultural methods to investigate questions of relevance and justice in elementary science teaching and learning contexts. Sophia Sun Kyung Jeong is a doctoral student in the Department of Mathematics and Science Education at the University of Georgia. She is passionate about fostering creativity, encouraging inquisitive minds, and developing sociopolitical consciousness through science education. Additionally, she works with elementary and secondary practicing teachers in their science classrooms. Prior to coming to UGA for her doctoral studies, she taught high school science and has more than ten years of scientific and academic research experience in medicine, biotechnology and medical devices. Purita P. Bilbao is a professor in the graduate school at West Visayas State University in Iloilo City, Philippines. She is involved in science education curriculum reform in the Philippines working closely with the Department of Science and Technology. Her research interests include mentoring of perspective and practicing teachers and community-centered science education. Lourdes N. Morano is a professor in the graduate school at West Visayas State University in Iloilo City, Philippines. For many years, she served as the Director of the Regional Science Teaching Center. She works closely with many communities, helping them prepare environmental impact assessments and develop sustainable practices.

Part III

‘Listening’ to Kids and Teachers

Chapter 6

Friends, the Club, and the Housing Authority: How Youth Define Their Community Through Auto-driven Photo Elicitation Denisha Jones

Abstract The author was a volunteer at a national youth organization located in a low-income housing community, and was given the opportunity to work with the Torch Club, a youth civic engagement club made up of youth members from the Coventry Square club, age 12 or older. At the time, members of the Torch Club were not involved in a service project and they were open to suggestions. The purpose of this action research study was to enable participants to study and define their community through auto-driven photo elicitation. Opportunities to serve one’s community are important factors in helping youth develop the capacity to see themselves as civic actors. Service-learning that is meaningful and action oriented is well suited for work with youth from low-income communities. The benefits and challenges of using auto-driven photo elicitation along with the limitations of this study are also examined. Twelve youth were given disposable cameras and eight participated in the photo elicitation interviews. Through an analysis of the interviews and photos, three themes emerged: friends, the club, and the housing authority. This chapter explores these themes and how they relate to promoting youth civic engagement through community and social justice oriented service-learning.

6.1

Research Problem

The data for this chapter comes from the first cycle of a larger participatory action research project. Its purpose was to determine how participants defined their community and then develop a meaningful service learning project. Research on youth participation in community service has found that minority and low-income youth are less likely to volunteer compared with their wealthier White counterparts (Spring, Dietz, & Grim, 2007). Typically, these youths live in communities or attend schools that do not provide them with service-learning experiences. This is a D. Jones (&) Trinity Washington University, Washington, DC, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing AG 2018 M.L. Boucher, Jr. (ed.), Participant Empowerment Through Photo-elicitation in Ethnographic Education Research, http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64413-4_6

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problem when we consider that opportunities to serve are essential for promoting youth civic engagement. In their ethnographic study of civic identity development in youth, Youniss and Yates (1997) followed up with alumni who had, as juniors at Catholic high school, participated in a program that combined service at a kitchen that served homeless people with a social justice course. Their findings revealed: A greater portion of alumni who did not do volunteer service in high school (outside of the required social justice course), versus those who did serve, tended not to volunteer in the years after graduation—71% versus 32%. In complement, a greater proportion of those who served voluntarily during high school, versus those who did not serve, continued to do service in the years following after graduation—68% versus 29% (p. 121).

In their research review, Youniss, McLellan, and Yates (1997) explained that students who participated in civic activities in high school such as student government, clubs, or organizations were more likely to be civically engaged as adults. They also reviewed studies that looked at adult civic participation rates in adults who, as youth, were participants in active reforms to society, such as the civil rights movement, free speech protest, and the anti-war movement. Again, they found that participation in these social reforms led to greater civic engagement as adults. One study looked at Black college students who protested during the civil rights movement and, although they found greater adult civic participation rates, the authors theorized that this had more to do with the fact that these students were also benefiting directly from the civil rights movement with an increase in job and educational opportunities. Not only were they a part of the protest movement, but they were also part of the “opportunity for advancement that led to ideal citizenship” (p. 628). For service learning to be effective with low-income and minority youth, opportunities to serve must be combined with a type of differentiated service-learning that combines critical thinking with social action (Kirshner, Strobel, and Fernandez, 2003). The content, process, and product embedded within these opportunities must be differentiated. The content in service-learning is related to what the participants actually do—the service within the service-learning program. The process involves how the service is delivered and the product refers to the opportunity to reflect and the outcomes or goals of the program. Differentiated service-learning means that these aspects will be constructed in ways that meet the needs of youth from disadvantaged circumstances which often differs from typical notions of service, “Understanding how young people think about their neighborhoods, schools, and communities, is critical to supporting their capacity to help build, shape or challenge institutions in those settings” (Kirshner et al., 2003, p. 2). In this study, I wanted to go beyond examining traditional variables of socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and neighborhoods and focus on how youths make sense of their political and social lives. Critical thinking, that builds awareness of social inequities, can help youths from disadvantaged circumstances make sense of their experience. Kirshner et al. (2003) stress the importance of promoting critical thinking when working with urban youth: …critical perspectives take on special meaning when combined with opportunities to participate in meaningful ways. Presumably, critical awareness, if left alone, could just as easily lead to apathy as it could lead to empowerment. However, when young people have

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opportunities to influence their world, rather than merely be passive objects of it, this critical awareness can take a power direction (p. 16).

From these studies, we can see that if we want to promote civic engagement in youth from disadvantaged circumstances, we must provide them with meaningful opportunities to serve and these opportunities should differ from traditional community service programs whose goal is to promote charity and altruism. Instead, they should focus on developing the critical thinking skills needed to succeed in marginalized communities. The following research questions guided the development of this study: 1. How do youths define their community? 2. What factors influence the boundaries they place on their definition of community? 3. How can auto-driven photo elicitation support young people’s efforts to define their community?

6.2

From Receivers of Service to Givers of Service

This study used auto-driven photo elicitation to provide youth participants a vehicle to define their community. Their photographs revealed the importance of the club, the housing authority, and friends as central to their vision of community. The participants enjoyed taking pictures and discussing them, although their responses were brief. Participation in service-learning can be beneficial to all youth as they begin to assume the responsibility of citizenship. It can serve as a spark to engage in more service learning and be the catalyst for the development of leadership skills. Service can provide young people with an opportunity to learn about their community, develop a sense of belonging, and learn strategies for dealing with inequities. Youth who are often marginalized through poverty or race, tend to be receivers of service with fewer opportunities to be givers of service (Jones, 2013). Maybach (1996) acknowledged the trouble with this one-sided relationship between giver and receiver of service: If the representation of these groups in society [receivers of service] primarily emphasizes their needs, the strengths of these same individuals become minimized. Furthermore, if these groups remain in the service recipient [emphasis in original] role, without having the opportunity to be an equal partner in providing service, a strong possibility exists that these individuals, as well as society, will associate these groups with their needs rather than their strengths, and thus further marginalizes them from the mainstream (p. 228).

Maybach (1996) recognized that there are some service-learning programs that attempt to reverse the role of giver and receiver of service, especially with urban youth and she attributed their success to “power inherent in the role of the provider” (p. 228). Moreover, she noted “These maverick programs bring us one step closer to

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a service ethic that redefines what is needed by marginalized individuals in society: opportunities to serve, not just be served” (p. 228). As researchers investigate ideas for increasing youth civic engagement, it is important that we acknowledge that those who are typically receivers of service need opportunities to become givers of service. This study specifically engaged participants that were often the receiver of service. As a poor child of an immigrant working class mother, I was often the receiver of service. What I remember most from my childhood was how fortunate we were that there were people and organizations to help us. The people at the food bank could always be counted to on to make sure we had the necessary provisions to have a decent Thanksgiving dinner. My siblings and I were very fortunate to receive donated toys and clothes for Christmas. I knew at a young age that someone made this all possible because they cared about those less fortunate then themselves and I knew that I wanted to be that kind of person. Coupled with my desire to be of service was opportunities to be a giver of service. I lived in predominantly White middle class communities despite being poor, and thus I often had opportunities to serve. In my junior year of high school, I saw a sign recruiting volunteers for the local first aid and rescue squad. Before that moment, I did not even know that it was possible to volunteer for such a position, but I was intrigued and I asked my mom to let me find out more about the opportunity. As it turned out, my entire community was served by a 24-hour-seven days a week-volunteer emergency first aid and rescue squad that allowed junior members (15–18 years old) to serve on the squad. I joined the squad and for a year. As a member, I responded to 911 calls and administered first aid to those in need. I believe that this opportunity served as the foundation for my development of a civic identity. This experience taught me that even though I had been the recipient of service, I could also be a giver of service to others. Without this experience, I have no idea if I would have come to see myself as someone who had the potential to help others instead of someone who always needed help. Many youths from disadvantaged circumstances are not afforded the opportunity to view themselves as giver of service. Those who are on the continued end of receiving service may doubt their own self-efficacy and become reliant on others to support them. By expanding the relationship of receiver of service to giver of service these youths will begin to see their ability to help others and improve their own lives through the power of service.

6.3

Why Auto-driven Photo-Elicitation Interviews Were Used for This Study

Scholars working with youth from disadvantaged circumstances, often referred to as urban youth, tend to develop service programs that go beyond traditional methods of instilling an ethic of service (Kincheloe & Hayes, 2006). From action research to Photovoice, these programs and research methods are often designed to

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meet the complex needs of these students. Kirshner et al. (2003) discussed how urban youths are often more engaged in critical civic engagement “in which youth’s civic participation is motivated by their own experiences of pressing social problems” (p. 2). Thus, when I began this project, it was important to directly engage students in this research and service learning process. I was a volunteer at a national youth organization and was given the opportunity to work with a youth civic engagement club, known as, the Torch Club. Youth aged 12–17 who were members of the Coventry Square Club,1 a national youth organization, were invited to join the Torch Club and participate in service and fundraising activities. At the time, members of the Torch Club were not involved in a service project and they were open to suggestions. I recommended that members of the Torch Club begin a Community Study. This study of the community would allow the organization to understand how students defined their community and then develop a service-learning project that would help the participants see themselves as active members of their community. Using photo elicitation made the study very accessible and fun for the youth who were involved.

6.3.1

Service Learning Versus Community Service

Research on service-learning revealed that not all service projects are created equal and some are more likely to promote youth civic engagement then others (Boyle-Baise et al., 2006). The National Service-learning Clearinghouse (2006) service provides the following definition of service-learning, “Service-learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities” (para 1). Volunteering or community service is often used to measure civic engagement in youth, but differs from service-learning (Balsano, 2005; Spring et al., 2007). Some researchers have questioned whether community service can prepare youth for active citizenship. Boyte (1991) argued that community service by itself will not increase civic engagement because often, volunteer efforts are not integrated with a knowledge about politics and civics. He suggested that encouraging civic engagement in youth, “requires redefining politics to include, in addition to electoral activity, ongoing citizen involvement in solving public problems” (p. 765). At first read this might sound like what community service is supposed to do, but as one delves deeper into notions of community service, it becomes evident that Boyte has identified a weakness in our common concepts of civic engagement.

1

The names of the club and participants have all been changed.

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Often, community service is based on notions of charity and is thereby designed to increase altruism, but not effect systemic social transformation (Kahne & Westheimer, 1996). Boyte’s contention that community service and volunteering alone will not promote active civic engagement in youth was considered when structuring this study. This was furthered by the idea that service-learning projects emphasizing critical thinking and action were the best choice for promoting civic engagement, and real opportunities to engage in community and social issues pertinent to the lives of youths are more apt to increase their level of civic engagement. Kahne and Westheimer (1996) distinguish between service-learning that focuses on community service or volunteering and service-learning that seeks to bring about change. In their comparison of service-learning projects, they describe one project that asked students to pick a project, tally their hours for a grade, and write a summary of what they did, while another project identified homelessness as a concern in the community, examined the various facets of the structures of inequality that support homelessness through readings and guest speakers, and then developed action plans to help those in the community who were dealing with the issue (p. 594). These projects are very different and one can take issue with the labeling of both projects as “service-learning”. As discussed earlier, service-learning is the combination of service and instruction to strengthen communities through civic engagement. This definition rules out community service projects that are based on number of hours served and offer no real opportunities for change to the giver of service. It is important to distinguish between service-learning and community service, the former is more likely to stimulate the development of a civic identity as opposed to the latter. However, one must agree with their overall argument that educators and policy makers must ask themselves, in service of what? Kahne and Westheimer (1996) argued that all too often service-learning is promoted as an alternative to reliance on the government to solve society’s problems and a way to increase altruism, especially in young people. They differentiate between service for charity and service for change with each having different moral, political, and intellectual aims (p. 595). Service for change is viewed as necessary for citizenship in a democratic society because it “requires individuals work to create, evaluate, criticize, and change public institutions and programs” (p. 597). Service for charity does not look at the root causes and possible solutions; instead it provides temporary cures for the symptoms of poverty, homelessness, and other society ills while service for change aims to cure the larger problem. Service-learning for change can help youth from disadvantaged circumstances become civically engaged as they learn about their community and participate in action plans to bring about some type of social change.

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Method Picture Our Community Study

The method and findings for this chapter come from my qualitative single case study that used socially constructed and advocacy/participatory knowledge claims, a critical theory orientation, and youth participatory action research as the strategy of inquiry (Jones, 2013). As part of a research project on service learning, I worked with a group of 8th graders who were part of a youth civic engagement program that asked these youths to give back to their community through service. Before selecting a service learning project, the students were asked to take pictures of their community. The students then participated in auto-driven photo elicitation interviews so that I could learn more about how they defined their community (Jones, 2013). Study design. For this participatory action research (PAR) study, I used auto-driven photo elicitation to create an opportunity for students to define their community (Jones, 2013). McTaggart (1989) defined PAR as “an approach to improving social practice by changing it and learning from the consequences of change” (p. 2). She noted that PAR involves authentic participation, is collaborative, creates self-critical communities, invites people to theorize about their practices by collecting convincing evidence, and starts with small cycles and small groups planning, acting, examining and reflecting on the process. To summarize, PAR puts research in the hands of participants as a tool for studying their lives and instituting positive change. MacTaggart (1997) also explained that PAR differs from other types of action research because it emphasizes the authentic participation of actors in studying their own lives: Participatory action research is not research done on other people. It is research by particular people on their own work, to help improve what they do, including how they work with and for other people…It does not treat people as objects for research, but encourages people to work together as knowing subjects and agents of change and improvement (p. 39).

As part of a larger participatory action research study of service learning, the first step was to gather data on the participants’ understanding of community. In order to facilitate a discussion of the meaning of community, I used photo-elicitation as defined by Harper (2002). Harper (2002) described photo elicitation as a technique that involves using photographs during interviews. Auto-driven photo elicitation means the interviewee took the photograph that is used as part of the interview (Hurworth, 2003). Photo elicitation is a form of interviewing that utilizes photographs or any type of visual to elicit responses from the participants. Harper (2002) examined 41 studies that used photo elicitation and identified four categories that described the focus of the research: (1) culture; (2) social class/social organization/family; (3) identity/biography/autobiography; and (4) community/

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historical ethnography. Community photo elicitation was used to study a variety issues including urban gentrification and the relationship between a community and rural schools. In a study of rural schools, Harper explained that the researcher gave the participants cameras to take pictures and then engaged in photo elicitation interviews, “…people who are not skilled photographers, working with extremely modest equipment, can be taught to record their social worlds and to process those visual statements in self-interviewing and conventional elicitation methods” (p. 17). As in this study, the pictures themselves do not need to be of high quality to have a great deal of meaning to the participants. Setting. The Coventry Square Club is located within the Coventry Square housing community. Coventry Square is one of two public housing communities that served 425 families in 2007. The Housing Authority oversaw Coventry Square along with the other public housing complex and Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program for limited income families. Coventry Square is a small residential community on the west side of town. Included within the neighborhood are a park, basketball courts, a garden area, and the Housing Authority. Next to Coventry Square is one of three middle schools, a public pool, a gas station, and more homes. All residents in Coventry Square met the eligibility requirements needed to receive public housing. No official numbers were provided by the housing authority, but a mix of African American, White, and Latino families were observed living in the boundaries of Coventry Square and in the surrounding neighborhoods. Coventry Square residents are encouraged to register their children in the Coventry Square Club which provided homework help and activities for children 5–17 years of age for a minimal yearly fee. The Coventry Square Club was staffed by a director, some paid staff, and many volunteers. This after-school program was affiliated with a national after-school program. The Coventry Square Club was one of two national affiliated after-school programs serving children in this medium-sized, Midwestern city, but was strictly reserved for the residents of Coventry Square. The three active members of the Torch Club and other children who attended Coventry Square Club were invited to participate in the project. After discussing the project idea at a Torch Club meeting, the students decided to name the project, “Picture our Community”. Flyers and signs that described the project and invited interested students to attend an informational meeting were made (see Appendix). Participants were given disposable cameras and asked to take pictures of their community. A group of participants brainstormed to identify different elements of the community such as businesses, homes, parks, people, etc. to be the focus of the project. Participants were taught some basic photography techniques and practiced taking pictures at the Coventry Square Cub site.

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Fig. 6.1 Picture Our Community

Participants/researchers role. After the initial call-out meeting, interested participants were given parental consent forms and instructed to have their parent or guardian sign the form and return it to the club. Based on returned consent forms, 15 cameras were distributed. Of those 15 cameras 12 were returned and film developed. After developing the pictures, 10 out of the 12 participants were

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interviewed for 20 minutes to discuss the photos; the other two participants did not return to participate. After all the interviews were conducted, two participants were excluded because they had failed to identify any photographs that defined their community. The remaining eight students consisted of four girls and four boys of which four were African Americans and four were white. They ranged in age from six to twelve years old. Data collection. All participants received their camera on a Tuesday. Because of their age and experience, the children were given an opportunity to practice taking pictures with a digital camera that was returned to me. Using digital equipment allowed the students to immediately see the pictures they were taking. However, after the practice session, the participants were given disposable cameras in the study to keep costs low. Before the cameras were given out, the participants met with me during a focus group to identify examples of things that described their community. Participants were then asked to take pictures and instructed to return the cameras by Friday so the photos could be developed and distributed the following Tuesday. Upon the return of the cameras and the development of the photos, I worked with participants to create a graphic representation of a community web.

Fig. 6.2 Community Web

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Two sets of prints were developed. One set was given to the participant and one was reserved for the study. After the pictures were developed, the participants were invited to discuss the pictures during an unstructured interview session. Participants decided whether they wanted other students present when they were interviewed about their pictures. During the interview, the participants reviewed the pictures and were asked to identify the ones that best represented their community. The selected pictures were matched with the second set and labeled. Once all the community pictures were selected, the participants were asked to discuss what the picture stated about their community and why they had chosen it. After all the pictures were discussed, the participants were given the opportunity to include any other pictures. The process was repeated for each participant. The community photos along with others not used for photo-elicitation were given to the director to be showcased within the club. Data analysis. Each interview was audio taped and I transcribed the recordings. Each photo selected by the participant was numbered and added to the transcription. After transcribing the tape, the pictures were analyzed for evidence of themes and anomalies. Using the conceptual framework of Community, three categories emerged from the data: The Coventry Square Club; friends; and the Housing Authority. Of the photographs selected by the youths, 95% fit into one of these three categories. Initially, friends and the Coventry Square Club overlapped because the photographs of friends were taken at the Coventry Square Club. After I listened to the interviews again, I was able to distinguish between photographs that the participants explained as friends and those linked to the Coventry Square Club. After I conducted the interviews and categorized the responses into the emergent themes, I met with each participant to review the photographs they selected and the category I placed them into make sure I had correctly categorized their photograph. This form of member checking was used to validate the findings and proved that my initial attempts to distinguish between friends and the Coventry Square club was correct. The findings below all come under the theme of Community and the three categories are detailed below. Challenges. While photo elicitation has been used on research with children and youths, access to children while conducting research is often problematic due to the time constraints that limit children’s availability while at school or in the home. When children are given cameras to take pictures that are later used to elicit interview responses, the limitations of time and access are reduced (Jorgenson & Sullivan, 2010). Auto-driven photo elicitation with children can reduce the tension between researcher and participant by allowing the participant to focus on something tangible that they created. Research with children can encourage them to be active participants by engaging in task-based activities. Additionally, this active participation can enhance the child’s ability to communicate to the researcher. Barker and Weller (2003) noted that enhancing communication by using child centered methods can also help address the power relations inherent in research with children. When children are asked to draw, take pictures, or write stories and songs, they are no longer limited

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by their abilities are no longer constrained by their age which can lead to higher levels of trust and confidence. I faced a few challenges doing this study, but the initial challenge was the distribution of the cameras. The students received the cameras while they were still at the Club and most of them began taking pictures right away. I had to remind the participants to save their pictures for when they left the Club. This enthusiasm could be why most students only had 3–5 community pictures instead of the 10 they were asked to take. Also, many of the pictures came out blurry or included some type of obstruction. I acknowledge that more time should have been spent going over photography skills to ensure that the photos were taken properly. Another challenge was the design of the questions during the photo elicitation interviews. I wanted the participants to tell me why the photo represented the community but most of the responses were limited to short phrases such as “she’s my friend,” “the club,” or “part of the community.” This may have been a result of the initial discussion when we created a web with a list of parts of the community. The participants may have seen those one word responses and thought that I wanted something similar in the interview. Had we spent more time discussing why a school, church, or a house is part of community, the participants may have been prepared to give a more detailed response. Or perhaps the initial conversation served to limit their responses because we defined community in a way that then led them to capture those things in their photographs. Some of the participants did not like how some of the pictures came out and did not want me to see them. One 7-year-old African American boy initially refused to identify any photographs for the project and became upset after reviewing them. I turned off the tape recorder and asked him what was wrong. His eyes were moist and he whispered that none of his pictures were good enough. I asked, “why not?” and he said because he did not do a good job taking pictures. I asked if he would let me see them and if we could talk about what was wrong with the pictures. He agreed. As we went through them, it became apparent that he was upset that many of them were blurry or had some type of obstruction, likely caused by a finger over the flash. I acknowledged that some of them were dark, but I also told him that I thought some of them came out really well and if he only wanted to include a few, that would be fine. He agreed to include four photos, and when he was ready, I resumed the audio tape and I asked him to tell me about those four pictures. Clarke-Ibàñez (2004) noted that the researcher should allow participants to view the photographs before the analysis begins. Also, the participant should be informed that they will have the opportunity to remove any photos they wish to exclude. I gave my participants all of their photographs and asked them to select which ones represented their community; however, I watched them while they made the selection so I was also able to view the photographs they did not want included in the project. Although most of the students did not mind me viewing the ones they kept for themselves, in retrospect I should have given them more privacy regarding photographs they did not want in the study. Additionally, I should have considered giving some of the students another camera and another week after we practiced some techniques for taking better pictures.

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As mentioned earlier, the Torch Club did not have many members, so this project was open to all members of the Coventry Square club. Although the Torch Club was restricted to students 12 years or older, this project included students as young as 6. I found that younger children had a harder time taking photographs of their community. Most of their pictures were blurry and did not contain a focal point (as if they took the picture while the camera was in their pocket or book bag). I believe that young children can be competent photographers, but require more training to obtain the skills to use cameras in a variety of settings (i.e., at night and indoors). The older students did not have as many problems taking clear photographs as the younger children did. Before giving the children cameras, they were given an approved IRB consent form that required their parents’ signature. Most of the parents picked their children up from the club so I would present them with the consent form at that time and explain the project. Most parents asked whether they had to pay for the camera and when I assured them they would not be charged for the camera, they signed the consent form. A small group of children were driven home by the club staff in a van or they walked home. I rode in the van several times to bring permission slips to the children’s homes. Again, the only concern was the cost. I also walked home with a few students to give their parent’s a permission slip. Once all of the permission slips were signed and returned I was able to distribute the cameras.

6.5

Findings

The most significant finding was that children defined their community as their immediate surroundings, or within the boundaries of Coventry Square. Only one of the eight students included photos of the larger surrounding community. More than half of the photographs submitted were of the Coventry Square Club or friends. Club photos included staff members and volunteers and some of the friends’ pictures were taken at the club but the students identified them as friends who were part of the community. Two students included the Housing Authority located in Coventry Square. Additional photographs submitted included landscape pictures of the hills, neighboring trees and plants, and the Coventry Square welcome sign.

6.5.1

The Coventry Square Club

The Coventry Square Club was selected by five students as a part of their community. As members of the Coventry Square Club, the students spent a great deal of time there after school. All student and place names are pseudonyms. Pamela, a twelve-year-old white student selected the following picture of the club (see Fig. 6.3).

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Fig. 6.3 Pamela’s Coventry Square Club picture

When asked why she selected this picture she said, “The Club is part of the community where we get to hang out after school.” When asked how the Club a part of the community she responded, “The Club helps out with the community because last week or a couple weeks ago whenever we were um, in Torch Club they made us go outside and pick up all the trash and the litter and everything.” Evan, a seven-year-old African American boy also submitted a picture of the club (see Fig. 6.4). When asked why the club was a part of the community he said, Researcher (R): “What does this photo say about your community?” Evan (E): “It tells me about my community.” R: “What is it? What kind of picture is it about your community? Where is it?” E: “Um, I was standing in the front of the club. And I took a picture of their arch and their community.” R: “Is the club a community?” E: “It’s our community” R: “Why is it a part of your community?” E: “Cause it’s here for us. We get to use it so it’s for us.”

Along with pictures of the club, two students submitted pictures of the club director and volunteers as part of their community. Pamela who submitted a picture of a volunteer said: “Mark. He helps out at the Club so he is a part of the community.” Tom a six-year-old African American boy included a picture of the club director because, “She makes the club good.” The youths clearly felt as though the Coventry Square Club was a part of their community. It was a place for them to go and be with their friends. Also, the staff was there to support and help them.

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Fig. 6.4 Evan’s Coventry Square Club picture

Friends. Another category that emerged was friends. Denise, Tom, Evan, and Aaron all included photos of friends as part of their community. Evan, a seven-year-old African American boy said, “This one I took because she is my best friend and he is my best friend.” When asked why friends are part of the community, he said, “Because they help me.” Tom included a picture of his brother, Evan as part of the community. He was the only one to include a picture of a family member. Most of the participants had taken pictures of their family members (they were instructed to use 10 pictures for the community and the other 14 for whatever they wanted) but only Tom included his older brother who is also a member of the Coventry Square Club. Aaron included two pictures of other club members who were his best friends. When asked to elaborate why he chose them he simply said, “Because he’s my friend.” Evan also submitted photographs of friends and when asked why, he said, R: “So tell me about these pictures.” E: “This one I took because she is my best friend and he is my best friend.” R: “So friends are part of your community?” E: “Yes.” R: “Why?” E: “Cause they are who I hang out with.”

Denise included a picture with a group of five youths and she said they were all her friends (see Fig. 6.5). In order to preserve the anonymity of the participants, I have pixilated the photograph, but you can clearly see the interactions between the children. When asked what made them a part of the community she said, “Friends

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Fig. 6.5 Denise’s picture of friends

Fig. 6.6 Denise’s housing authority picture

are part of my community because we do everything together. We go to the store and come to the club and have fun so I would say they are part of my community.” The housing authority. Two students, Denise and Pamela, included pictures of the Housing Authority (see Fig. 6.6).

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Denise was asked to describe her picture. Researcher (R): “What is the housing authority?” Denise (D): “it’s like kids go there, it’s like the resident council” R: “What do they do?” D: “Uh, they like give you houses, they help you if you have any questions” D: “They, it’s where you give your money to for, rent.”

Pamela included a picture of the Housing Authority but could not explain what it was for. Pamela and Denise, at 12 years old, were the oldest of the participants and they were the only two to mention the Housing Authority. As mentioned earlier, only one student, Bailey (10-year-old African American girl), included pictures outside of the Coventry Square neighborhood. She took a ride with some family members and was able to take pictures of the hospital, a fast food restaurant, and a grocery store (see Fig. 6.7). She also included pictures of the Club but half of her pictures were of institutions outside of her immediate surroundings. This understanding of the community as a small geographic area may be due to lack of means to leave it and most of the youth only leave the Coventry Square housing community to go to school. They can walk to the skating rink across the highway, the corner store for snacks, and the pool at the middle school. Thus, they rarely left the community by car unless they were going to the doctor or to get food with their families. Participants identified The Coventry Square Club as a central part of the community. Most of the children who live in Coventry Square attend the Club after school and during the summer. In addition to identifying the Club as part of the community, 25% of the participants’ submitted photos of Club staff and or volunteers as being part of their community. This highlights the importance of not only the physical site of the Club but also the staff and volunteers who help run the Club. Friends, the Housing Authority, the Coventry Square Club were all identified as important elements within this community. The youth participants integrated these institutions and people as representatives of their community. All of the community elements identified by the youth participants were visual or tangible community markers and each represented a positive view of the community. Relationships were an important part of the community, but only a specific type of relationship-friendship. No students submitted pictures of family members as part of their community. They did not view adults outside of the club as part of their community. If their sense of community is limited to friends and geography how can we expect them to be civically engaged in their community? As the purpose of the project was to help the participants see themselves as citizens-in-community, for that to occur they need to have a broader understanding of what makes a community.

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Fig. 6.7 Pictures outside of the Coventry Square

6.6

How This Method Empowered My Participants

Youth civic engagement has been an important topic for educators, policy makers, community leaders, and parents with many voicing concerns over a growing decrease in youth civic engagement (Youniss et al., 2002). Youth civic engagement is often defined by engagement with politics and/or the local community through volunteering or service-learning. Kelley (2004) noted that civic engagement affords youths the opportunity to be viewed as contributing members of their communities.

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She argued that kinship communities, educational/youth mentoring communities or “communities of practice can promote or inhibit human relatedness, social competence, efficacy (self and external) and self-direction as it relates to prosocial civic behaviors of civic engagement and an identity of citizen-in-community” (p. 3). Youth programs that encourage participants to give back to their community through service-learning are more likely to help youths identify themselves as citizens within a community (Kelley, 2004). As a result of this study, six of the youth participated in the second youth participatory action cycle, by conducting oral histories from members of the community. Given the lack of adults in the community photos, the director and I thought a service project that would help the students learn more about the adults in their community was appropriate. Some of the youth participants were hesitant at first because they did not view oral history and a type of service and they even questioned if interviewing people in their community was valuable. However, at the end of the project, the students were more committed to service and civic engagement and demonstrated a desire to learn more about the history of their community and the people who lived there (Jones, 2013). Percy (2003) conducted a study on the experiences of minority children living in poverty, focusing on their descriptions of what is “special” to them. In her study, she gave 20 African-American and Mexican-American children disposable cameras with instructions to take pictures of things that are “special” to them for three days. Percy noted that all the children who participated in the study were eager to be a part of the study. They enjoyed the opportunity to take pictures, which is viewed as an adult task, and they valued sharing their photos with her and the other students. Not all of the youth from Picture our Community participated in the oral history project conducted by the Torch Club. Students had to be 12 or older to be in the Torch Club, however we invited younger students to participate in Picture our Community. The younger kids really enjoyed taking pictures and some really liked talking about them in the interview as well. After the study was finished, several of the younger students would ask if we could do another picture study. I often brought my digital camera to the club and let the kids practice taking pictures after the study was completed. Like the children in Percy’s study, these kids enjoyed the opportunity to be photographers and to have an adult interview them about their pictures (2003). This study highlights the importance of providing youth from disadvantaged circumstances with opportunities to serve. However, to be effective with low-income and minority youth, opportunities to serve must be combined with a type of differentiated service-learning that explicitly meets their specific needs (Kirshner et al., 2003). The program examined in this study is an example of a differentiated service-learning program and was designed so the youths could investigate the needs of their own community and work with elected officials to make improvements. In this type of service, the content differs from traditional notions of providing a service to someone else in need. It also collapses the roles of giver and receiver of service into one role where the youths are invested in giving back to their community which, in turn, also makes them a recipient of the service.

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Appendix: Picture Our Community Flyer Hey, have you heard what the Torch Club is up to now…

…is a new project that the Torch Club will begin soon. Members will be given disposable cameras and asked to take pictures of their community and then talk about the pictures. Think you might be interested but you’re not in the Torch Club? Well this project can include any Crestmont Boys and Girl Club Member. For more information and to participate come to the Tuesday April 8th Torch Club Meeting at 5:00 pm. We hope to see you there.

References Barker, J., & Weller, S. (2003). “Is it fun?” Developing children centered research methods. International Journal of Sociology and Social policy, 23(1/2), 33–58. Balsano, A. (2005). Youth civic engagement in the United States: Understanding and addressing the impact of social impediments on positive youth and community development. Applied Developmental Science, 9(4), 188–201. Boyle-Baise, M., Brown, R., Hsu, M.-C., Jones, D., Prakash, A., Rausch, M., … Wahlquist, Z. (2006). Learning service or service learning: Enabling the civic. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 18(1), 17–26. Boyte, H. C. (1991). Community service and civic education. Phi Delta Kappan, 72(10), 765–767. Clarke-Ibàñez, M. (2004). Framing the social world with photo-elicitation interviews. The American Behavioral Scientist, 47(12), 1507–1527. Harper, D. (2002). Talking about pictures: A case for photo elicitation. Visual Studies, 17(1), 13–26. Hurworth, R. (2003). Photo-interviewing for research. Social Research Update, 40(1), 1–4. Jorgenson, J., & Sullivan, T. (2010). Accessing children’s perspectives through participatory photo interviews. Forum Qualitative Social Research, 11(1). Jones, D. N. (2013). From receivers of service to givers of service: Promoting civic engagement in youth from disadvantaged circumstances (Ph.D. Dissertation). Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. Kahne, J., & Westheimer, J. (1996). In the service of what? The politics of service learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 77(9), 593–599. Kelley, D. C. (2004). Civic views of young adult minorities. Circle Working Paper 25, The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. Kincheloe, J. L., & Hayes, K. (Eds.). (2006). Teaching city kids: Understanding and appreciating them. New York: Lang, Peter Publishing.

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Kirshner, B., Strobel, K., & Fernandez, M. (2003). Critical civic engagement among urban youth. Penn GSE Perspectives on Urban Education, 2(1), 1–20. Maybach, C. W. (1996). Investigating urban community needs: Service learning from a social justice perspective. Education and Urban Society, 28(2), 224–236. McTaggart, R. (1989). 16 tenets of participatory action research. Retrieved from http://www. caledonia.org.uk/par.htm. MacTaggart, R. (1997). Participatory action research. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. National Service-Learning Clearinghouse. (2006). Service learning is. Retrieved February 24, 2006, from http://servicelearning.org/welcome_to_service-learning/service-learning_is/index. php. Percy, M. S. (2003). Feeling loved, having friends, to count on, and taking care of myself: Minority children living in poverty describe what is “special” to them. Journal of Children and Poverty, 9(1), 55–70. Spring, K., Dietz, N., & Grimm, R. (2007). Leveling the path to participation: Volunteering and civic engagement among youth from disadvantaged circumstances. Brief 3 in the Youth Helping America Series: Washington, DC. Youniss, J., & Yates, M. (1997). Community service and social responsibility in youth. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press. Youniss, J., Bales, S., Christmas-Best, V., Diversi, M., McLaughlin, M., & Silbereisen, (2002). Youth civic engagement in the twenty-first century. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 12(1), 121–148. Youniss, J., McLellan, J. A., & Yates, M. (1997). What we know about engendering civic identity. American Behavioral Scientist, 40(5), 620–631.

Author Biography Denisha Jones Assistant Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at Trinity Washington University. She taught kindergarten in Washington DC before attending graduate school at Indiana University where she received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis on Early Childhood Education in 2013. Her research interests include teachers and public policy, the effects of school reform mandates on low-income children, preparing culturally competent teachers, and youth civic engagement. In 2015, she was the recipient of the Bammy Award for College Professor of the Year from the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences.

Chapter 7

Do You See What I See? Family-Produced Photographs and the Transition to School Kyle Miller

Abstract Through the use of photo-elicitation, this study explored the family perspective of the transition to kindergarten in lower-income households. Much research in this area brings a deficit-based approach to describing the families from lower-income backgrounds and their presumed lack of involvement in children’s early learning (Dockett & Perry, in Int J Early Years Educ 21(2):163–177, 2013). Countering that mainstream narrative, I desired to take a strengths-based approach to studying the variable ways in which lower-income families support this important school transition (Zigler & Bishop-Josef in Play = learning: how play motivates and enhances children’s cognitive and social-emotional growth. Oxford University Press, pp 15–35, 2006). Eight families from a larger study on the transition to school volunteered to participate in this photography project. Taking the ‘auto-driven’ approach (Clark-Ibanez, in Am Behav Sci 47:1507–1527, 2004), parents were in charge of capturing visual images of activities involving their children over the course of a week. Participants were then asked to explain how the images were connected to a child’s development or preparedness for school during a photo-elicitation interview. The study confirms that parents are the knowledgeable source when it comes to the lives of children and the transition to school. The photo-elicitation process empowered families to reveal family rituals and routines through visual images and interviews. The transition to school is just one of many social issues that may be addressed through visual imagery. This chapter describes the process of including participant-produced photographs in a study and how the findings bring insight to children’s early learning, while empowering families.

K. Miller (&) Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing AG 2018 M.L. Boucher, Jr. (ed.), Participant Empowerment Through Photo-elicitation in Ethnographic Education Research, http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64413-4_7

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Research Problem

Children’s preparedness for kindergarten and the transition into formal education is one of the most critical times for children and families (Pianta, 2007). Unfortunately, not all children are positively received by schools and teachers based on the knowledge and skills they bring to the classroom, which can put them on a less favorable trajectory compared to their peers. Early childhood research often identifies families from lower-income backgrounds as the population that is ‘lacking’ in adequately preparing children for school (Mistry, Benner, Biesanz, Clark, & Howes, 2010). Using a photo-elicitation method, I attempted to reframe the negativity associated with these families by exploring the family perspectives of lower-income households as parents prepared their children for kindergarten. Instead of taking a deficit-based approach and reporting how children in lower income homes are often viewed as ‘less ready’ for school (Dockett & Perry, 2013), I took a strengths-based approach to studying the ways in which lower-income families invest in children’s early learning and development in efforts to prepare children for school success (Zigler & Bishop-Josef, 2006). Over the last century, the roles of the home and the school have become more distinct, and individuals have been socialized to view schools as the expert source of knowledge for children’s learning and development (Graue & Sherfinski, 2011; Auerbach, 2007; Cooper & Christie, 2005). Some argue that there is a growing desire to make parents true partners with schools to ensure academic and social success (de Carvalho, 2001); while in reality, it may just be a growing mandate that requires these partnerships. Either way, striking a true partnership is a time-consuming and involved process that requires the cultivation and maintenance of relationships with families and changes in school policies and practices. They should also respect the realities of today’s families, histories, and practices. Unless the positioning of schools and teachers can shift, the focus of such relationships is likely to be limited to involving parents on the school’s terms and within its agenda (Keyes, 2002). One of the first steps is uncovering the mystery of families and children’s home-based learning.

7.2

Why Photo-Elicitation Was Used for This Study

Introduced to the world in John Collier’s foundational Visual Anthropology: Photography as Research Method (1967), photo elicitation has been found to be useful as a method for collecting data. Photo elicitation is sometimes referred to as photo interviewing (Hurworth, Clark, Martin, & Thomsen, 2003), because it involves using photographs to evoke comments, memory, reflection and discussion within a semi- or unstructured interview (Harper, 2002). Photographs are helpful in showing social interactions, social context, and concrete activities that can serve as

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the foundation for a discussion of broader representations or details of the images (Banks, 2001). Increasingly, qualitative researchers have embraced visual methods, including photography, as a means to generate knowledge and convey understanding (Gibbs, Friese, & Mangabeira, 2002; Pink, Kurti, & Afonso, 2004). Visual methods are gaining attention as a way to better understand families and strengthen home-school relationships (McAllister, Wilson, Green, & Baldwin, 2005). I came to embrace the tool of photography in research because photographs often entered my work with families even though they were unsolicited. As I conducted traditional interviews with family members, they would often show photographs from childhood albums or images from their phone to communicate ideas that words could not do alone. I gravitated to photo-elicitation interviews because my participants, in a sense, unintentionally introduced me to this method. Beyond supporting the initiative and desire of participants to share their photographs, there is scientific support for why visual images can enhance a research design. Language processing uses a separate area of the brain from visual processing, so images allow participants to share information that cannot simply be spoken (Prosser & Loxley, 2007). The visual images cannot replace the spoken word, but they can offer additional insight into the phenomenon of study (Pain, 2011). The triangulation of these sources strengthens the trustworthiness of the data. Additionally, there are a number of other ways using auto-driven photo-elicitation has supported the involvement of participants and the data collected: • Allows participants to lead the discussion during the interview. • Reactivates participant memories. • Reduces anxiety or awkwardness participants might feel in a traditional face to face interview. • Allows interview to observe their own life/data and interpret their reality in their own words. • Fosters a more in-depth interview with more concrete ideas and examples. • More engaging for participants. Clark-Ibanez (2004), Harper (2002, Hurworth et al. (2003) and Torre and Murphy (2015). For those reasons, I employed photo elicitation to identify a variety of family activities related to preparing children for school. Participants were able to visually capture the context of this transition, and identify meaningful people and places that surround them as they enter formal education.

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Method The Study and Participants

There were three components to the full study I conducted on children’s transition to kindergarten. It began with the collection of basic demographic forms and then continued with semi-structured interviews with mothers and fathers of children with a kindergarten-bound child. Photo-elicitation was the third piece of this study that was used to help triangulate the data with a smaller subset of participants. Figure 7.1 provides a graphic representation of the study’s components and phases to illustrate how the study fit together. I originally proposed the study to IRB in two parts, because I anticipated that the photography portion would hold up the study. I first submitted a protocol to conduct traditional interviews with families. Once that was approved, I submitted a modification to add photo-elicitation interviews with a subset of those participants. This helped immensely with the timing of the project and allowed me to begin recruitment and to build relationships with families long before I would have gained permission if all components were submitted together. Photo elicitation participants were recruited from the full sample of participants in the larger study. At the end of the first interview conducted with all parents, I told participants of the opportunity to participate in the photography portion of the study. If the participant expressed interest, I explained the procedure and made participants aware that they would receive a complete set of their photographs as compensation for their participation. Some of the families scheduled visit times immediately and others requested a follow-up phone call. Of the sixteen families involved in the first stage of the research, twelve volunteered for the photo elicitation portion of the study; however, four later changed their minds. Participants that did not participate cited reasons related to lack of time or moving conflicts. The final subsample of participants consisted of eight families. I was comfortable with this sample size because it is typical of visual work (see McAllister et al., 2005; Vaughn, Forbes, & Howell, 2009; Ornelas et al., 2009). Sample sizes tend to remain low in photo-elicitation because the process involves multiple visits with participants and aims at depth rather than breadth on the topic. Table 7.1 provides the sociodemographic information for the participating families. Although the photo-elicitation portion of the study could have existed on its own as an exclusively, visually-based project, there were many advantages to having it as an appendage to the larger study. First, I established positive relationships with families through the initial recruitment and interviews before inviting the families to participate in the photo-elicitation portion. Taking pictures of your family is a more intimate process than merely telling someone about your child and family routines in an interview, it requires a greater degree of trust and comfort with the researcher. Spending time with the family before requesting visual images of their life was a major benefit. Many researchers note that the photo elicitation process creates a bond and trust between the researcher and participants (see Mandelco, 2013; Clark-Ibanez, 2004), which I fully believe; however, there needs to be a baseline

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Fig. 7.1 Overview of study

trust even to begin the process. Second, the family completed paperwork and participated in a traditional interview on ways they were preparing their child for kindergarten; therefore, their thinking was already activated on the topic. In a way, it primed them for the week of photographing activities and people connected to their children’s preparation for school. This helped support the task and reflection process. I believe it pushed their thinking beyond the superficial and made them more consciously-driven as they documented their lives. As one mother reported, she started seeing things in her everyday life that she often overlooked.

Age (Male, Female)

30, 34

28, 29

29 46, 44

23

32 37, 35

24, 26

Name

Alexus/Darryl

Megan/Josh

Regina Lesley/Michael

Jasmin

Sonya Lori/Eddie

Deirdre/Marcus

Some college Some college, high school Some high school, some high school

College degree/some college Some college Some college, some college Some high school

GED, high school

Education level (M, F)

Table 7.1 Photo elicitation family characteristics

African American, African American

African American White, White

Black American African American, African American African American

African American, African American White, White

Race (M, F)

Less than $10,000

Less than $10,000 Over $30,000 $15–20,000 Over $30,000 Less than $10,000 $20–25,000 $20–25,000

Income

Partnered

Single Married

Single

Separated Married

Married

Partnered

Marital status

Sonya Lori, Eddie, 2 older daughters, 2 sons Deirdre, Marcus, 3 daughters

Jasmin

Regina Lesley and son

Megan and daughter

Alexus and daughter

Family members present at interview

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Data Collection

Data collection involved a series of three visits to each participant’s home and a number of steps, which are outlined at the end of the chapter. Taking the ‘auto driven’ approach (Clark-Ibanez, 2004), parents were in charge of capturing visual images of activities with their children over the course of a week. Given that all participants came from low-income households, there were many assumptions and strong opinions linked to supplying families with a digital camera. My colleagues at the university and practitioners who worked with the families warned me that the families would lose, misplace or damage the cameras. This was a direct example of how mainstream assumptions can restrict the inclusion and participation of families from diverse backgrounds in research. My response was always, “If they lose them, they lose them.” It was a risk that I was comfortable in taking. I also added that this is a reality for all families, not just low-income families, because children and busy schedules always bring a certain level of chaos to any household. However, all cameras were returned without any damage, showing that many class-based assumptions about families are unwarranted. During the first scheduled visit to the home, participants signed consent forms and I answered any questions or concerns about this phase of the study. Since this portion of the study involved images of participants, steps taken to protect their confidentiality in the study were described. For example, family members and individuals on the research team were the only individuals permitted to view the photos once they were developed. Actual photographs were not included in any publications or documents, and were deleted upon completion of analysis. Although I desired to use photographs in publications and presentations, the IRB was not willing to approve my study in that capacity. Since my images involved children and potentially many individuals outside of the study, they did not view it as ethical to disseminate those images. I did not fully agree with that decision, especially considering that my participants wanted their images used for educational purposes; however, it was a compromise I was willing to make in order to conduct my study. I arranged a time to visit each participant’s home and deliver the camera and directions. Parents were instructed to take pictures of any activities that might help their child in school. Families were instructed to think broadly about these instructions and use their own interpretation of what activities might be linked to their children’s readiness for school. Families had complete control over the camera during that week and chose what activities to capture. Because this method is naturalistic, parents were given minimal instructions and training on the process, other than how to use the camera. Instead, my intention was for parents to use the cameras as part of their everyday lives to record activities and scenes that convey their own understandings of school-readiness and capture how they are part of this transition process. After one week, I (attempted) to collect the camera from each family. If you have worked with families in research, you understand that not everything unfolds on the

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researcher’s timeline. There is a good reason for this—families are busy. Especially when you are working with families dealing with complex life situations (i.e., eviction, family stress, sickness), researchers need to be flexible and respectful of family situations and demands. If I was not able to pick up the camera from the family within one week, I just asked them to stop taking photographs and hold onto it until there was a time that worked for them. Once I retrieved the camera, families were given the opportunity to delete any photographs they did not wish to be viewed by me or the research team. Then the photographs were uploaded to a computer. With the family’s permission, copies of the photos were printed for the interview portion of the photo elicitation process and then given to the family for their personal use. A home visit time was scheduled with the family, at their convenience, and any members of the family were permitted to participate in the viewing session and interview. Of the eight interviews, two interviews involved the entire family (i.e., parents and children), three involved the mother and child, and three involved solely the mother. During the interview session, I spread pictures across the table for the family members to view. The family began by grouping or discarding any redundant pictures. I then asked participants to select photos to label and elaborate on. As the facilitator, I acknowledged that all images represented meaningful moments and that I would like to know more about what was going on in the pictures. The family took the lead in discussing the pictures. I employed additional probes to address deeper meanings of these activities for the family and how they understand their connectedness to the child’s preparation for school. For example, one image showed the twin boys at a large dinner table with various people. The mother briefly stated that “family” was important to them and that these individuals all helped raise the boys. Before she moved onto the next picture, I asked her to further describe each person’s role or influence on the lives of the boys. Photographs served as prompts rather than data, and the information provided in photographs helped guide the interview with families (Clark-Ibanez, 2004). The images often contained new information, and triggered meaning for the interviewee beyond previous discussions (Collier, 1967; Schwartz, 1989). Photographs contextualized previous conversations conducted with the families and identified important objects, individuals and relationships related to the transition to school. Photographs used in the study held a dual purpose. I used the photographs as a tool to explore the contextualized lives of families, and simultaneously, participants used photographs to provide a unique way to communicate activities in their everyday lives.

7.3.3

Data Analysis

Data analysis began immediately following the first set of interviews, and continued throughout the data collection process. The analysis began with the transcription of the data and was accompanied with the creation of memos. I followed Boyatzis’

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(1998) process for developing codes and thematically analyzing data. His process is very helpful for linear thinkers who sometimes get lost in the reflexivity of qualitative data analysis. The coding of material involved five prescribed steps to inductively developing a code: (1) reducing the raw information, (2) identifying themes within subsamples, (3) comparing themes across subsamples, (4) creating a code, and (5) determining the reliability of the code. Reliability is a tricky concept in relationship to qualitative research and photo-elicitation. However, since I was working with several graduate and undergraduate students on this project, I wanted to increase the credibility of our findings and integrity of our work. Reliability was achieved by double coding all transcripts. Two researchers coded the transcripts of the photo-elicitation interview independently and then met to discuss each transcript. Codes were then compared and discussed until we reached a final agreement. Coded transcripts were then matched with each participant’s set of pictures to further examine the data. Based on IRBs requirements, they were not to be used as data, merely a prompt; however, they were helpful in clarifying or validating the comments of participants and understanding the full context of their verbal explanations. Depending on the size of one’s project, I found the qualitative software NVivo to be helpful in managing data and ideas, querying data, and creating graphic models from the data (Bazeley, 2007). As with all qualitative software, NVivo 9 did not analyze data, but it provided a system to support the process of coding and analysis. It helped me connect all of the textual and visual pieces of the study, which I often struggle to do on my own.

7.3.4

Positionality

Since photo-elicitation aims to empower participants, it is important to reflect on one’s positionality that would impact the relationship with participants, as well as any potential biases. Researcher bias is a major concern in regard to a study’s trustworthiness and tends to result from selective observations and selective recording of information (Berg, 1998). It also results from allowing one’s personal views and perspectives to affect how the data are interpreted and how the research is conducted (Maxwell, 2005). During the planning stages and throughout data collection and analysis, I consistently revisited my personal characteristics to consider how they may impact the study. Positionality is determined by where one stands in relation to ‘the Other’, and these positions can shift throughout a study (Milner, 2007). Before beginning the study, I reflected on my values and ties to the topic of study. Researchers should know who they are before going into the field. This involves acknowledging my perspective, respect those with whom I would work, and conducting myself with the utmost integrity at all times (Weis & Fine, 1996). Despite a school discourse that blames parents for the difficulties of students, I tried to withhold judgment about students and parents by listening carefully to the messages parents conveyed.

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However, I am also a White, middle-class female who did not have children at the time of the study. Many of my characteristics did not match those of my participants; therefore, it was at the forefront of my mind throughout the study. In order to remain aware of personal biases and lenses through which I analyzed the data, I welcomed the input of others. By working with a group of undergraduate and graduate students, who shared the process of data organization and analysis, I was able to gain several perspectives. Additionally, I sought out other opportunities to formally and informally discuss the research with faculty and graduate student colleagues. None of these activities were intended to ‘cleanse’ my mind of preconceptions or remove bias, instead, they allowed me to acknowledge the ideas I brought to this study and that I was not approaching the data with an empty mind, but with an open one (Richards, 2009).

7.3.5

Rapport

Building rapport with participants was critical to this project, given that data gathered was dependent upon participants’ willingness to share personal information about themselves and family and it helped me elicit more candid and complete information from participants. Because rapport is jointly achieved, it was important for me to be nonjudgmental, courteous, interested, and understanding with the participants and family at large—during all stages of the project (Berg, 1998). It was equally as important for me to be aware of participants’ anxiety in participating in one-on-one interviews and, in some cases, inviting me into their homes. Assuring participants that all photographic images were of value and that there were no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers appeared helpful in making participants feel more at ease. However, it should be noted that most participants were excited about the opportunity to share their ideas and experiences with me and did not need the reassurance. Several participants asked if I was “really” a researcher, and said that I seemed much more like a “regular” person. These comments made me constantly think about what I was doing to elicit this type of reaction, or making them feel relaxed during my time with them. Primarily, I did not pose myself as an expert in their lives. Quite the contrary, I introduced myself as someone who was interested in learning about them particularly because their experiences were under-reported in research. It is also important to note that rapport was not something that was ever fully achieved, but instead involved ongoing efforts and attention to the relationship between the interviewee and myself.

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Findings

A series of traditional and nontraditional readiness activities were identified across participant images and in the photo-elicitation interview. Images supported that families were engaging in school-desired activities, but also supplemented these activities with unique and less-structured activities that promoted learning. Family descriptions of photographs provided alternative explanations and motivations for engaging in certain activities that may be invisible to many teachers and schools. Based on the research team’s discussions, coding, and ongoing analysis meetings, six main findings were identified. The order of the findings begins with parent-directed transition activities inside of the home, and moves outward to family and peer support and community activities. The most robust themes were: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)

Readiness involves doing school-like activities, Readiness involves technology, Readiness is part of everyday activities, Readiness involves having the right materials, Readiness is supported by siblings and peers, Readiness relies on the resources and opportunities provided by the community.

Table. 7.2 describes each theme and provides a quotation to demonstrate how it emerged in the photo-elicitation interview. Table 7.2 Themes related to preparation in context Theme

Definition

Example

Readiness is doing school-like activities

“We buy him these books that are just like the ones he does in school”

Readiness is part of everyday activities

Families document activities that replicate assignments and activities that children do in the school setting Families document the role of technology in reinforcing important skills or learning how to operate technology Families document learning that occurs during their natural routine inside or outside of the home

Readiness involves the right materials

Families document purchasing or organizing school supplies with their child

Readiness is supported by family and peers Readiness relies on the resources of the community

Families document family members or kin-like individuals that support the child’s activities Families document educational spaces or locations in the community that the child visits

Readiness involves technology

“She knows how to use the computer on her own. She can turn it on and off and knows how to use the mouse” “Here we are at the grocery store and he learns all about the food and can practice his shapes and colors” “He is putting his markers away. He knows this is what he will take with him on the first day of school” “Here she is with her sister. Her sister helps her with practicing her letters and numbers and coloring” “We are at the library. We always go for the story hour and then check out books for the week”

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Readiness Involves Doing School-like Activities

Parents believed readiness was knowing the “basics” for kindergarten. All of the eight families took pictures of activities in the home that looked like activities children do at school. Photographs and interviews described the importance of activities supporting math and literacy development, as well as some content areas, such as learning about weather. These photos were predominantly documented in participant houses or apartments. Many of the photographs featured children completing homework from preschool programs, or workbooks purchased to reinforce homework assignments. Parents discussed the importance of these images in extending the classroom’s learning to their homes. Extending learning outside the classroom was especially important for parents who were unable to secure a summer program for their child, and who were concerned that children’s academic skills would regress during summer months prior to school entry. Parental efforts in this area centered on completing homework and workbook assignments and enrichment activities. Homework and workbooks. Many participants photographed children completing homework assignments or workbook activities. Most pictures captured children sitting independently with their paper and pencil at the kitchen table, but a few were more interactive and hands-on. Jasmin grouped a series of pictures of her son completing worksheets at the kitchen table. She selected one picture of her son completing a letter tracing assignment from his preschool and discussed the activity. “See here, he’s doing his homework. Homework keeps him alert. He goes to school and he says, ‘I know that because we did that last night.’” A few photographs of homework assignments portrayed a more interactive process in learning content material. For example, Megan also described photographs related to homework from her daughter’s Head Start program. The mother and daughter grouped images of her daughter sorting through a backpack of objects, while lying on the living room floor. Megan selected several of these photographs to discuss: She gets themed backpacks from school every week. That time we had the weather backpack, so we got to learn all about the weather. And you see, they had a windsock so we could take that outside and learn about it. They give directions and a book about weather. This one we are talking about the thermometer and what the temperature is. She really likes those. There are usually like 6 or 7 activities in there.

Like Jasmin and Megan, many of the families commented on the importance of supporting and supervising homework time for children’s preparation for school. In addition, some families purchased workbooks that replicated these activities to provide their children with extra practice. Lesley discussed an assortment of pictures that recorded her son completing pre-kindergarten workbooks: I always go to the dollar store and I buy these and they are really cheap. Like here, he has to write the number 2 and then spell out two. Or like print 6 and then write out six. For kindergarten, these days you need to know all these numbers and letters. These books give

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him the opportunity to know and do what he will be doing in kindergarten so he is ready. Like these books are pre-K books. When his [older] brothers are doing work, he has to do them.

She added another picture of her son cutting and pasting to the cluster of pictures. “See here, he cuts out pictures and puts them in sequence. He cuts them out, puts them in order and then glues them down.” Lesley took a variety of photographs capturing school-like moments in their home. She captured close-ups of the actual workbooks to show the diversity of letter and number activities, as well as images of her son completing the exercises. Enrichment activities. Many photographs captured additional activities that contributed to literacy and numeracy development. However, instead of worksheet-based activities, these pictures displayed game-like activities for the child’s enjoyment. Megan grouped a series of pictures displaying large laminated boards with letters and numbers. These homemade boards were created as a matching game for her daughter. In these photographs, the daughter was matching upper and lower case letters, as well as assortments of dots to corresponding number cards. Megan and her daughter described and reflected on the images of these activities: Megan: These are some easy things I learned at the day care I used to work at. I mean, they are really inexpensive to make. This one we are counting by 10s up to 100, so that she recognizes 10, 20, 30… Daughter: (Grabs one picture) This one’s pretty easy. Megan: Number recognition 1-10 and 11-20 and she does pretty well with that one. She loves doing these and she does them like 3-4 times a week. I figured 20 is a good start. And then the letters, too. Most of this she already knows, but we keep it going so that she doesn’t forget it for kindergarten. We made the matching upper case to lower case because that was one of the goals she made with her teachers this year, so we did that. We used to have to sit with her to do them, but now she can do them on her own. We also use shaving cream on the table and they can practice writing letters with their fingers.

Megan recognized that her training in early childhood education helped her incorporate creative activities in the home that boosted learning. She appreciated that her daughter enjoyed the activities, which made her job easier. Letter magnets were also a common photograph recorded by families. Families described the assortment of letters on their refrigerator as a fun activity for children to practice creating words and spelling their names. Lesley grouped together a number of photos of her son sliding around colorful letters and forming words. I asked her to discuss these pictures: This is cookin’ time and if there isn’t something he can be doing with me he does his letters. I have him spell out his name and see here with c he was doing cat and then dog. I want him to recognize letters and start with small words. I will have him tell me the letter, sound it out and spell a word. Then he has to tell me what it means. And then he will say, “What about that?” And I will say, “Well, what does it start with?” And he has to sound it out and find H.

Similarly, Marcus pointed out the magnet letters in the kitchen and brought attention to their learning contributions. He said, “You can’t really see it, but those

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are the letter magnets there. They use those in the kitchen. She practices working with her letters and I know that is important for school.” I asked the family how they use the letters. Deirdre said, “You know, they practice their names and some words.”

7.4.2

Readiness Involves Technology

A somewhat surprising finding was the emergence of technology, specifically computer use, in the photographs and discussions. Five of the families took pictures of children engaging with technology and seven of the families discussed the role of technology during interviews. Interestingly, this was not an activity frequently named in participants’ initial interviews as part of the larger study, but was a dominant theme in the photo elicitation follow-up. Images of children exploring educational websites, navigating the internet, playing games, and demonstrating how to turn on and off different pieces of technology emerged as highly valued readiness skill for families. This theme presented itself in two ways – participants described how children gained knowledge and skills through computer games and activities, and simultaneously emphasized the importance of knowing how to use technology for success in school. Computers support skill development. Somewhat like the enrichment activities described in the last theme, parents photographed and identified computer games and resources as important contributors to academic and social development. Children could independently explore sites and engage with the technology in ways that reinforced previously learned skills, and also challenged them in new areas. Alexus described a picture of her daughter sitting at a miniature laptop: And this is like her little computer or laptop and it has stuff on it for her to do. It has like a letters game and then there is a sports game. And we can buy more – sometimes we get them at Walmart. And it has like activities for them to do and learn. Some of the games are too hard for her and she gets frustrated, but some are on her level. But it is good to have the challenge too.

This mother emphasized the role of the computer in providing educational enrichment for her daughter. It presented new academic content, while reinforcing some letter and number recognition she already knew. Megan gave me an interactive tour of the family iPad to view the different educational games it offered. She demonstrated a letter tracing game, flashcards, and a letter-object matching game. She also instructed her daughter to show me the PBS website that was photographed in one of the pictures to display the diversity of activities available to her daughter. For Lori, the family laptop was a helpful tool for teaching their child with autism about social skills: I have a program on my computer that is designed for children with autism. And it shows a classroom of students and how kids are supposed to behave and I will have him watch it

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with me. And he will say, “I wanna be the student, mom. I wanna be the student.” And I take him to different websites on the computer to see different social skills.

Lori was concerned with his gap in programming between Head Start and the first day of kindergarten, and she believed these computer programs helped her son continue his social development for school. Computer knowledge is a skill. Other mothers also emphasized the role of the computer and technology for school preparation; however, they underscored the importance of developing knowledge of how to work technology and developing comfort with computers. Parents stressed the importance of computer and technology skills for school success and as a general expectation in today’s society. Lesley grouped pictures of her youngest son, as well as her older sons, interacting with the computer. She described some of the benefits of educational computer games, but emphasized computer knowledge as a more important skill for kindergarten and school. Like my older son is doing research on the computer and he [youngest] is sitting there with him, watching what he is doing and learning how to use the computer. He know how to turn the computer on, go to stuff, download stuff. Although I’m a little iffy about all this downloading. We have set up a box for him so that we can pick things that he is allowed to do. He is not afraid of computers. Like in kindergarten they start to do this with kids and introduce them to computers, but he is already there.

Later in her interview, she revisited these pictures to further explain the role of technology in her household. She described her oldest son’s love of music and how beneficial his activities are for her youngest son. Her oldest son works with programs to create music on the computer, and her youngest has both observed and participated in creating and performing with the technology. She also commented, “And they’ve been doing some youtube stuff. [Name] sings a little bit and they upload it on YouTube.com—under my discretion of course—so he is learning to use parts of the computer that most kids don’t even know about. This makes me feel good.” After Megan described the enrichment games available to her daughter on their iPad and computer, she shifted her discussion to the importance of computer knowledge. She explained that she also took pictures of her daughter at the computer to show that her daughter was learning to use technology and navigate the internet. I asked Megan to tell me why she believed this activity would help her prepare for school. She replied: Nowadays because of computers, you kind of have to know how or you are lost. I mean, she is going to start with them in kindergarten – it is important to know how to use the mouse correctly and know what buttons do what and at least navigate a little bit. They can use my phone and the iPad – she knows where to go to use her games – they know the cameras, they know how to use everything. I think it is important for them to know computers and to use it correctly and to know their limits.

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Access to computers and becoming comfortable with technology was viewed as beneficial to children’s readiness for school. Beyond supporting necessary skills for school, it was a skill in itself that was linked to a child’s successful kindergarten entrance.

7.4.3

Readiness Is Part of Everyday Activities

Many of the photographs taken by parents focused on everyday activities that were transformed into learning opportunities for their children. All of the eight families took pictures of naturally occurring activities their children participate in, and described their importance in interviews. Given the busy schedules that many of these families reported, parents took advantage of daily routines and errands to support academic, social, and physical development with their children. Although they did not describe these activities as school-like or mirroring the school environment, they did identify these activities as contributing to transition children to school. Families described these everyday activities in two ways—families made learning part of their daily routine and families created a routine to support children’s learning and development. Most families described engaging in, and creating, both subthemes. Learning as part of the routine. Photographs and interviews displayed everyday activities and errands as opportunities to learn. Many images documented children’s involvement with cooking and grocery store trips. These families were able to find teaching moments in their mundane routines. Participants discussed the creative ways in which they made these tasks educational and found learning moments in their everyday lives. Families recognized that photographic images could be deceiving, because they did not immediately look like learning-related activities; however, families clarified how learning transpired in the photographs. Jasmin held up a picture of her son leaving the house for an outing. She described how this picture represented a learning moment: He goes on all my errands with me and we make stuff educational. We point out buildings and do a lot of stuff at the grocery store. Like, here’s an apple – it starts with an A. For some reason, that helps him connect ideas more than just reading it out of a book. Much more so than out of a book.

Cooking was an important routine for families to integrate learning opportunities. During this daily ritual, children could help measure out ingredients and become familiar with the names of different food items. Jasmin discussed photographs of her son with a brownie mix, and connected them to learning: The cooking definitely helped him with things he needs to know. Because he has to figure out the measurements and the ingredients he has to put in and the proper way he has to prepare himself for the meal. He has to wash his hands up to his elbow. And the measurements help him in knowing he needs a cup of this and a cup of that and 1/3 of…it always helps. The pictures on top of the box help, because he knows he needs eggs and he need oil and water and he get that.

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Creating routines to promote learning. Families also photographed and described their intentions to create routines that support children’s readiness. Routines that promoted personal hygiene and sufficient sleep patterns were displayed in a number of photographs and described in interviews. For example, the majority of Jasmin’s photographs displayed images of her son preparing the shower, brushing his teeth, washing his face, flossing and preparing for school in the morning: After he uses the bathroom he flosses and here he’s puttin’ toothpaste on his brush. It is an everyday thing just him brushin’ his teeth. It’s just been learning it all the way. Now, getting him to actually get it on his toothbrush took a while without it bein’ everywhere because usually he have it on the sink and I’m like wipe that up. He gets himself ready pretty good for his age. And that will help you stay focused during the day cause then you don’t have to worry about – do I stink?

Jasmin also pointed out a picture of herself sitting in a chair in her pajamas and laughed. I asked her why this picture belonged in the group. She said that her son took the camera from her and snapped a photo of her one morning while he was getting ready for preschool. He explained to his mother that she was also part of his morning routine and should be included. She said, “I try an’ give him space, but I do supervise.”

7.4.4

Readiness Involves the Right Materials

Many of the photographs taken by participants focused on practical aspects of getting ready for school. Four of the families took pictures of school materials for kindergarten and seven of the families discussed it during interviews. Images showed children playing with school supplies, preparing a backpack, or picking out clothes. While children were the central figure in these photographs and explanations, parents identified themselves as responsible for providing these items and helping children prepare their materials for the school day. They also believed it helped create excitement for children in preparing for their first day of school. For example, Alexus selected a photograph of her daughter sitting with a purple backpack: So, here we have her bookbag and I’m like, “Here’s your bag, this is what you are going to take to school and show me your stuff, this is what you need to take with you next year and you are going to take it every day. You can’t forget your homework or your pencils, crayons or anything and your coloring books.”

Her daughter grabbed the picture from her mom to see the image. Alexus said to her daughter, “Tell her what you’re taking.” She replied, “My backpack!” Alexus then said, “What else?” Her daughter answered: My homework and my coloring books. And my crayons for my coloring books. And my umbrella for when it rains. So I won’t get wet. Wanna see my umbrella? I got Tinkerbell on it.

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The daughter brought me her umbrella to show me Tinkerbell and how the umbrella popped open. I asked her if there was anything else she would be taking to school in her backpack. She said, “And I’m gonna take my pencil to write my homework.” Lori and Eddie grouped several pictures together of their son playing with school supplies and placing items in a clear, plastic pencil bag. The parents reviewed the pictures and commented on their importance: Lori: This is, he’s getting his pencil bag ready for school. There he’s got his pencils and his markers. That’s him getting ready for school. Eddie: Yep, there you can see him with his scissors. Yeah, he learned how to use scissors at Head Start and he came home and was cutting everything up. Lori: His Head Start program donated some of that for us. We got a list from the school for the supplies he needs. He knows those are his and that he will be taking them to school with him.

7.4.5

Readiness Is Supported by Family and Peers

Many of the photographs included siblings, extended family, and peers. All of the eight families took pictures of family members and neighborhood peers who support their child’s readiness. Explanations of these photographs described these individuals’ their integral involvement in the process of preparing children for school. Older siblings were identified as important teachers for their children in learning both social and academic skills that they believed were essential to success in kindergarten. Siblings and peers that were close in age to the child, were viewed as helpful in promoting the development of important social skills (e.g., sharing, friendship, communication, conflict management). Megan identified the other siblings that appeared in the photographs and described their role in helping her daughter prepare for school: Her older sister is in a lot of these pictures because she teaches her a lot of stuff. She reads with her and taught her how to use the computer. She helps her with a lot of the homework she brings home too.

Sonya also identified her sister in several of the pictures and explained that since she lived with the family, she played a central role in helping her son with the transition to school: This is his aunt reading with him. She was reading something about a bear, I can’t remember the name of the story. I’m in school during the day, so he spends most of his time with her - and she lives here. She has a son around his age, so they do everything together. She takes them on her outings and takes them to museums. She probably helps him the most for school.

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Readiness Relies on the Resources of the Community

Many of the photographs taken by parents focused on attending community activities or taking advantage of resources in the area. Six of the families took pictures of such locations and all eight of the families discussed community resources during their interviews. Since these families relied on financial assistance from the state, their ability to participate in out-of-home activities required that these enrichment opportunities be free or affordable. Many images documented visits to public library activities, zoos, parks, museums and community events. A number of families also discussed the role of structured recreational activities or summer programs on the transition process, even if they could not photograph such activities. Images of the public library, zoo, and parks appeared across photographs. The public library was an important location for a number of families in thinking about preparing their children for school. This location’s educational focus and resources, as well as a space to interact with other children, made it an important community resource. Lori and Eddie captured a number of moments at their local library. The public library provided a space to engage in literature and learning, but also a clean, open space to conduct sessions with the physical and occupational therapists: Lori: That’s where we were with Joseph at the library and he is picking out books and his DVDs. Eddie: And here he has his book and he is about to check it out. Son: Dad, that’s my picture! Lori: We can use the closed captions on the movie so that he can read the words. Plus, with all the people in our house, it is the only way he can pay attention. We try to go once a week. Lori: And the birth to three gal - and he is playing with the letter board. Eddie: And I know kindergarten expects him to count so high and he needs to know that. Since he takes to academics so well, we try to teach him as much as possible so he is ahead.

For Lori and Eddie, the public library provided a safe and clean environment for their son to explore and learn. Since their house offered limited space and organization for most activities and therapy sessions, libraries were important for their son’s preparation for school. Jasmin grouped a number of photographs taken at a local park. She pointed out the different activities he displayed in the photographs, such as the monkey bars, running around, and using his scooter on the blacktop. She also discussed the role of other children at the park as part of his social and emotional development for school: Like he learns a lot from being with kids at the park. The other day there was this bully at the park and he had to deal with her. And he was like, “Mom, I’m gonna slap her in like 2.5 seconds. I’m gonna slap her.” I said, “Son, just walk away. She is a girl. Just walk away. Just come and tell me what’s going on and I will handle it.” These are important lessons. You can’t be hitting kids at school. You can’t be doing that.

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Participant Empowerment

I do not believe in the concept of giving participants a ‘voice’. I find this phrase somewhat demeaning; as if an individual does not have a voice and I am giving them a gift. Instead, I believe that everyone has a voice and merely needs a forum to use it. In this study, it was just a matter of providing a space for the participants to use their voice. This process empowered families to recognize the variable ways in which they support learning daily. It also empowered families to reflect on the process of preparing children for school. Although each mother was the primary manager of the camera, taking photographs was a collective process within the family unit. There were even times during the interviews when members of the family would identify which family member requested certain pictures to be taken; showing the collaborative nature of the project. It allowed each person to contribute, and placed equal value on each image. One unexpected finding that was not connected to a research question was how many families thanked me at the conclusion of the project. As the researcher, I am usually the person who thoroughly expresses gratitude to participants for volunteering their time and commitment. However, there was something unique about this experiences that seemed to validate the lives and routines of these families. One mother said, “Thank you for doing this. Thank you for asking. No one ever asks us to talk. It is usually people telling me what I should be doing.” As professionals in the field, researchers and practitioners do a lot of talking and spend less time listening. Photo-elicitation provided families a space to speak with images and their words. It was a unique experience for the families that yielded important data for the field. As a source of data, the photographs added contextual richness to the study by showing the interactions, objects and people who engage in the transition. Providing families with a week to photograph moments, reflect, and discuss the transition to school provided a much broader picture of this process for families, which was portrayed as a family, school, and community process (Pianta, Cox, Taylor, & Early, 1999). In turn, this brings more attention to families as active contributors to children’s early learning. It shows that families are intentional and thoughtful, which is not often reflected in the mainstream dialogue about families from low-income backgrounds. Photo elicitation images and discussions helped widen the lens on behaviors and activities that are shaping children’s early beginnings, especially nontraditional activities, and increase awareness of why parents facilitate certain experiences. Children living in low-income homes make up 44% of the population in the United States and this number continues to grow (National Center for Children in Poverty, 2016), making it a top priority for school personnel and service providers. Researchers and practitioners in the field of early childhood need to investigate the lived experiences of children from lower-income families from a strength-based perspective, as a way to explore the skills and talents that children develop at home, and how schools can build on those strengths. Further, practitioners should remain

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aware of higher and lower resource differences among low-income families that may shape their experiences and approaches to preparing children for school, which emerged in this study. Students, families, and researchers may use photography to communicate ideas and confront issues both inside and outside of the classroom. The transition to school is just one of many social issues that may be addressed through visual imagery, “It can give strong insight into wider cultural perceptions, categories, and metaphors, and provide us with views of how things are or should be” (Harrison 2002, p. 857). Based on the philosophy that the transition to school is a family, school and community process (Pianta et al., 1999), visual imagery creates a medium to share perspective, ideas and challenges between and across these key stakeholders. Acknowledging that school preparation is a joint responsibility, rather than something dictated by a particular group, recognizes the importance of relationships and providing time and resources to support relationship-building. Using photography to share information from the home to school and school to home, allows schools and communities to identify existing strengths and extend these strengths, rather than focus on deficits. One example of how this process may be used as an intervention tool is related to visual work conducted in a Head Start program in the Midwest. A consultant, Alice Eberhart-Wright, developed a technique called “Focus and Reflect”, aimed at highlighting positive home interactions and building on family strengths (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2015). As part of this process, a coach visited family homes and gained permission to video-record parent-child interactions. During visits, only positive comments were made about family activities and the coach identified “beautiful moments” between the parent and child. Beautiful moments represented positive interactions that benefit the child and the parent-child relationship. Edited clips of beautiful moments were then presented at family group gatherings to serve as teaching opportunities for other families and to describe the benefits of such interactions. This type of technique engaged families and early childhood staff to recognize positive interactions and build on them. Photography could accomplish these same goals and holds potential for highlighting the strengths of families, increasing the self-efficacy of parents, and spreading effective practices to other families. On a broader scale, the method may enhance internal reflection, self-awareness, and the exchange of individuals’ perceptions in order to initiate personal and community change that can be documented in research (Wang, 1999). Action-oriented forms of photography use, such as Photovoice, have shown to be effective tools for low-income populations in child health research and policy (Wang & Burris, 1997; Killion & Wang, 2000), and could make powerful contributions to the field of education and early childhood development. It has also been used effectively to inform policy makers and to create tangible legislative change. Parents are the experts when it comes to describing their child’s home environment and the role they play in preparing their child for school (Edwards, 1999). By inviting parents to take the role of the expert on their child, researchers and practitioners shift power into the hands of the family, which is rare in research. The

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photo-elicitation process empowered families to openly share their family rituals and routines through participant-produced images and interviews, and quieted the ‘voice over’ of researchers and practitioners (Luttrell, 2010). Children’s early learning is just one phenomenon that can be investigated with photography. Using photography with families offers promise in identifying existing strengths of families that schools can capitalize upon as they facilitate culturally relevant learning experiences for children.

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McAllister, C. L., Wilson, P. C., Green, B. L., & Baldwin, J. (2005). “Come and take a walk”: Listening to Early Head Start parents on school-readiness as a matter of child, family, and community health. American Journal of Public Health, 95(4), 617–625. Mandelco, B. (2013). Research with children as participants: Photo elicitation. Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing, 18(1), 78–82. Maxwell, J. A. (2005). Qualitative research design: An interactive design. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Milner, H. R. (2007). Race, culture, and researcher positionality: Working through dangers seen, unseen, and unforeseen. Educational Researcher, 36(7), 388–400. Mistry, R. S., Benner, A. D., Biesanz, J. C., Clark, S. L., & Howes, C. (2010). Family and social risk, and parental investments during the early childhood years as predictors of low-income children’s school readiness outcomes. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 25, 432–449. National Center for Children in Poverty. (2016). Basic facts about low-income children. Columbia University: School of Public Health. Ornelas, I. J., Amell, J., Tran, A. N., Royster, M., Armstrong-Brown, J., & Eng, E. (2009). Understanding African American men’s perceptions of racism, male gender socialization, and social capital through photovoice. Qualitative Health Research, 19(4), 552–565. Pain, H. (2011). Visual methods in practice and research: A review of empirical support. International Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation, 18(6), 343–350. Pianta, R. C. (2007). Early education in transition. In R. Pianta, M. Cox, & K. Snow (Eds.), School readiness and the transition to kindergarten in the era of accountability (pp. 3–10). Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing. Pianta, R. C., Cox, M. J., Taylor, L., & Early, D. (1999). Kindergarten teachers’ practices related to the transition to school: Results of a national survey. The Elementary School Journal, 100 (1), 71–86. Pink, S., Kurti, L., & Afonso, A. (2004). Working images: Visual research and representation in ethnography. New York: Routledge. Prosser, J., & Loxley, A. (2007). Enhancing the contribution of visual methods to inclusive education. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 7(1), 55–68. Richards, K. (2009). Trends in qualitative research in language teaching since 2000. Language Teaching, 42(2), 147–180. Schwartz, D. (1989). Visual ethnography: Using photography in qualitative research. Qualitative Sociology, 12(2), 119–153. Torre, D., & Murphy, J. (2015). A different lens: Changing perspectives using photo-elicitation interviews. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 23(111), 1–26. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2015). Promoting positive parenting through positive interactions. Retrieved from http://www.cdiheadstart.org/success/positive.aspx. Vaughn, L., Forbes, J., & Howell, B. (2009). Enhancing home visitation programs: Input from a participatory evaluation using photovoice. Infants & Young Children, 22(2), 132–145. Wang, C. C. (1999). Photovoice: A participatory action research strategy applied to women’s health. Journal of Women’s Health, 8(2), 185–192. Wang, C., & Burris, M. A. (1997). Photovoice: Concept, methodology, and use for participatory needs assessment. Health Education & Behavior, 24(3), 369–387. Weis, L., & Fine, M. (1996). Narrating the 1980s and 1990s: Voices of poor and working class White and African American men. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 27, 493–516. Zigler, E. F., & Bishop-Josef, S. J. (2006). The cognitive child versus the whole child: Lessons from 40 years of Head Start. In D. Singer, R. M. Golinkoff, and K. Hirsh-Pasek (Eds.), Play = learning: How play motivates and enhances children’s cognitive and social-emotional growth (pp. 15–35). Oxford University Press.

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Author Biography Kyle Miller Assistant Professor of Elementary Education at Illinois State University. Dr. Miller holds a background in education and human development. She has worked in a variety of educational settings including schools, afterschool programs, and Peace Corps Nicaragua. Dr. Miller completed her graduate training at Harvard Graduate School of Education and the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she served on a variety of studies that investigated the social and academic development of children. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Child Growth and Development in the College of Education at Illinois State University. Dr. Miller serves as the coordinator for the child development courses and mentors undergraduate students on honors research projects. Additionally, she teaches courses related to child and adolescent development, elementary education, working with diverse populations, and qualitative research methods. Her research interests include the areas of low-income families and school readiness, strengthening home-school relationships, and strengths-based work with families and communities. She uses photography as a tool in her research projects as well as in her courses to deepen student reflections and awareness of educational topics.

Chapter 8

Curb My Cynicism: Employing Photo Elicitation to Address the Problem of Research on Bullying Gerald Walton

Abstract Seemingly, everyone has something to say about bullying and most have had some direct experience with it. People tell stories of when they were bullied or their child was bullied. For many, it is an emotional topic because it is personally experienced, often in violent, cruel, and sustained ways. People have lost friends and family members because of suicide that is sometimes seen as the only escape from the torment. In the US, Donald Trump, widely described as a “bully” on a world scale because of his many misogynist and racist comments, was elected President of the United States in November 2016. The problem, or what has been largely depicted as the problem, is that bullying is largely viewed as a form of behaviour. As the author outlines in other works (Walton in Confero: Essays on Education, Philosophy and Politics 3(2):1–17, 2015; Walton in Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 32(1):131–144, 2011), bullying is a social problem, not just bad behaviour enacted by individual young people, that is learned, validated, and replicated. Recognizing bullying as a social problem should leave little wonder why it seems to go on and on without any sign of abating. The reason for its tenacity is that it operates not only in society, but as society. This chapter highlights data from a 2012 study (Walton and Niblett in Journal of Youth Studies 16(5):646–662, 2012) with 37 children in which we employed photo elicitation strategies to acquire adolescent perspectives on bullying. In 2012, interviews were conducted in which photo elicitation strategies were employed to acquire children’s perspectives on bullying. The research was guided by Gauntlett and Awan’s (The handbook of visual culture. Berg, London, UK, pp. 589–606, 2012) claim that photo-elicitation is an avenue to “a different route into discussion of a topic” (p. 591). The specter of finding a different route provided insights on how to research an already over-researched topic and led the author to problematize the broad enterprise of research and assess his contributions to it.

G. Walton (&) Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing AG 2018 M.L. Boucher, Jr. (ed.), Participant Empowerment Through Photo-elicitation in Ethnographic Education Research, http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64413-4_8

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Eye Roll Please: Research on Bullying

In 2010 when I was collecting data using photo elicitation methods, I could not have anticipated that, a few years later, I would be asked to write about the process and to weigh out the pros and cons. At that time, I was involved with local schools and recruited 37 children to participate in a study on bullying. My colleague and I, Blair Niblett, co-wrote an article published in the Journal of Youth Studies called, Investigating the problem of bullying through photo elicitation (2012). The questions that platformed the inquiry, as we wrote in the article, were: “Do students in schools identify difference (even without saying the actual word) as a factor of bullying and, if so, in what ways?” (p. 649) I thought that the trajectory of our research on bullying had taken a nosedive, having concluded that bullying was a highly over-researched topic. Although we did not conduct further analyses of the data, photo elicitation provided an opportunity to conduct research in a way that brought some spark back to my broader research on bullying. As it turned out, photo elicitation provided a way for me to continue my research on bullying, in collaboration with Blair, in a way that stimulated interest among the children who participated and helped me to collect a rich set of data that other approaches would not have fostered.

8.2

How My Cynicism of the “Contest Illusion” Led to Utilizing Photo Elicitation

The last thing the research world needed, I argued prior to considering photo elicitation, was yet more research on bullying. I maintain that position to this day. While there may be evidence to suggest that certain bullying programs may have curbed the problem in some ways, there is little reason to believe that bullying has been effectively addressed in meaningful and longstanding ways (Twemlow & Sacco, 2008). The blunt fact is that, despite all of the well-meaning efforts of researchers and educators, bullying persists unrelentingly. The persistence of bullying in school contexts is of no surprise (Walton, 2006). Jeong and Lee (2013) theorized that bullies actively choose to disregard what they learn through anti-bullying programs and to adapt their approaches making use of the new information. Consider, too, the likes of Donald Trump and his denigration of women, Mexicans, and Muslims among other minorities. Children learn from adults, whether parents, teachers, or those in the public eye. When adults bully others by targeting individuals who represent—or are perceived to represent— marginalized demographic groups, how can we expect children not to follow the behaviours that we model? Instead of persisting with the pointless work of investigating why bullying remains such a problem in schools and how it can be addressed or even “eliminated,” (an unrealistic expectation if there ever was one), the task of researchers should be to cull through the mountain of research on

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bullying, not add to it. It is not hard to understand why children persist in bullying each other, given the broader social and political circumstances that surround them. Another way that research on bullying misses the mark is to consider how the act of bullying, like other abuses of power, can offer rewards in emotional pleasure, an intriguing point that is not readily taken into account in theories on bullying. Juvonen (quoted in Lin, 2012) observed that, “bullies are, by far, the coolest kids, and the victims, in turn, are very uncool” (para. 8). Intuitively, such a claim makes sense and scholarship corroborates intuition. If it is indeed the case that bullies tend to have status and are motivated by a sense of entitlement to bully others, then a logical extension is that bullying offers rewards in the form of power that can certainly lead to feelings of pleasure. Though not directly a cause of bullying, it is routinely depicted in pop cultural media that tangible rewards are for the taking among those who are willing to abuse power, one form of which is bullying. One of the significant oversights of research on bullying is how gratification as a motivation. It is almost entirely absent from the conversation except for research on changes in brain chemistry that are connected to pleasure (see Roach, 2008; Newitz, 2008). Scholars might be loath to admit that the persistence of bullying might be explained by the fact that it can be fun, meaning that one can gain social and personal rewards from bullying others. Consider Novak’s (2014) reflection on his own experience in which he refers to the 2013 documentary, Bully, directed by Lee Hirsh: I remember a while back being bothered by a viral campaign for that anti-bullying movie. It had a scolding kid on it, looking back with a caption. “Bullying Isn’t Cool” said the caption, which was, while well-intentioned, completely wrong. Because bullying is cool. That’s the whole point of bullying; to show that you are cooler than someone, to assert some form of dominance. As a kid, I was sometimes bullied and, less often, a bully, and let me tell you; bullying is fun. You are cool and the other kid is not. What a rush, what validation!

Perhaps such coolness and validation may explain why some children learn more effective ways to bully from the very anti-bullying programs that are designed to curb bullying in the first place. While it would be spurious to suggest that students are more likely to be bullied in schools with such programs, perhaps it can be argued that anti-bullying programs are largely ineffective because they constitute, as Greenfield (2013) bluntly put it, “Sensitivity Training for the most insensitive group around” (capitalization in original). It is not that anti-bullying programs are necessarily ignored or disregarded by students but, rather, they unwittingly provide information about how to bully while steering around anti-bullying policies. I was aware of such views when I was conducting my doctoral research in the early 2000s (Walton, 2006). I also suspected that many children are cognizant, at least on some level, that bullying as an activity can indeed be fun. I wondered why so many researchers and educators would think that strategies to modify behaviour would be effective at addressing a widespread problem. Why would so many assume that anti-bullying programs could result in less bullying, or perhaps none at

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all, beyond the immediacy of the school term or even the school year? Habits die hard, especially when pleasure is a payoff. Since completing my doctoral research in 2006 and with modest expectations in mind, I was enticed by the idea that, even if I could not find the Holy Grail that would eliminate bullying, soliciting children’s perspectives in ways other than overused interview and survey approaches might shed light on the notion that bullying is sparked by collective discomfort with difference. I insisted at the time, and still do, that bullying is far more complex than anti-bullying programs and policies suggested. It is more than so-called anti-social behaviour—another erroneous assumption of many researchers and educators—that requires remediation through implementation of behavioural modification approaches. I felt eager to demonstrate the complexity of bullying as a social phenomenon and I was drawn to the idea of engaging children in a data collection exercise that might actually interest them, something innovative that they had not done before. A colleague suggested that I look into collecting data by using images and/or video as a data collection tool. After careful consultation and reading on visual research methodologies, I decided to explore bullying as a researchable topic one more time. The impetus of the research was an observation over my scholarly career that, across the enormous quantity of research on bullying, particularly scholarship that elucidates parameters of what constitutes bullying as a measureable phenomenon, only a minority considers social difference as a key provocation of bullying behaviours. The problem is not just bullying as a substantive topic that is compromised by overkill but, in addition, the more general notion that research is akin to a perpetual machine that churns out information. Such a conveyor-belt approach to research is part of what it means to be a scholar in contemporary times. Quantity of publications, the proverbial bean-counting approach or what Binswanger (2014) refers to as a “contest illusion,” seems to be the name of the game of the academic profession and influence is gauged by “impact” metrics that mean very little within the massive research-production machinery. Such metrics sound impressive but the contest of such measurement is, in my view, a shell game where numbers can mean almost anything. According to Binswanger: In the current system, scientific knowledge is replaced by measurable outputs. Not the content of an article or a project counts, but the number of published and cited articles or the number and the amount of money of the acquired projects. Since the measurable output is considered to be the indicator of quality, the true quality is more and more crowded out. The need to publish constantly leaves no time to worry too long about the progress of knowledge, although this should be the real purpose of scientific activity.

I did not want to add to the stockpile of research on bullying just to enhance the impact factor of my research publications. I came to believe that research on bullying, as a substantive field of research, serves little social purpose except as padding for scholars’ CVs, including my own, which lead to advancement within institutions. Sometimes, academic glory comes in the form of attention from other scholars and even news media. Tenure, promotion, and renewal are acquired by

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examination and scrutiny of how well a candidate does within the pressure to publish, publish, and publish some more. Fortunately, the methodological literature that I read on photo elicitation softened my cynicism, even if it did not eliminate it. I began to see potential where standard approaches to data collection, namely, surveys and interviews, were outmoded but continue to be employed repeatedly, exhaustingly, tediously, and with little purpose. Reasonably, one might ask how I can make such claims. In addition to reading and evaluating the scholarly literature on bullying since 2001, I have also spent many years reading and adjudicating proposals for large conferences such as the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE). Across dozens of proposals, I repeatedly saw the same approaches and I began to question the usefulness of this line of research. Accordingly, I recommended “reject” on most of the proposals.

8.3

Method: A New Way In

The potential of photo elicitation was the needed jump-start to my relationship to the enterprise of research. Re-charged but cautious, I set upon planning how to solicit children’s perspectives on bullying in a way that enticed their interest. One of the functions of photo elicitation is to explore participants’ perspectives, opinions, and values on any substantive topic (Richard & Lahman, 2015; Prosser & Schwartz, 1998). I came to believe, drawing from Thomson (2008), that an elicitation approach would appeal to youth given that much of their lives are saturated in visual media and they are drawn to it. My employment of photo elicitation with children and youth is not all that unique. Wells, Ritchie, and McPherson (2012), for instance, asked children in hospitals to take photographs to explore their condition and their surroundings, after which interviews were conducted to further explore their experiences, as did Thupayagale-Tshweneagae and Mokomane (2013) in the context of children in South Africa who had been orphaned by AIDS. However, my use of photo elicitation is a departure from stale, overused approaches in research on bullying. In our case, the chances of children witnessing bullying incidents and taking photographs seemed small. In addition, it would have been unethical to ask them to observe and record peer-against-peer violence but not intervene to stop it. We decided, then, to remain in control of the image-gathering process and have children interpret the images we had collected. As it turned out, our participants were intrigued by and curious about what was expected of them as people who would be contributing to research that would eventually be published, something that none of them had done before. Surveys and typical dialogue-interviews would likely not have sparked such intrigue and curiosity. As I conducted each of the interviews, my observations of each participant were that they were interested, if not

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enthusiastic, about participating in a study that was unique and offered visual interest to them. Photo elicitation yielded compelling insights from the participants that standard surveys and interview strategies likely would have not. Our reading of several methodologists in the field of visual research, including Harper (2002), Prosser (1998), Rose (2007), and Pink (2007) informed our decision. Collectively, these scholars assert that visual methods of data collection can yield information that is distinctly different from standard survey and interview strategies. In his advocacy for photo elicitation, Harper (2002) put it this way: Photo elicitation is based on the simple idea of inserting a photograph into a research interview. The difference between interviews using images and text, and interviews using words alone lies in the ways we respond to these two forms of symbolic representation. This has a physical basis: the parts of the brain that process visual information are evolutionarily [sic] older than the parts that process verbal information. Thus, images evoke deeper elements of human consciousness than do words; exchanges based on words alone utilize less of the brain’s capacity than do exchanges in which the brain is processing images as well as words. These may be some of the reasons the photo elicitation interview seems like not simply an interview process that elicits more information, but rather one that evokes a different kind of information. (p. 13)

Here, Harper focuses on brain and memory processes sparked by the presentation of images and the task to interpret or analyze them. Moreover, I was guided by Gauntlett and Awan’s (2012) claim that photo elicitation is an avenue to “a different route into discussion of a topic” (p. 591). Photo elicitation became the methodological strategy of choice that we hoped would invite youth participants to candidly express what gives rise to bullying in schools. As it turned out, our hope was well-invested; employing photo elicitation was very effective at exploring the problem of bullying in a way that departed from standard approaches.

8.3.1

Selecting and Arranging Images

My colleague, Blair, and I collected an assortment of images of children and youth through Google Image that represented a wide range of social categories pertaining to race, gender, religious affiliation, ethnicity, special needs and body size. As a repository of images, Google Image was a highly convenient tool for locating images in the public domain. Sourcing images from Google Image avoided complicated Research Ethics Board concerns that could have emerged had we opted to seek out children and youth and photograph them ourselves. However, we remained aware that the images we gathered from Google Image are of real, actual children and youth and, thus, we opted to not include any of them in publications that came out of our study, including this one. Our image-selection process was a simple process of discernment guided by a basic criteria framework. We considered various categories by which human society is organized, such as race, gender expression, sexuality, religion, class, and

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physical and mental ability, among others. In Google Image, we searched until we found images of youth that featured a wide spectrum of categories. We did not think of social categories as mere labels that perpetuate preconceived stereotypes, though we were aware of such a danger. Rather, we aimed to, as we put it at the time in our discussions, “fairly represent” a wide diversity of adolescent youth based on dominant social categories. In addition, we needed to ensure that our research participants were readily able to discern, from quick visual inspection, representations of social categories to be able to assess who might be targeted for bullying. Once we had gathered an abundance of images that potentially might be used in the research, we sifted through them and rejected those that were not sharp and focused or that did not depict social categories in a straight-forward and explicit manner. By carefully curating a series of photographs drawn from the Internet that featured individual children and youth who represented a wide array of diversity, we asked participants in individual interviews to identify who, among sets of the images, might be most likely to be bullied by their peers and to explain why. Despite our attempts to make each set complex in their representations of various social categories, including race, religion, sexuality, body shape and size, and gender presentation, among others, we found that most of the participants were able to point, often literally, to particular aspects of the images that drew their attention and they were able to express how and why, from their perspective, those aspects were connected to bullying. Because there were no correct and incorrect answers, the actual choices that participants made were of less significance than the process of how they came to make their choice in the first place. Their responses were vital to the success of the research and I strove to convey that point to each of them as their turn came up. In the individual interviews, some of the participants seemed very ready-to-go, while others seemed hesitant and perhaps even timid. Either way, I assured each of them that their responses were all perfectly valid, that I was not going to judge them for their responses, and that I was genuinely interested in what they had to say. Blair and I designed ten slides, each consisting of a set of four images. The design of the data collection instrument was arbitrary but guided by what we considered to be a wide array of images that were not arranged as a matter of easy elimination. Instead, various types of diversity were represented in each slide. One set of images, for instance, included four girls, one wearing a hijab, one who is Black, one who is White and expressing herself in Emo style, and one who would be considered masculine by standards of gender norms. Another set depicted four boys, including two in wheelchairs (one who appears to have a cognitive disability, the other not), one who appears overweight, and the other who follow the stereotypes of being studious. Participating adolescents were then asked to choose which of the four youths pictured in each slide would be the most likely victim of bullying. They were then asked to supply a rationale for their choice. Each participant was asked individually. Many participants verbalized their process of thinking with utterances of “um,” “hmm,” and “OK, this is hard” and other comments that indicated that the choices were not easy. One girl, for instance, said, “This is a tough one” in reaction to a

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series of images that depicted an array of girls’ gender representations. We had aimed to make them all “tough ones.” Gestures such as pointing to one or more of the images and the thought processes played out were common. One of our participants, Gita,1 said, “OK, well, I don’t know, like, looking at all of them, I could picture each one of them getting bullied for different reasons.” Her statement validated our attempts to curate the sets so that every image could be a viable choice for who would most likely become a target of bullies. Another participant, Maryanne, vocalized her thought processes even more explicitly. Note how she considers each image aloud and eventually chooses one: Mmm, number 2, probably. Cuz, like, is he different culture? Or no? Maybe the make-up, I don’t know, he looks like me might be Asian, maybe. And also has, like, different hair, I guess. He doesn’t have the regular hair. Like, 1 and 3 have kind of the same hair, but they’re like, they look like they’re from Canada, maybe, whereas he doesn’t as much. Oh, and he has his nails painted. And like, he doesn’t have, I guess, the normal haircut that a guy would have. Maybe. His hair’s different. And he’s got bracelets. Probably number 2, then, I’d say.

The thinking-out-loud process is exactly what we solicited from each participant so that we could hear about their thought process of making a selection on each slide, not just their answer in isolation of a description of how they came to it.

8.4

Findings: Snapshots from the Analysis

I do not aim to repeat our findings in full here. However, it is useful to provide a snapshot of our analysis. In a nutshell, we found that most of the participants had awareness of how categories of social difference underlie moments of bullying, though there was some hesitation by the participants to not appear politically incorrect. As we wrote in our (2012) article: Anna-Maria confessed that: “OK, um, this is hard. Um…Um, because guys normally don’t have long hair (giggles). Or it’s a stereotype that they shouldn’t. I feel bad saying this.” Kim and Angela both expressed concern that the very act of identifying race could expose themselves as ‘racist’. Paula similarly confessed that she felt ‘terrible saying this kind of stuff’ and, on the matter of how disabled students might be bullied, Tyler said, ‘I hate to say it, but yeah’ and Sophie asserted that, ‘it’s sick and wrong’ (p. 10).

We found that some social categories raised more immediate responses than did others. In particular, images of heavy-set boys or girls labelled as “fat” were more quickly chosen than the other three images in the set, as were images of children who present their gender in ways that go beyond gender norms and expectations. For instance, a depiction of one male youth wearing eye-liner evoked several comments such as:

1

All names used throughout this chapter are pseudonyms.

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[H]e could be bullied the most, I don’t know. And his bracelets aren’t really common in guys. And eyeliner and makeup would obviously be a target for most guys. [I]t’s people view a man wearing nail polish and eye liner and having his hair cut that way, just, not wrong, but politically incorrect. So, I’d say number 2’s the best choice for bullying. Number 2 would get bullied a lot because of the fact that he’s a man – is that a man? – and just because he has nail polish on, and make up and his hair’s done, so people would assume that it’s incorrect, again, for him to look that way. He’s, you know, different. Mmmm, probably number 2 because he’s got, like you know, the make-up and the nail polish and his hair’s all, it makes him seem sort of like a girl, lots of masculine guys would beat up him.

Similarly, the image of a teenaged girl wearing a hoodie and baseball cap led to responses such as: She would get bullied. She’s kind of dressed like a guy. [N]umber 4 would get bullied the most, I guess a bit tomboyish, I guess, and she’s different from all the other girls at school, they’re feminine…Yes, more masculine, and maybe people would assume she’s a lesbian or bisexual just because of the way she comes off, which is incorrect, but, yeah. I think number 4 … seems like she’s a tomboy, I guess. She’s doing her own thing, but I don’t know. I mean, a bully’s a bully… And the hat, I guess. Just the way, I guess, just the way she looks in general. Like, tomboyish, I guess…They’d, I mean, my first impression, I thought that was a guy. I mean, for a bully, what if him or her was to think the same thing? I think they’d take offence to that, I guess they wouldn’t know what’s going on.

In our analysis, unspoken Whiteness was a factor that shaped responses. We also found that the social value, if not preoccupation, placed on gender presentations of normative boyhood and girlhood, as well as media-driven norms on body size that depict bodies that are neither too skinny nor too fat, fueled comments that arose from inspection of the images. While gender raised a bounty of comments, Whiteness raised very little, despite the variety of racialized representations across the sets of images. We discerned the lack of commentary on Whiteness to be indicative of Whiteness as the norm, the unspoken category. For instance, Ricki said in response to an image of a White girl, “[she] just looks like a Canadian, or normal.” Consider these comments that were stated without much hesitation, offered by four of the participants: Number 1. He’s bigger than what society kind of thinks is, like, the norm. Mostly I’d say, out of these 4, I would think that number 1 would get picked on the most just because, um … when someone’s overweight, usually they just see that as like their own fault, kind of thing. Yeah. Number 1. Because he’s heavy. And I find that, like, people have a lot of issue I guess you could say with people who are like overweight or have weight problems. Cuz I know a lot of people think that it’s all their fault and they should stop eating. The first one. He’s overweight and that’s what everybody’s always bugging kids about.

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Being considered “fat” was a significant issue for many of the youth in our study. We do not believe that we could not have acquired such perspectives without a visual medium as a platform for students’ responses. The children who participated in our study did not have to imagine various ideas about diversity, as might be the case in a standard interview, or misinterpret questions, as might be the case in a survey. On the surface, the task was simple, which was to pick out one photo among four as a conjecture about who might be the target of bullying behaviours of other children. However, their responses to the images, evident in how they thought-out-loud, were anything but simple. Our experience with employing photo elicitation to elucidate bullying mirrors Harper’s (2002) assertion that photos “capture the impossible” (p. 23). By this, he means that photos are able to evoke memory and response in ways that mere text typically does not.

8.5

Empowerment, Engagement, and Insights Gained from Photo Elicitation

I am not suggesting that either we, or the research itself, empowered participants. Such a perspective is, in my view, a misguided but common assumption of what empowerment means. Instead of something that is given or granted to someone else, empowerment is a choice and experience of the individuals themselves, as noted by Richard and Lahman (2015) in their point that “photo elicitation methods resulted in empowerment and promoted participants’ agency in the interviewing process, making the interview seem more self-directed.” (p. 15) In the case of our research, we may have set up the conditions for such a choice, but the choice of empowerment, the very agency referred to by Richard and Lehman, was not ours to make. The point is simply that any empowerment felt by any of the participants was an experience that they chose to undergo, not us. I take Torre and Murphy’s (2015) point that images promote “better understanding of participant perspective because the use of photographs encourages more detailed responses and deeper reflection, triggers memories, and allows unobtrusive observation of hidden realms” (p. 13). If, as Torre and Murphy also suggested, photo elicitation can build a bridge between educational practice and theory, then it might be the case that our photo elicitation study on bullying could have appeal to teachers in classrooms and scholars in universities. As a theoretical and rather unexpected insight, photo elicitation helped us to identify how political correctness was a barrier that some participants faced that we had to strategize to overcome. Briefly summarized here, we found that several of the participants felt uneasy about appearing to be politically incorrect in their identification of differences from the norm that could lead to bullying. For example, we discussed Anna-Maria’s response to an image of a boy wearing nail polish and eyeliner: I asked her what he might hear if he were to be verbally bullied. Rather than stating that he might be called ‘fag’, ‘queer’ or less provocatively, ‘gay’, she responded, ‘Um, probably

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things like, about gender references like female comments, mostly’. For us, Anna-Maria’s description is one of many comments that clearly attempt to circumnavigate political incorrectness. (p. 653)

For us, hedging was a discursive strategy employed by several of the participants when they opted not to state their views bluntly, thus requiring replacement words and phrases. I concur with Allen’s (2009) general point, then, that photo elicitation may be useful in collecting information about topics that are uncomfortable or even taboo. In ways that we did not anticipate, that was certainly the case in our study. Because they were not charged with the responsibility of taking photographs that would be analysed, I cannot claim that our particular use of photo elicitation “empowered” the children who participated. The research design privileged us, the researchers. However, participant knowledge was given a central role in the research process, a point that I tried to make clear with each participant. In hindsight, I can reasonably conjecture, drawing insight from Torre and Murphy (2015), that the participants may have felt empowered from having their views on images solicited in the first place, particularly on a topic such as bullying that has so much social currency in the form of anti-bullying campaigns, stories of bullying that make headline news, and the ubiquity of general talk on bullying. The topic, alone, might have been a significant motivator for their willingness to participate and their responses to each set of images. Moreover, they might have felt empowered given they were asked to participate in a social science research study which, as a gathered from their teachers, they had never done before. Perhaps some of them felt emboldened as a result. My asking of probing questions that demonstrated genuine interest in their perspectives may have bolstered such empowerment. The most significant outcome of employing photo elicitation, however, was to foster engagement with participants and to explore the topic of bullying by employing visual means that they found interesting. In doing so, we provide evidence for the argument that researchers on bullying need to move beyond behavioural and development approaches if traction is going to be gained in anti-bullying theories and practices that otherwise run dry. In short, participants taught, or perhaps empowered, us to view bullying as a mechanism that distinguishes insiders from outsiders. Further, the specific method for such distinction is the leveraging of stigma of difference along various lines such as gender identity and presentation, sexuality identity, body size and shape, religious identity, indicators of class status, and racialized category. Photo elicitation, then, was a highly-successful method for collecting a rich data set from youth participants. Conducting a study using photo elicitation methods did not ultimately change my opinion about the condition of research on bullying being one of overkill, but it helped me to delve into the topic with new enthusiasm. Our paper (Walton & Niblett, 2012) represents the fruits of those labours, work that adds to the chorus of so-called experts on bullying in what we believe is a unique and compelling way. Even though photo elicitation restored my research career in some respects, I remain cynical about the enterprise research in general. Why, for instance, do so many adults, including researchers and educators, wonder why so many children

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bully each other when a man was elected into the highest office in the United States not despite his bullying, but partly because of it? How do parents and educators explain such a contradiction to children when they are told not to bully other children? Those are questions for further investigation. Meanwhile, photo elicitation taught me that a healthy dose of cynicism can, indeed, be a very good thing. In my case, it rejuvenated inquiry, for now at least, on a stale topic that has amassed mounds of research but little social change.

References Allen, L. (2009). “Snapped”: Researching the sexual cultures of schools using visual methods. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 22(5), 549–561. Retrieved from doi:10.1080/09518390903051523. Binswanger, M. (2014). Excellence by nonsense: The competition for publications in modern science. In S. Bartling & S. Friesike (Eds.), Opening science: The evolving guide on how the web is changing research, collaboration and scholarly publishing (pp. 49–72). London, UK: Springer Open. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-00026-8. Available http://book.openingscience.org/ basics_background/excellence_by_nonsense.html. Gauntlett, D., & Awan, F. (2012). Action-based visual and creative methods in social research. In I. Heywood & B. Sandywell (Eds.), The handbook of visual culture (pp. 589–606). London, UK: Berg. Greenfield, D. (2013). Anti-bullying programs don’t work, teach bullies to bully better. Retrieved from http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/207071/anti-bullying-programs-dont-work-teachbullies-daniel-greenfield. Harper, D. (2002). Talking about pictures: A case for photo elicitation. Visual Studies, 17(1), 13–26. doi:10.1080/14725860220137345. Hirsh, L. [Director]. (2013). Bully. New York, NY: Cinereach. Jeong, S., & Lee, H. B. (2013). A multilevel examination of peer victimization and bullying preventions in schools. Journal of Criminology. http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jcrim/2013/ 735397/. Lin, J. (2012). Psychologists studies make sense of bullying. Retrieved from http://newsroom.ucla. edu/stories/bullying-jaana-juvonen-233108. Newitz, A. (2008, July 11). Brain scans reveal that teen bullies get pleasure from your pain. Retrieved from http://io9.com/5079234/brain-scans-reveal-thatteen-bullies-get-pleasure-fromyour-pain. Novak, L. (2014). Bullying is cool. That’s the point. Retrieved from http://thoughtcatalog.com/levnovak/2014/03/bullying-is-cool-thats-the-point/. Pink, S. (2007). Doing visual ethnography (2nd ed.). London: SAGE. Prosser, J. (1998). The status of image-based research. In J. Prosser (Ed.), Image-based research: A sourcebook for qualitative researchers (pp. 97–112). London: Falmer Press. Prosser, J., & Schwartz, D. (1998). Photographs within the sociological research process. In J. Prosser (Ed.), Image-based research: A sourcebook for qualitative researchers (pp. 115–130). London, UK: Falmer. Richard, V. M., & Lahman, M. K. E. (2015). Photo elicitation: Reflexivity on method, analysis, and graphic portraits. Journal of Research & Method in Education, 38(1), 3–22. doi:10.1080/ 1743727X.2013.843073. Roach, J. (2008, November 7). Bullies’ brains light up with pleasure as people squirm. National Geographic News. Retrieved from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/11/081107bully-brain.html.

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Rose, G. (2007). Visual methodologies: An introduction to the interpretation of visual materials (2nd ed.). London: SAGE. Thomson, P. (2008). Children and young people: Voices in visual research. In P. Thomson (Ed.), Doing visual research with children and young people (pp. 1–19). New York, NY: Routledge. Thupayagale-Tshweneagae, G., & Mokomane, Z. (2013). Needs of South African adolescents orphaned by AIDS: Evidence from photography and photo-elicitation. International Nursing Review, 60(1), 88–95. Torre, D., & Murphy, J. (2015). Different lens: Using photo-elicitation interviews in education research. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 23(111). Retrieved from https://www. researchgate.net/publication/283822470_A_different_lens_Changing_perspectives_using_PhotoElicitation_Interviews. Twemlow, S. W., & Sacco, F. C. (2008). Why school anti-bullying programs don’t work. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Walton, G. (2006). “No fags allowed:” An examination of bullying as a problematic and implications for educational policy (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation). Queen’s University, Kingston, ON. Walton, G. (2011). Spinning our wheels: Reconceptualising bullying beyond behaviour-focused approaches. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 32(1), 131–144. Walton, G. (2015). Bullying and the philosophy of shooting freaks. Confero: Essays on Education, Philosophy and Politics, 3(2), 1–17. http://www.confero.ep.liu.se/issues/2015/v3/i2/150625/ confero15v3i20625.pdf. Walton, G., & Niblett, B. (2012). Investigating the problem of bullying through photo elicitation. Journal of Youth Studies, 16(5), 646–662. doi:10.1080/13676261.2012.733810. Wells, F., Ritchie, D., & McPherson, A. C. (2012). ‘It is life threatening but I don’t mind’. A qualitative study using photo elicitation interviews to explore adolescents’ experiences of renal replacement therapies. Child: Care, Health and Development, 39(4), 602–612.

Author Biography Gerald Walton Gerald teaches about social difference in his classes in the Faculty of Education at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. He speaks to media frequently because he believes that scholars need to bring their work out of the ivory tower and into a broader public realm. He is sick of talking about bullying because, as evidence suggests, significant ground has not been made on the problem, despite widespread effort. For reasons that he outlines in this chapter, his research focus has shifted away from bullying as a social problem to other topics and issues that do not incite banging his head against a brick wall. At least, not yet.

Chapter 9

Mediating the Space Between: Using Photo-Elicitation to Prompt Cultural Consciousness-Raising Sarah A. Mathews We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are (Nin, 1961).

Abstract This chapter outlines a process for using photographs to elicit dialogue in cross-cultural settings to develop perspective consciousness, one component of global citizenship. The research featured is part of a larger ethnographic study of American pre-service teachers participating in a student-teaching abroad program in Kenya, East Africa. Photo elicitation served as a mechanism to stimulate discussion and prompt cultural consciousness-raising. The prospective teachers were asked to view and reflect on photographs that were captured by Kenyan students as a part of a project documenting a week in their lives. The work draws on Jürgen Habermas’ (Knowledge and human interests. Beacon, Boston, 1971, The theory of communicative action: Volume one—reason and the rationalization of society. Beacon, Boston, 1981, The theory of communicative action: Volume two—lifeworld and system. Beacon, Boston, 1987) concept of mediated understanding to examine the subjective, normative-evaluative and identity claims found in participants’ dialogue. The process allowed the researcher to explore how images and cross-cultural interactions were being viewed and interpreted, as well as which social contexts influence this interpretation. The dialogue surrounding these photographs demonstrates the future teachers’ ability to take on another perspective after their experience abroad. However, these results also indicate instances where the international student teachers were reinforcing the dominant discourse when describing Kenya and did not feel they could adequately challenge the pervasive stereotypes of this region found in American schools, curriculum, and media.

S.A. Mathews (&) Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing AG 2018 M.L. Boucher, Jr. (ed.), Participant Empowerment Through Photo-elicitation in Ethnographic Education Research, http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64413-4_9

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Research Problem

In the United States, one role of social studies education is to prepare citizens for participation at the local, national, and global level. Instead of the passive transmission of civic ideals and practices, many social studies educators advocate for a transformative approach to citizenship that calls for a curriculum that disrupts the commonplace and helps individuals interrogate his or her taken-for-granted assumptions (Fields & Castro, 2010; Merryfield & Wilson, 2005; Lewinson & Heffernan, 2009). As Ladson-Billings (2007) suggested, “the basis of one’s citizenship is an outgrowth of the prevailing worldview of his or her society,” (p. 100). These worldviews can be shaped through citizenship education that is transformative, considers multiple perspectives, and has a local, national, and global focus (Banks, 2007; Parker, 2007; Kirkwood-Tucker, 2009). For social studies instruction to prepare students for transformative global citizenship, social studies teachers must be able to consider multiple perspectives, practice interrogating taken-for-granted assumptions, and have exposure to a critical global perspective. The teaching population in the United States is overwhelmingly White, female, and middle class and the demographics of preservice teachers shows similar trends (Ingersoll & Merrill, 2010; Staklis & Henke, 2013). While demographic trends in the teaching profession remain steady, the nation’s student populations are becoming increasingly diverse. Many preservice and in-service teachers have little exposure to different communities and often have limited experience traveling or living abroad (Cushner & Brennan, 2007; Zong, 2009). As it stands, many U.S. pre-service teachers have little experience with diversity, interrogating their own perspectives, or interacting cross-culturally (Cushner & Brennan, 2007; Hanvey, 1976). If it is true, as Nin suggests above, we do not see things as they are but as we are, to what extent does our identity and cultural background impact our world view? Furthermore, to what degree are we conscious of, and possess the skills necessary to interrogate those world views? These questions, as well as the homogenous teaching populations, drive teacher educators to seek out pedagogical approaches that may facilitate consciousness-raising experiences and better prepare future teachers to do transformative work in diverse settings. This chapter draws from a larger ethnographic study of American international student teachers (ISTs) living and teaching in Kenya, East Africa. Photo elicitation was used to encourage and highlight areas of critical consciousness-raising, as well as to scaffold reflexivity amongst individuals. Photography stimulated the ISTs’ intercultural dialogue and awareness. This research suggests that photographic images can serve as a medium to examine the position one takes when interpreting “views” of communities around the world.

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Global Perspective Development

Although global citizenship education takes on different forms depending on the institution, most efforts include developing a global perspective. Perspective is often heavily influenced by an individual’s subjective experiences and the norms embedded in their socio-cultural environments. Furthermore, research suggests that it is often difficult for classroom teachers to fully shape their students’ perspectives and dispositions (Mathews & Dilworth, 2008; Misco & Shively, 2010; Ukpokodu, 2010). Therefore, global educators must be deliberate when creating consciousness-raising activities. In 1976, Robert Hanvey outlined one of the first conceptual frameworks of global perspective. It included five dimensions: (a) perspective consciousness, (b) state-of-the-planet awareness, (c) knowledge of global dynamics, (d) mindfulness of human choices, and (e) cross-cultural awareness (Hanvey, 1976/2004). This definition demonstrates that global perspective extends beyond making students aware of content; it incorporates both skills and dispositions and requires individuals to negotiate between the two simultaneously (Serriere, 2008; Wilson, 1983). State-of-the-planet awareness involves content that teachers can convey to students, but the perspective conscious dimension is difficult because it is primarily influenced experientially. Hanvey (1976/2004) described perspective consciousness as is the recognition that others may have views of the world that are “profoundly different from one’s own,” (p. 5). This dimension requires expanding one’s consciousness, reconstructing social meanings as others would, transcending assumptions that are implicit in one’s culture, and perceiving humanity’s shared characteristics across cultures (Lesourd, 2001/2002). Perspective consciousness includes an individual’s ability to understand marginalized points of view, providing them an opportunity to think and speak outside of their personal viewpoint (Merryfield, 2010; Subedi, 2010). To experience this shift, individuals must go through cultural consciousness-raising experiences that allow them to reflect and take on other’s perspectives to develop perspective consciousness. In predominately White schools of education, many preservice teachers have not participated in experiences that force them to take on another’s perspective as well as reflect on their cultural assumptions (Ukpokodu, 2010; Zong, 2009). The challenge for teacher educators is to develop ways to create these consciousness-raising experiences within the teacher education program.

9.3

Mediating Understanding Through Cross-Cultural Interactions

Cross-cultural interactions can provide a context for fostering dialogue about race, gender, and ethnicity, the negative impact of power on the oppressed and oppressor, and the recognition of similarities and differences within and amongst groups

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(Mahan, 2001; Mahon & Cushner, 2007; Stachowski, 2007; Stachowski & Sparks, 2007). International student-teaching experiences provide opportunities for prospective teachers to live and work in a cross-cultural situation. Participants in these programs have reported increased self-awareness, a greater appreciation for multiple perspectives, increased understanding of other cultures, and greater understanding of global issues (Dunn, Dotson, Cross, Kesner & Lundahl, 2014; Stachowski & Sparks, 2007). ISTs were more likely to report that they learned diverse classroom strategies, incorporated a range of resources into instruction, and collaborated with a broader range of colleagues than their peers teaching in the United States (Gleeson & Tait, 2012; Trilokekar & Kukar, 2011). Pre-service teachers placed at non-western sites realizing they were “foreigners,” reported an experience of being otherized that challenged their taken-for-granted assumptions and submerged attitudes about the world (Ramano, 2007; Stachowski & Brantmeier, 2002). While research supporting these intercultural exchanges in education is strong, Lesourd (2001/2002) pointed out that simply providing someone with an experience does not necessarily mean an individual is closer to understanding the personal and cultural perspective of another group of people. For example, Serriere’s (2008) research on undergraduate students involved in an intercultural exchange in Macedonia and the U.S., suggested that experience alone does not make someone a global thinker. Instead, the author proposed that individuals need the ability to practice reflexivity, identify the perspectives others might draw upon to determine right from wrong, and develop a level of solidarity with others. Habermas’ (1971, 1981, 1987) work on knowledge construction, intersubjectivity, and communicative action can be used to examine what occurs within cross-cultural interactions. According to Habermas, knowledge is socially constructed and understanding involves a dialogue with others. This meaningful action takes place both within lifeworlds (face-to-face interactions) and at the system-level. As individuals encounter and embrace new information, the horizons or borders of his or her lifeworld expand. After contact, alternative lifeworlds and meaning fields are often fused together to transform the boundaries of one’s original lifeworld. However, understanding requires reflexivity and position-taking (Habermas, 1971, 1981, 1987). These ideas can be used to examine how individuals negotiate understanding as they interact with other lifeworlds, offering insight into the perspective consciousness processes. International student-teaching experiences provide a unique opportunity to explore how understanding takes place when diverse lifeworlds interact.

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Photo-Elicitation as a Tool for Cultural Consciousness-Raising

While the literature on cultural immersion programs is plentiful, most reported studies are conducted by program faculty. Sleeter (2001) argued that studies that rely on students’ self-reported data in surveys or documents turned in as part of a course assignment are often veiled by notions of self-preservation on both the faculty and students’ part (see also Zong, 2009 for a similar critique). To add a new layer of information and supplement previously conducted research, I used participatory ethnographic methods to examine the IST experience. In fall 2007, I had the opportunity to conduct a focused, critical ethnographic study (Erickson, 1977; Little, 1982) of a student-teaching abroad experience in Kenya, East Africa. For nine weeks I followed seven ISTs, from the Midwest region of the United States, as they traveled to a western province of that nation. The goal was to examine how participating in this program influenced the way the ISTs think and plan to teach about the world, specifically regarding the African continent. Throughout the study, I relied on traditional ethnographic methods to collect data. I conducted at least six, focused observations per participant, covering our host-stay, their school placement, and cultural events/excursions, four semi-structured interviews conducted before, during, and after our trip, and additional field notes. However, I decided to enhance these methods by employing photo-elicitation to prompt a more nuanced reaction to, and explanation of, these participants’ experience in this cross-cultural setting. As Harper (2002) reminded us, “images evoke deeper elements of human consciousness than [sic] words” (p. 13). Researchers are increasingly using photomethodologies for transformative and participatory research. For example, photography has been used to raise awareness of injustice within local and global contexts (PhotoVoice, 2011; Wang, Morrel-Samuels, Hutchinson, Bell & Pestronk, 2004; Wilson, Dasho, Martin, Wang & Minkler, 2007), develop deeper understandings about global diversity (Lintner, 2005) and diminish stereotypes of the ‘Other’ (Scott, 1999). Participatory researchers have used photographic images to tell stories, elicit stories, and critique stories (Ewald, 2001; Wang & Burris, 1994). Photography can also be used to solicit an individual’s subjective perceptions of their experiences. Spindler and Spindler (1993) incorporated photography into their consciousness-raising tool, cultural therapy. In cultural therapy, participants are asked a series of questions while viewing photographs or documentary images. The goal was to help individuals reflect on the taken-for-granted assumptions they bring with them into the viewing experience and interrogate these as potential biases to knowledge acquisition. I patterned my use of photo elicitation for cultural consciousness-raising from the Spindlers’ work. In particular, I drew upon the potential for photographs to solicit dialogic data, capturing the manner in which ISTs are talking about others and the world. Photo elicitation, used for cultural consciousness-raising, examines how images are being viewed and interpreted, as well as which social contexts

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influence this interpretation. This process helps participants investigate the implicit normative claims in their original perspectives that become explicit when compared to another position or cultural perspective. This method also captures evidence of a participants’ subjective experience and the possible identity claims they project within these reflections.

9.5

Method

The seven ISTs in this study were all White, American, from working and middle-class families, and raised in communities close to the large university they attended. Six ISTs admitted they did not have much interaction with diverse populations or had limited experience traveling outside of the United States in pre-travel interviews. Before traveling abroad, each completed a 10-week teaching practicum in the United States.

9.5.1

Participants

Participants lived with a host family, completed an internship in a Kenyan primary or secondary school, and planned and conducted service learning projects in the local community. The purpose of this research was to examine how this international student-teaching experience influenced the ways the prospective teachers were thinking and talking about the world. I also hoped to gain an understanding of how this experience may affect the ways in which the ISTs planned to teach about Kenya or the African continent. Critical ethnographers highlight the importance of reciprocity or giving back to the participating community where the research is conducted (Carspecken, 2005; Merriam, 2002). While in Kenya I also worked with a group of 10 local, secondary students, holding a workshop on photography and visual media in an effort to do the same. Students applied workshop concepts as they analysed photographic images and magazine advertisements. Then as the group, we examined Western picture books that represented the African continent. They were asked to critique the images and discuss whether these texts reflected their lives. As a culminating project, the students were provided cameras, encouraged to document a week in their experiences, and then used the photographs and individual artwork to create their own books. Each Kenyan student was asked to describe and reflect on their photographs and images during individual, semi-structured interviews. I utilized Kagan and Kagan’s (1995) strategies of Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) and incorporated strategies to encourage feedback developed through the clinical psychological process. Questions were designed to examine students’ decisions when capturing these pictures and the photographer’s perspective of the image (See Appendix A).

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Procedures

Although the ISTs did not engage in this workshop, the Kenyan participants were representative of the students these preservice teachers instructed while in Kenya. I quickly realized that the Kenyan students’ reflections served as ideal situations to examine how the ISTs were interpreting their own cross-cultural interactions in relation to their students’ lived experiences. I used the students’ images to engage the ISTs in a dialogue that I could use to examine the pre-service teachers’ perspective consciousness development within this cross-cultural professional setting. The images, as well as photographs the ISTs collected from their trip, were used in a semi-structured interview with the preservice teachers within a month after returning to the U.S. I implemented the same procedure in each interview: (1) I presented the image created by the Kenyan students and asked the ISTs a series of questions to help participants analyze the images from their own perspectives; (2) Then I read the Kenyan students’ explanation of their images out loud, including their rationale for taking the picture; (3) Finally, I asked the ISTs to reflect on what they just heard (See Appendix B). I used IPR in these interviews (Kagan & Kagan, 1995). By using this process, I was able to tease out the tacit cultural assumptions within my participant’s understanding and interpretation of an image; their subjective and normative explanations of the people, objects, and events captured within 2-dimensional images. This chapter highlights two ISTs, Kelly and Joshua, to demonstrate how the photo-elicitation process facilitated their position-taking process. Juxtaposing Kelly and Joshua’s explanation of the same photograph allows us to examine similarities and differences within their interpretations of the images. My primary focus, at this stage, was on the American ISTs rather than the Kenyan students.

9.5.3

Data Analysis

I used reconstructive horizon analysis to analyze the ISTs’ reflection on each interview (Carspecken, 1996). Reconstructive horizon analysis is an analytic tool used to outline a bounded range of possible meaning found in each speech act, known as a meaning-field. The analysis is based on Habermas’ (1971, 1981, 1987) assumption that dialogic data can exhibit the socio-cultural forces that influence meaning and understanding. This analysis teases out and codes dialogue for objective, normative-evaluative, subjective claims, and identity claims foregrounded and backgrounded, within each speech act (Carspecken, 1996). I used this technique to investigate the normative, subjective, and identity claims embedded within the preserve teacher’s reflections on the images. This process was instrumental in examining evidence of an expansion of perspective consciousness.

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Institutional Review Board (IRB) Consideration

This research study’s inherent design contributed to a few ethical and IRB issues. At the initial proposal stage, my university’s IRB requested that I translate all consent and assent forms for Kenyan participants into Kiswahili with the translated forms verified by an outside expert, not affiliated with the research. When I arrived in Kenya, I was informed that most official documents are produced in English. These inconsistencies demonstrated that the IRB develops policies that are designed to show cultural sensitivity yet may also be misinformed about cultural practices. Finally, a few of the Kenyan students’ parents could not read in English or Kiswahili, complicating the assent process. Fortunately, I had included a provision to allow participants and their guardians the opportunity to consent orally with a translator present. These conversations were audio recorded to provide an audit trail. Although addressing the translation issue was difficult, the use of photos was more contentious during the IRB process for the following reasons: (a) I was using minors, (b) who were part of my research study, (c) who took photographs of other people, (d) in a location where Westerners have historically used images to exoticize and profit from others. To publish all of the images my IRB board told me that I would need to do the following: (a) get consent from the participants to use the photographs captured in a public forum (e.g. a publication or presentation); (b) inform participants that their autonomy may be compromised by publishing any image where they could be identified; and (c) train participants to understand consent forms and inform others to sign these forms—i.e. they would need to secure consent, from anyone they captured in an image, to use his or her image in a public viewing or presentation in association with my research. To reconcile these issues, especially considering the time and cultural barriers, I decided to focus on gaining consent from participants to use the images they collected in my research. I did not use any image where readers could identify the people involved (avoiding issue b and c). How I addressed this is explained in sections below.

9.7

Methodical Issues that Resulted from My Own Cultural Assumptions

On October 10th, 2007, I arrived at St. Anna’s Secondary School1 ready to begin my ethnographic study. I had finally secured permission from the district educational leaders and the principal of the school where I wanted to conduct my research. The social studies department head welcomed me into his classroom and helped solicit participants for this research. I walked into the class and explained

1

Pseudonyms have been used for all geographic locations, schools, and students in this piece.

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that I wanted students to participate in a research study where they would be asked to stay after school for two weeks to take part in a workshop. In exchange, I would give each participant a disposable camera. I passed around a sign-up sheet as I looked at the 75 faces of Form-Two students. Fifty-three students agreed to participate in the study; I only had 25 disposable cameras. Thus, I had to turn away 28 willing participants, upsetting these students who did not receive the same incentive as their peers.2 I had never anticipated what would happen when offering a camera as an incentive for participation. I did not realize that so many students would be willing to participate in this study in exchange for a camera. The students had specific directions when using these cameras; “Document a week in your life using photographs.” For some students, this meant that they were using their first camera to document photographs for me to use in my project. Although students received the duplicate copy of these photographs, their images may not represent what students would choose to capture if they could make their own decisions about what to photograph. Others disregarded the directions and chose to take photographs of their peers or family members. Their images obviously produced data, yet might not have fit into my original research interests. Therefore, it made me reflect on the decisions we make as researchers to recruit participants. I found it interesting how something seemingly innocuous, like a disposable camera, may have greater meaning for participants in this particular setting. This recognition served as the first of many consciousness-raising moments I experienced while conducting this research. Circumstantially, I was conducting this portion of the research at a boarding school that also served students living in the local community. After consulting with the head teacher, we decided to use the day-schoolers as our study population. This decision was made for two reasons: (1) These students were able to leave campus and therefore document a typical week in their lives (outside of the boarding school), and (2) It was easier to access these students’ parents/guardians for the purpose of IRB consent. Finally, upon arriving in Kenya, I also distributed disposable cameras to the ISTs to document their experience overseas. My intention was to have them document their experience so I could develop their photos and use these images in their interviews as well as the interviews with the Kenyan students. After the first week, the ISTs confided that they forgot to use my cameras and instead agreed to share the photos they took on their trip. This situation blurred lines in my research since the ISTs mostly captured their own photos as tourists with the intent to share with others once returning to the U.S. There may be a difference between images that are staged to present a “travel story” versus those that capture the mundane aspects of week in the life of our trip. I did use any photograph that the IST was willing to share with me in this study during our interview, with this limitation in mind.

2

I would eventually return to this school the next year, bringing cameras to all of the students in this particular cohort.

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Findings: Micro-movements Towards Global Perspective

The following section describes how photography can be used to author, view, and position-take within cross-cultural situations. There were instances where the ISTs viewed images as Americans, as Americans who experienced living in this region of Africa, and as global citizens. In addition to their personal reflections, these preservice teachers also discussed how their newly acquired perspectives influenced their future teaching. The following excerpts demonstrate the potential to facilitate cultural consciousness-raising using focused reflection on visual images to produce small shifts in thinking.

9.8.1

Photography Used as Storytelling

Travel writers have historically used photographic images to accent stories of new travels and diverse people (Collier & Collier, 1986). The participants in this study were no different. The ISTs took pictures throughout their stay in Kenya to document key events in their experience. They used images to capture their weekend excursions, their home-stay location, and the schools where they worked. While these photographs can reinforce culture-gazing, or exoticize various aspects of Africa, their personal reflections often suggested they were using photographs to tell a more complex story about their experience abroad (Photograph 9.1). Many preservice teachers told their immersion story by uploading pictures to blogs and social media sites. Through this act, they were sharing images and experiences with others who may not have the same opportunity to travel. In return they often projected and crafted an online identity around this experience, e.g. they were adventurous, self-sacrificing or a world traveler. For example, Joshua took Photograph 9.1 while on a safari and posted it on Facebook©. However, he was surprised to see how his friends responded to the image. In fact, he chose to describe this photograph in our interview as he reflected on his friend’s statement. He explained, I posted this on Facebook®. Then I heard from a friend of mine that I have not talked to for a while. He told me not to get eaten by a lion. I’m like, “Oh yeah right…like lions are roaming free everywhere in Kenya.” That view is so ridiculous. I don’t know if I should just ignore it or if I should try to correct those statements.

This interchange highlights the generalization that wild animals cover the African continent, a stereotype perpetuated by Western media and the shallow coverage of geography content in the United States (Merryfield & Wilson, 2005; Subedi, 2010). It is also a reminder of how photographs can colonize spaces, serving as two-dimensional representations of people and places, even if that is not the story the photographer wished to craft.

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Photograph 9.1 Joshua’s image of lion while on safari

This exchange also provided Joshua the opportunity to reflect on how individuals can reproduce stereotypes if they have a limited world-view. Joshua began to develop a broader perspective consciousness while in Kenya, forcing him to question the cultural assumptions often perpetuated in the United States. He recognized that his world-view had shifted and began to reflect on the sources that tacitly influenced his perception. Unfortunately, Joshua felt conflicted over the role he played in educating others against these stereotypes and whether he possessed the skills to correct these misconceptions. He was reluctant to ask his peer to question cultural misrepresentations about the African continent. Joshua’s reluctance has implications for his ability to scaffold transformative citizenship education in his future social studies classrooms. However, this reflection helped Joshua recognize the politics of representation, a skill that is necessary when promoting a critical global perspective (Photograph 9.1). Kelly saw photography as a mechanism to share her Kenyan experience with her students in the United States. She informed me that she took pictures of the food she ate and the farm where she lived so that her students could relate to her experience. Once returning to the United States, Kelly accepted a position at her internship site and used these photographs in her classroom instruction. She told me, The students liked asking questions. “How did you get into town?” They could not fathom the fact that I did not have a Wii® or a PlayStation® Talking about it is one thing, but when I showed them pictures of the farm and the bathrooms, they were completely in shock. It kind of changed their perspective, because they still think of Africa as completely just mud huts and desert. They’re like, “Wait. You had a bed?”

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Photograph 9.2 Kelly’s photograph of Kenyan food

Kelly posited that good social studies teachers need to travel abroad and share their experiences with their students. Photography served as a mechanism for sharing her story and helped her students understand the similarities between Kenyan culture and their own. These images not only documented her experience abroad but were used to authenticate the “experience” of living in Kenya; an experience she based on her subjective interpretation. This process reflects what Lesourd (2001/2002) refers to as the “easier” form of perspective consciousness; a process that focuses on the shared qualities of humanness to promote acceptance and tolerance of other people and places (para 9 & 10). In many ways, Kelly perceived her Kenyan context as vastly different from her American students’ communities. As a result, she also captured images of the huts where we lived, the washrooms that we used, and the food that we ate. She describes this by saying, I stressed “See how the other half lives. I have this amazing article that talks about that [idea].3 It talks about slums and things like that. I wanted to use it on this level. Think about what you’re used to living like. This may seem really desolate and poor to the [American] students, but to the [Kenyan students], this was really normal.

Without the proper scaffolding, exercises that compare one’s culture to the Other’s culture promote deficit portrayals of other people and places. While her intention

3

This is in reference to Jacob Riis 1890s work See How the Other Half Lives. This can be accessed on Bartleby.com’s website at: http://www.bartleby.com/208/.

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was to open her students’ minds to another culture, she also created a binary between the U.S. and Kenya, i.e. the “haves” and the “have-nots.” According to Subedi (2010), instructional practices like these generate problem narratives that perpetuate “dichotomous frameworks” and “create oppositional relationships between the United States and the non-Western world” (p. 6). Subedi (2010) suggested that these narratives ascribe problems to the cultural roots and practices of the group without taking into consideration a range of perspectives or the context of experiences and events. Although Kelly’s intentions were to help her students learn about others, this message risks promoting a “missionary” or even ethnocentric perspective of Kenya. Kelly and Joshua’s reflections about the photographs they captured demonstrate how travel images can reproduce generalizations. For example, Kelly attempted to honor similarities and differences, a goal of intercultural education, when showing how she lived while in Kenya. Her students’ expression of surprise that she slept on a bed was one step towards helping them develop a more inclusive world view. However, by using images to represent another culture, to demonstrate “how the other half lives,” she reproduced binary divisions that contribute to stereotypes. Joshua’s reflection describes a tension between his recognition of his expanded world view, his disappointment upon hearing his friend’s narrow perspective of Kenya, and his reluctance to correct misinformation. If we were to apply these experiences to a classroom setting, these teachers would need the skills to interrogate the generalizations and stereotypical statements often promoted through problem narratives.

9.8.2

Using Photography to Practice Position-Taking

Transformative global educators argue that teachers need to understand their students’ cultures, communities, and interests (Nieto, 2013; Bennett, 2007). Therefore, when the ISTs worked within their Kenyan school placement, it was imperative that they learn about their students’ background. Reflecting on photographs and descriptions can go beyond simply sharing different aspects of culture. As individuals reflect on other’s perspectives, they began to experience small shifts in their own perspective. Photograph 9.3 was captured by a young female student, Ruth, enrolled in the Form Two4 grade level at a local high school. Kelly thought the image depicted “just a farm I guess. Maybe her family farm, something like that” (Post-travel Interview 01/14/2008). Joshua’s initial response was a little more in-depth, as he incorporated details about farming. He examined physical characteristics in the photograph and concluded,

4

Form two is equivalent to the sophomore year in the United States.

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Photograph 9.3 Ruth’s photograph of her sugar-cane farm

Somebody’s sugar cane farm. It’s not very tall; that’s for sure. So it’s still a long way away from harvest. This has to be her view from her house or something. I don’t want to say it’s her family’s sugar cane farm but it could be. (Post-travel Interview 01/11/2008)

Drawing on their experience overseas, the participants connected the physical description of this image to the sugarcane fields that surround the farm where they stayed. Their exposure to new experiences helped them negotiate new meanings within their context. For example, Joshua learned about farming techniques used to harvest sugar cane that differed from the methods his father used on their family farm. These examples demonstrate that the ISTs were trying to use information gained through their experience to interpret this image. Photograph 9.3 can demonstrate the personal meaning that authors bring to their image when deciding what they wish to shoot. It also highlights some of the cultural aspects that differentiate the “American” viewers from the “Kenyan” photographer. After a brief discussion about the image, I shared Ruth’s reflection with each IST. When I look at this, I make a visual of it. I remember it whenever I go there because it was my mother’s land. Of course, we had to give it up when my father died because the government does not give it to the mother. I can use this picture and show them that it was ours. Some men want to clear the land, and make it theirs. I took this picture so that I can remember it. They’re struggling to get this land but I’m trying to save it for my brothers. (Individual Interview, 11/08/2007)

Both preservice teachers were surprised to hear this description of the photograph. While the American travelers interpreted the image of a “typical” sugarcane farm, Ruth described this as a prized but contentious possession.

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After listening to Ruth’s explanation, Kelly shifted her perspective to empathize with the photographer. She exclaimed, “This is just a young kid? She is in high school? Wow, I feel bad! That’s a tough thing for a young girl to deal with” (Post-travel Interview 01/14/2008). The IST was forced to consider the things she takes for granted in her life since the reality of losing a parent, or her home, is something she has never experienced. Kelly’s perspective that this is a tough experience for a young girl reflected her empathy towards a student that devoted her one roll of film to document a land claim. She was beginning to move past tolerating other views and superficially participating in this society and instead tried to understand what was inside Ruth’s head. The ability, not only to consider and tolerate, but to empathize with others’ perspectives is an essential component of perspective consciousness (Hanvey, 1976/2004; Lesourd, 2001/2002). However, even though she was attempting to put herself into the student’s perspective, Kelly did not acknowledge Ruth’s agency—i.e. documenting her family’s possession as an act of challenging something she felt was an injustice in her society.

9.8.3

Photography as Cultural Consciousness-Raising

One goal of using photography for cultural consciousness-raising is to reduce the likelihood of “cultural voyeurism.” As outlined in the methods section, there are ethical implications to consider when photographing and publishing images of other people, especially minors. Therefore, Photograph 9.4, as incorporated here, is not the photograph that Rebecca, another Form Two student, originally captured; the photograph I used in the interview with the ISTs. The image I used depicted an assembly of young Kenyan students. I recognize that there is a history of images objectifying the people and landscape of this region. To avoid reproducing this objectification, as well as avoid IRB issues, I recaptured the setting in a photograph without featuring any children (Photograph 9.4). Imagine a hundred elementary-aged students standing, three rows deep, in front of these buildings. They stand, shoulder to shoulder, facing the camera. Although the majority of the students appear young, a few taller students are standing amongst them. There is a large group of older students standing off to the side. Most of these students are girls dressed in blue uniforms with yellow collars. A few boys dressed in the same colors stand towards the front of the image, their backs toward the photographer. Rebecca wanted to capture this image because it reminded her of how proud she was to serve as an assembly leader; a disposition towards civic engagement that social studies educators hope to instill in their students. She explained, In the morning students meet for assembly. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I really like this because it gives the students the chance to talk to the teachers about their grievances. And those people right there [she points to a group of students] are the people that are keeping the other students in-line. When kids misbehave they will be there to help them. I served as one of the students and it made me proud. (Individual Interview, 11/08/2007)

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Photograph 9.4 Rebecca’s recreated image of the morning assembly

Kelly instantly recognized the ritual represented in Rebecca’s photograph from similar ceremonies she attended at her school placement. It looks like the morning assemblies! You see the guy in the middle that has his hand up to his mouth. It looks like he’s talking. Because all of these students [she points out a group of students] seem to be facing these kids up front. (Post-travel Interview 01/14/2008).

Although Kelly was able to guess that the groups of students were participating in a morning assembly, she was unaware of the subjective meaning implicit in the photographer’s intention behind capturing the image. Without access to the photographer’s position, viewers might not grasp deeper layers of meaning behind the original intent of the image. In a way, this process reflects how difficult it is to “transcend the cognitive maps of one’s own culture to reconstruct the meanings of another’s culture,” (Lesourd, 2001/2002, para 8). One can never fully take on another’s perspective. However, Kelly’s interpretation of this photograph demonstrates she was beginning to recognize norms enacted through this Kenyan school placement. She identified standards that dictate where students stood, who had the power to speak, and which behaviors were appropriate in this setting. She also began to understand the symbolism within the assembly as an educational tradition. Her lifeworld expanded to include and interpret new day-to-day interactions. Rebecca continued to describe her school’s assemblies, reiterating how this process was a form of civic participation that gave students a voice in their schooling process. She shared, We have this group during the assembly. You go there and air out your issues, your problems. Teachers will carry that issue to the office. For example, if the school is not running well or we are eating the food that is not good, they will tell the workers to prepare

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the food differently. Also, we are the day schoolers. Sometimes we come to school very early. There are some people that come from far away and some walk on foot. It’s difficult. You know we have girls that are raped. Some students came here to complain, so the teachers adjusted the school day to start at 6:40. (Individual Interview, 11/08/2007)

I shared this perspective with Joshua who seemed shocked to learn that many of the female students walking to school might face physical risk or harm to their bodies. The preservice teacher exclaimed, Wow! What an experience for a young girl to have! I never really thought about that; that a girl might get raped on her walk to school in the morning. I wonder if this happens in the U. S. I am sure that there are some students that fear the walk to and from school for a variety of reasons. (Post-travel Interview 01/11/2008).

Rebecca’s reflection may fall outside of Joshua’s subjective experience, living as a White male in the United States. By listening to her reflection, Joshua became aware of the fact that some students face situations of emotional and physical violence in their communities and schools, both in Kenya and in the United States. One outcome of perspective consciousness is the ability to empathize with others. These preservice teachers demonstrated they could empathize with their American and Kenyan students. Even though photography can be used to shift an individual’s perspective, these perspectives are still bound by sociocultural factors that influence what she or he chooses to incorporate into their world-view (Wertsch, 1991). Rebecca’s message was that the morning assemblies served as a space where students could demonstrate agency and evoke change. However, her intention was ignored or omitted in Kelly and Joshua’s interpretations; the ISTs instead created problem narratives by focusing on the negative or shocking revelations in these descriptions.

9.9

Reflecting on This Process: How Photo-Elicitation Empowered the ISTs

Western instructors teaching about Africa traditionally approach the subject as the guardians of truth about the continent. They often reinforce topics of slavery, colonialism, poverty, and AIDS, and marginalize African perspectives (Ansell, 2002; Wilson, 1995). It is important to teach about the continent as “subject instead of object, as active rather than passive, as center rather than periphery, as maker of history rather than incidental to history” (Wilson, 1995, para 1). One may assume that Western ISTs who spent time in Africa would be better prepared to teach about the continent as subject, active, center, and maker of history. After examining Kelly and Joshua’s responses, one can see how each demonstrated an expanded worldview as they reflected on theirs and others’ photographs; even if these changes were small shifts in perspective. Our hope is that teaching in Africa one may be better-prepared to teach about Africa.

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Take for example Joshua’s image of the lion that he took on Safari. By posting this photograph on Facebook, Joshua tried to share his trip with friends and family members and project an image as an adventurous traveler. His lifeworld started to expand by experiencing a portion of the African continent. Joshua critiqued his friends “ridiculous” assumption that lions roam all over East Africa, or possibly even the notion that Africa is wild and exotic. He did, however, wrestle with his role in educating others or correcting their misunderstandings. Julie saw her role as a teacher was to enhance her students’ lifeworlds by introducing them to new information. She challenged their assumptions by showing where she lived and the bed where she slept. However, she also reproduced stereotypes by focusing on the theme “how the other half lives.” These examples capture Hanvey’s (1976/2004) state-of-the-planet awareness as both ISTs were sharing new items, objects, and content about Kenya with other Westerners. Their own photographs served as one vehicle to tell the story of “Kenya” or “East Africa.” However, by using a lens that focused on deficiency, Kelly and Joshua created their own problem narratives about this region, even if they were not aware they were doing so at the time. When reflecting on their own photographs the ISTs begin to see how their worldview expanded by comparing their new perspectives to their Western peers and students that have limited exposure to the world. This process was enhanced when the ISTs interacted with the student-produced images and perspectives. Julie and Joshua offered interpretations that often mirrored portions of the student photographers’ descriptions. For example, Julie recognized the image and symbolism of the student assembly and Joshua was able to explain the features within the photograph of the sugarcane farm. As they described each photograph, they used cultural context clues they acquired in East Africa. These examples demonstrated how their lifeworld, and worldview, expanded as a result of the experience abroad. These cross-cultural dialogues outlined Kelly and Joshua’s attempts to mediate understanding, drawing on new information and alternative perspectives to form explanations of cultural practices. When their original interpretations did not match the photographer’s description, they incorporated this new lifeworld information into their existing cultural framework and engaged in the position-taking process. The highlighted dialogue demonstrates that an individual must go through a process of identifying, reframing, position-taking, and reflection during the cultural consciousness-raising process. Although they were immersed in the experience long enough to grasp some cultural context clues—e.g. identifying the norms within the morning assembly— they continued to view the experience primarily through their pre-existing cultural norms—e.g. displaying shock when learning about Ruth’s act of documenting the sugar cane farm to prove ownership of the land. Perhaps this is understandable due to the limited time they spent abroad. These deeper levels of perspective consciousness are often difficult to reach even with extensive time spent in cross-cultural settings (Hanvey, 1976/2004; Lokkesmoe, Kunchinke & Ardichvili, 2016). Finally, neither IST recognized the evidence that the Kenyan students were actively participating as change-agents in their community. This lack of

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understanding suggests that they still had a limited perspective of a students’ potential to engage in transformative civic engagement. Overall, their reactions to this process lack a sense of critical awareness that I had originally hoped to find when using this technique. This study suggests that photographic images can serve as a tool to help preservice teachers begin to recognize that their view of the world is not universal and can become aware of assumptions that previously went unchallenged. Cultural consciousness-raising, as a result of perspective consciousness, is the first step to consider when facilitating approaches fostering constructive dialogue about the role one’s ethnicity, race, gender, nationality, or life experience and the role they play in interpreting experiences (Brown, 2004; Castro, 2010). By viewing, interpreting, and reinterpreting images, the ISTs were aware of their professional responsibility to challenge stereotypes and cultural misunderstandings. They felt this responsibility even if they did not believe they had the self-efficacy to handle this in their future classrooms or social interactions. Many teachers and students in K-12 classrooms do not have opportunities to travel to, or live, abroad. With the rise in social media outlets, and with access to email, American students can easily connect with students across the world. This interaction allows individuals opportunities to share narratives and images through a reciprocal exchange of ideas. Our role as global educators is to help facilitate students as they negotiate between the sameness and difference within their own, and other, cultures around the world. Dialogue and social mediation facilitate mutual understanding, i.e. when lifeworlds encounter, embrace, and incorporate diverse lifeworlds. Visual images create opportunities to elicit perspectives, listen to perspectives, and speak to perspectives (Hawley, Crowe, & Mooney, 2016; Sensoy, 2010). This process can build a foundation for bringing all voices to the table when working for social justice, respect, and understanding. It also serves as a space for teachers to learn from their students’ experience so they are better equipped to support them in the K-12 classroom.

Appendix 1: Interview Protocol: Kenyan Secondary Students Lead Question 1: Describe your experience taking these pictures. Possible Follow-up Questions for Lead Question 1: • How did you feel during this process? • What did you like about this? What did you not like? • What were you thinking about when you were taking these pictures? • Did the picture turn out like you thought it would?

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Script: I have developed the pictures you took during our lesson. I want you to look over them. (Pause) Now choose your favorite two or three images. Lead Question 2: What were you thinking when you were taking this picture? [Repeated for each image] Possible Follow-up Questions [Repeated as necessary]: • Do you remember what you were feeling when you took this picture? • What thoughts and feelings do you have as you look at these photographs? • What is the difference between actually taking the photograph and viewing this image now? • What kind of image were you projecting? Is this the type of image you wanted to project? • What makes this one of your favorite images? • You mentioned ___________. Can you explain that a little better? • Is this image familiar to you? Is this image a behavior that you see often? (Or) What is different about the behavior in this image? • Can you recall what effect you thought the setting had on you or the interaction in this image? • Can you recall what effect you thought the setting had on the others whom engaged in the interaction in this image? • What messages did you want to communicate? • What is happening in this image? • Why did you choose to describe this image as one of the three images?

Appendix 2: Interview Protocol: Post Travel Interview with ISTs Script: Remember the pictures that I had you take? When I worked with the Kenyan students I had them take pictures as well. I’m going to show you a picture and I want you to describe what you see. Questions: • When you view this image, what do you see? • What does this mean to you? • Can you describe what you are seeing?

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• What do you think the photographer was thinking when they were photographing this image? • What do you feel when you observe this photographic? • Is this image familiar to you? Is this image different to you? Can you describe that? • What does this mean to you? Script: Now let me read how the Kenyan student-photographer described this image. Follow-up Questions: • What are you thinking about when you hear this description? • Can you explain that a little more? • How does that make you feel? • What does their description mean to you?

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Wertsch, J. (1991). Voices of the mind: A sociocultural approach to mediated action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wilson, A. H. (1983). A case study of two teachers with cross-cultural experiences. They know more. Educational Research Quarterly, 8(1), 78–85. Wilson, A. (1995). Teaching about Africa: A review of middle/secondary textbooks and supplemental materials. The Social Studies, 86(6), 253–259. doi:10.1080/00377996.1995. 9958405. Wilson, N., Dasho, S., Martin, C., Wallerstein, N., Wang, C., & Minkler, M. (2007). Engaging young adolescents in social action through photovoice: The youth empowerment. doi:10.1177/ 0272431606294834. Zong, G. (2009). Global perspectives in teacher education research and practice. In T. Kirkwood-Tucker (Ed.), Visions in global education: The globalization of curriculum and pedagogy in teacher education and schools (pp. 71–89). New York, NY: Peter Lang.

Author Biography Sarah A. Mathews Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Florida International University in Miami, Florida. She is the Social Studies Education program leader within FIU’s Department of Teaching and Learning, with research interests in global and multicultural citizenship education. She teaches undergraduate methods courses and graduate curriculum and qualitative research courses. Her research interests include intercultural education and the use of digital methodologies to facilitate global education. She has published chapters related to use of photomethodologies in the following edited texts: Rethinking Social Studies Teacher Education for Twenty-first Century Citizenship and The State of Global Education: Learning with the World and its People.

Chapter 10

Interrogating Whiteness: Using Photo-Elicitation to Empower Teachers to Talk About Race Michael L. Boucher, Jr.

Abstract This chapter highlights one participant from my previous research, a case study, designed to reveal how five successful White social studies teachers negotiated their teaching relationships with their African American students. The participants, from a Midwestern de facto segregated urban district, were identified as successful teachers and chosen using a nomination process. They were observed in the classroom and interviewed using photo-elicitation (Crilly et al., Qual Res, 6:341–366, 2006; Harper, Visual Stud, 17:13–26, 2002). The photos were taken by the researcher of classroom interactions between the White teacher and students of color on an iPad. The interviews were then qualitatively analyzed for emerging themes (Creswell, Qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five traditions. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, 2007; Patton, Qualitative research & evaluation methods: Integrating theory and practice. SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, 2002; Stake, The art of case study research: Perspectives on practice. SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, 1995). Using photo elicitation gave these teachers a platform to theorize and reflect on the relationships with their students of color and their own ideas about race: (1) Teachers discussed the dynamics of their relationships with students and their ability or inability to connect with individual students. (2) Teachers saw their interactions with students through a new lens and theorized about the nature of urban teaching and their own ideas about race. (3) Teachers revealed the complicated push and pull between empowerment and deficit modeling of their students’ lives.

M.L. Boucher, Jr. (&) Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing AG 2018 M.L. Boucher, Jr. (ed.), Participant Empowerment Through Photo-elicitation in Ethnographic Education Research, http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64413-4_10

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Research Problem

10.1.1 The Achievement Gap and the “School to Prison Pipeline” Scholars have explained that there is a persistent gap in the education of African American students and their White counterparts in American schools. This gap in achievement has been described as starting in preschool and extending through college (Pollack, 2012). Yet, despite decades of concentration on the “gap,” since federal legislation exposed it in the 1990s, it still pervades our schools (Howard & Gay, 2010). It exists in public and private education and in every area of the country. It is not exclusively an urban problem as many assume, but extends wherever students of color are schooled in the US (Braun, Chapman, & Vezzu, & Service, 2010; Bradbury, Corak, Waldfogel, & Washbrook, 2015; Ladson-Billings, 2009; Rowley & Wright, 2011; U.S. Department of Education, 2009). Income, race, and geographic location are still the main indicators of school success but methods used by school systems to close that achievement gap have largely blamed Black and Brown children and their parents (U.S. Department of Education, 2009). While the American teaching force, according to the National Center for Educational Information (NCEI), is 84% White and has remained steady since 1986 (Feistritzer, 2011, p. 11), educators have not treated the gap as an opportunity to change the racialized measures used to qualify success; rather, the solution is often to treat low test scores as a pathology afflicting Black students, even leading some to call the gap itself a racist concept (Kendi, 2016). As a response to that test score gap, rather than re-examine the curriculum and teaching practices of the overwhelmingly White teaching force, school bureaucracies, using deficit models, implement interventions that constrain the curriculum, eliminate the arts, enforce strict disciplinary codes, and focus on holding teachers and students accountable for raising test scores (Crocco & Costigan, 2007; Fine, 2009). These models have led to reforms that have created a pipeline directly from the schools to the correctional system for Black students (Christensen, 2012; Fuentes, 2011; Gonsoulin, Zablocki, & Leone, 2012; Hirschfield, 2008; Kim & Geronimo, 2009; Wald & Losen, 2003). This system has been dubbed the “school-to-prison-pipeline” as it over-disciplines childish behaviors into criminal offences that carry harsh consequences, introducing students to the justice system and leading to adult incarceration (Annette, 2012). Hirschfield (2008), explained that high-needs schools have largely handed over the authority for discipline to “criminal justice professionals” whose main goal is to maintain student compliance, not necessarily to keep children learning (p. 93). According to Wald and Losen (2003), harsh school removal policies resulted from the inability to create behavior interventions that would de-escalate situations. Instead, schools created zero-tolerance and get tough policies that led to more suspensions and juvenile detentions (p. 10). Gregory and Weinstein (2008) argued that there is a “discipline gap” between Black and White students and that this gap results in too many exclusionary

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suspensions by administrators (p. 456). Hirschfield (2008) explained, “Teachers and administrators often perceive little choice but to summon repressive means to swiftly remove disruptive students from the classroom and the school” (p. 93). Skiba et al (2011) monitored the disciplinary practices of 364 elementary and middle schools and found that African American students overwhelmingly received more frequent and harsher discipline than their peers. An excessive number of exclusions are placed on Black students even though behaviors are demonstrably similar to White students who do not receive the same level of punishment (Monroe, 2005). Skiba et al. (2002) found: …no evidence that racial disparities in school punishment could be explained by higher rates of African American misbehavior. In striking contrast to the gender analyses, discriminant analysis of racial disparities failed to show a pattern of more serious misbehavior among the group with the higher rate of office referral. White students were significantly more likely to be referred to the office for smoking, leaving without permission, obscene language, and vandalism. In contrast, black students were more likely to be referred to the office for disrespect, excessive noise, threat, and loitering (emphasis added) (p. 334).

Fear and suspicion of Black children and the implicit bias caused by lack of knowledge about the Other, combined with massive pressure to have all students perform on standardized tests, have driven schools down this disciplinary path (Morris & Perry, 2016; Okonofua & Eberhardt, 2015; Skiba, Peterson, & Williams, 1997). This implicit bias and assumption of misbehavior has its root in the thinking and practices of individual educators and administrators who lack cultural competency and respond to fear of losing control. When law enforcement officials are added into the learning environment to control student behavior with uniforms and deadly weapons, they become part of the disciplinary framework, often without the requisite training in education. The introduction of police officers has led to an atmosphere of suspicion of Black students more than White students and, as Goff, Jackson, Di Leone, Culotta, DiTomasso (2014) found, an “atmosphere of dehumanization” has pervaded school discipline (p. 10). Part of what they found was that police officers overestimated Black children’s ages and perceived them as 4.53 years older than they were. They concluded that Black children, in contexts of dehumanization, are prematurely treated as adults, leading to an increased use of violence to control behavior and an assumption of guilt. Rather than school officials or educators working to keep students in schools, they have handed over discipline to police officers who become a conduit introducing Black students to the school-to-prison pipeline for either major or minor incidents. Pane and Rocco (2014) explained that, “exclusionary school discipline is commonly practiced when teachers perceive heightened misbehavior and classroom discipline combined with the fear of losing control in the classroom. Exclusionary school discipline practices include the referral of disruptive students out of the classroom and their subsequent suspension and expulsion from school” (p. 29). They explain that the sequence keeping the pipeline flowing begins with referrals for disruptive behavior, then suspension, then expulsion, school failure, dropping out, juvenile incarceration, and ultimately adult prison (Losen & Skiba, 2010).

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10.1.2 Solutions Are not Readily Found This is not a new phenomenon and has been part of the schooling of African American students for generations. But, because school officials face scrutiny based on student test scores, they have been tempted to meet the standards by changing student populations rather than changing their pedagogy. Bowditch (1993), found that students with lower grades and attendance were encouraged to drop out of high school. Since this work in the 1990s, these “push-outs” are becoming increasingly common as pressures have mounted to show gains in individual classrooms through Value Added Model (VAM) teacher performance models (Rumberger & Palardy, 2005). Bowditch (1993) explained, “The activities of the discipline office, which routinely identified “troublemakers” and “got rid of” them through suspensions and involuntary drops, may be one important, but largely unacknowledged mechanism through which schools perpetuate the racial and class stratification of the larger society (p. 506). Ultimately, pushing students out of schools to raise test scores is, at best, a temporary solution to the acute structural problems facing schools, but certainly not one that leads to a democratic, educated populace. One answer put forth to attempt to solve the achievement dilemma is to focus on African American students’ lack of opportunity to identify with Black role models in the schools (Brown, 2012; Irvine, 1989; Milner, 2006; Williamson, 2011). In 1972, the first year the U.S. Department of Education collected demographic data for the newly desegregated schools, students of color accounted for 22% of total enrollments and teachers of color constituted 12% of the teaching force, a 10-percentage point gap between the two groups. A decade later, the disparity had grown to 17 percentage points, with students of color making up 27% of total enrollments and teachers of color accounting for only 10% of the workforce (p. 283). New research has indicated that Black students who have even one Black teacher in her or his schooling experience in low-income schools will have 29% greater interest in school and are 39% less likely to drop out before completing high school (Gershenson, Hart, Lindsay, & Papageorge, 2017). But as Milner (2006) explained, having a Black teacher in the classroom is not necessarily the panacea that it is often hoped to be unless they are also culturally competent and refuse to engage in deficit models. Thus, as the growth in the number of students of color continues to outpace the pool of teachers of color, growing the number of teachers of color in our schools is an important and aspirational goal (Stotko, Ingram, & Beaty-O’Ferrall, 2007; Villegas, Strom, & Lucas, 2012). However, despite efforts to increase the diversity of the teaching pool, most teachers seen by African American students during any given day will be White and there will not be enough teachers of color to change that experience for many years (Boucher, 2016; Hanson & Quintero, 2016; Milner, 2006; Villegas, Strom, & Lucas, 2012). These trends point to several observations: (a) urban school climates are becoming increasingly reliant on techniques and personnel whose role is enforcement of order, rather than pedagogical; (b) schools are still not adequately addressing the achievement gap between Black and White students resulting in a

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school-to-prison-pipeline; and (c) the bulk of the teaching force in majority Black schools is, and will remain for the foreseeable future, White. The portrait of schooling from the literature and statistics of schools where African American students attend should cause an uprising among teachers and parents. Instead, too many argue that these measures are in place to control a population that is in need of these measures. They surmise that these students behave more poorly than their White counterparts, or that they were improperly parented, as Payne (2005) presumed in her A Framework for Understanding Poverty. However, scholars have shown that these types of deficit-based ideologies are contradicted by data and largely the result of preconceived notions of White, middle class racial and cultural superiority (Boucher & Helfenbein, 2015, Gorski, 2006; 2008; 2016; Keller, 2006; Osei-Kofi, 2005; Rogalsky, 2009; Smiley & Helfenbein, 2011).

10.1.3 Finding a Counternarrative When combined with the anti-Black prejudgment described by scholars of African American schoolchildren, the picture emerges from the vast literature on the school-to-prison-pipeline of a system stacked against African American students in a Kafkaesque labyrinth where no shelter, quarter, nor refuge exists for students to thrive until 12th grade (Monroe, 2005). The counternarrative, however, of individual teachers making a difference in the lives of young people is not as prominent in the literature. The counternarrative allows for a deeper understanding of the lived experiences of people in an oppressive system. It is a tool used by critical race theorists and has amplified the voices of people of color in education (Huber, 2008; Ladson-Billings, 1998; 2009; Matias, Viesca, Garrison-Wade, Tandon, & Galindo, 2014; Milner, 2007; Scheurich & Young, 1997; Tyson, 1998; Solórzano & Yosso, 2002) According to Solórzano & Yosso (2002), counternarratives increase understanding of the Other through the use of, “personal stories or narratives [that] recount an individual’s experiences with various forms of racism and sexism” (p. 32). Amid the data on White teachers’ failure to successfully meet the needs of students of color, there is a powerful counternarrative of White teachers and Black students who have met in solidarity to empower, nurture, and respect students of color. These White teachers represent others who are able to work in solidaristic relationships with students in conditions that allow them to stand against the tide and make a difference in their students’ lives (Alonso, Anderson, Su, & Theoharis, 2009; Clewell, Campbell, & Perlman, 2007; Coleman, 2007; Cooper, 2003; Duncan-Andrade, 2007; Hermes, 2005; Kincheloe & Hayes, 2006; Kozol, 1996; Ladson-Billings, 2009; Lauria & Mirón, 2005; Mirón & Lauria, 1995; Milner, 2010; Osher, et al., 2012; Paris, 2012; Rothman, 2007). This study joins the small, but growing chorus that is beginning to describe teachers in classrooms across the nation who are making a difference by disrupting the school to prison pipeline. Because White teachers who do this work

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are rare, it is crucial that researchers are able to identify and understand them so that they might teach others about their pedagogy and practice (Cushman, 2003; Jupp & Slattery, 2010). In order to bring this counternarrative, the question that guided this study was: How do successful White teachers negotiate their teaching relationships with their African American students? Over the course of the study, I found that successful White teachers of African American students do two important things that have led them to succeed. First, they continue to “interrogate” their own whiteness using reflective self-study of books, staff development, structured classes, and mentoring conversations with African Americans (Cochran-Smith, 2000). Second, they seek and work to create relationships of solidarity with students. I also found, however, that they still held deficit models that inhibited their ability to build these relationships. This “push and pull” between deficit and empowering models of students allows for a more nuanced understanding of the motivations, abilities, and pedagogy of successful White teachers of African American students (Boucher, 2016). This study used photo-elicitation to bring these counternarratives to the literature and, in the process, allowed these teachers a forum to theorize about their own ideas about race.

10.2

Why Photo Elicitation Was Used for This Study

My use of photo-elicitation came after many hours of reading and searching for a method that would yield meaningful data and involve my participants in a reflective project. I decided that the best way to both remain unobtrusive and still engage my participants in a dialogue was to use an iPad to take photos of the classrooms while they were teaching, with a focus on the teacher’s interactions with her/his Black students, and then discuss these photos away from the students. After the photos were taken in class, I sat down after school with the teacher alone and asked a series of prompts with the most important being simply, “tell me what is going on here.” This query began the conversation that brought out the personal, at times emotional, and reflective discussion that built trust with the participants. This method also allowed time for them to reflect on their own position as a White person teaching mostly Black students. Talking about race is tricky, but necessary if we are to disrupt the pipeline that washes our children into incarceration (Goffman, 2015; Michael, 2014; Hooks, 2012). However, asking people about racism seldom gets any positive response. In fact, even bringing up race often makes White people uncomfortable (Sleeter, 1993). The fragility of White people when discussing race has been documented in classrooms and social discourse (DiAngelo, 2011, Matias, 2016). Scholars have concluded that there are specific blocks that keep White people from having productive conversations and increase their stress, leading to a defensive posture, rather than a reflective one. DiAngelo (2015) explained that challenges to the constructs of individualism, White intellectual and historical centrality, White supremacy, and White objectivity are triggers that shut down

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conversations about race. She explained that societal and cultural forces like present day segregation, entitlement to comfort, and the normalization of whiteness are blocks that keep White people from confronting their own attitudes and racialization (DiAngelo, 2015). So then, the researcher who is interested in having these conversations with participants will need to find a way around the blockages and aid participants in their own realizations about race and their place in it. This is where photo-elicitation becomes a way for participants to talk about race, because, as a technique, it is a highly personal and intimate experience to discuss their own positions and practice using the photos to serve as a mediator. The discussion of the photos easily turns into a discussion of the participant. It is a natural flow of the conversation and the participant can go back and forth from the photo to themselves without feeling that they have changed the subject. In this study, because of the techniques involved, I was able to dialogue with teachers about race and their own practice in the following ways: (1) Teachers discussed the complicated dynamics of their relationships with students and their ability or inability to connect with individual students; (2) Teachers saw their interactions with students through a new lens, theorizing about the nature of urban teaching and their own ideas about race; (3) Teachers revealed the complicated push and pull between empowerment and deficit modeling of their students’ lives.

10.3

Method

10.3.1 Ethnographic Case Study This ethnographic case study explored teachers’ understanding of their teaching relationships in classrooms of mostly African American students. The participants were self-identified White social studies teachers in a Midwestern urban public school district with a largely African American student population. The case study uses a critical ethnographic method (Anderson, 1989; Carspecken, 1996; Lather, 1986a, b; Madison, 2012). It is openly ideological, being informed by critical race theory (Kobayashi, 1994; Ladson Billings, 1998, 2009) and research investigating whiteness and privilege (Azoulay, 1997; Burkard, Juarez-Huffaker, & Ajmere, 2003; McIntosh, 2004; Nakayama & Krizek, 1995; Picower, 2009; Stewart, Latu, Branscombe, Phillips, & Denney, 2012; Trainor, 2002; Ullucci & Battey, 2011; Ullucci, 2012) to seek understanding with the participants about the ability of White teachers to negotiate their teaching relationships with African American students in urban classrooms.

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10.3.2 Case Study To Stake (1995), a good case study observes a “specific, complex and functioning thing” that studies a “bounded system” (p. 2). The complex relational structure of the school district includes interactions between varied and diverse groups with multiple and often conflicting agendas. The complexity of the interactions in that focal point shows that it is multifaceted and functioning. Merriam (2009) stated that because case studies are “anchored in real-life situations,” they result in a “rich and holistic account of the phenomenon. [The case study] offers insights and illuminates meanings that expand its readers’ experiences” (p. 51). Patton (2002) stated, “Well constructed case studies are holistic and context sensitive” (p. 447). In other words, case studies look at the whole system of the case but are still bounded by the unit of analysis. In this study, the district is the setting, and the successful White teachers’ classroom is the case. Patton (2002) continued, “The case study approach to qualitative analysis constitutes a specific way of collecting, organizing and analyzing data: in that sense, it represents an analysis process” (p. 447). That process is to gather in-depth and global information about the case and the phenomena of interest. Because of its racialization and the history of segregation, the city district I used was an excellent example of a case and yielded data on the nature of cross-racial interactions between teachers and students. The clear majority of teachers in the district were White, while most students were African American. In the 2015–2016 school year, 20% of the students were White, 49% Black, 25% Hispanic, and 5% multiracial. 68 percent of students received free lunch, and 2.6% receive reduced lunch. 14% were English Language Learners. The graduation rate in 2014 was 72%. Teacher racial breakdown was 77% White, 19% Black, 1.5% Hispanic, and 1% Asian/Pacific Islander. Within the district, there is one school that is majority White, while most of the schools are majority Black. Some high schools are as high as 95.00% Black. Patton (2002) exhorted, “The analyst’s first and foremost responsibility consists of doing justice to each individual case. All else depends on that” (p. 449). To do justice to the case and my participants, it was important that I was true to my own commitments to social justice and ethical treatment of participants. To do that, I used a critical ethnographic method for this case study as defined by Lather (1986a) with input from Anderson (1989), Carspecken (1996), Madison (2012), and Thomas (1993).

10.3.3 Critical Ethnography and Positionality Thomas (1993) referred to critical ethnography as a metaphor that “conveys a particular social imaginary” (p. 20). To Thomas, critical scholars do not debate over truth claims “but over metaphoric images that drive knowledge production” (p. 20).

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Thus, to think in a critical manner is to “unleash the researcher from the need to validate truth claims” and forgo the “domestication that comes from post-positivist objectivity” (p. 8). Carpecken (1996) explained, “In critical social research, we immediately translate truth claims into validity claims, understanding that some of the content of any truth claim is going to be culturally bound” (p. 57). Critical researchers do not claim to have any final truths that can be tested and abstracted. Instead, they “agree with the pragmatists that any assertion will always be fallible” (p. 57). According to Carspecken, it is that human fallibility that makes qualitative research and critical research more reliable, not less. Critical researchers acknowledge that, when dealing with people, there is never just one undeniable answer: in critical research, researchers are free to express the humanity of our participants more fully. As described by Madison (2012), critical ethnography includes a reflexive element that is important for work on race in America. She described a “reflexive ethnography,” in that the researcher holds him or herself accountable for the research and, in this case, the understanding of what makes a successful teacher (p. 7). Thus, the examination of the positionality of the researcher is a valuable tool to understanding the data. As a mostly White male, being of multiple European and indigenous heritage and raised in the suburbs, I am aware that I have enjoyed all the privileges of whiteness but have also retained my connection to my heritage as a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. I also fully acknowledge that my identity is shaped mostly by my whiteness, not as a Native American. As Lather (1986a) explained, “Our best shot at present is to construct research designs that push us toward becoming vigorously self-aware” (p. 66). As a mostly White researcher, I struggle with essentializing Black and White when describing the endless cultural and color permutations of our classrooms and our world; however, I also refuse to ignore the real differences in achievement, the historical reality of racialization, and the structures of White supremacy in America. As a researcher, I have a responsibility to live out my commitments to social justice and antiracism while acknowledging that I am shaped by, and am embedded in, the system I rightfully criticize. That said, to examine the phenomena, the categories of Black and White have been strategically essentialized to explain the differences and must be clear enough to begin to define why it matters that White teachers are having difficulty teaching Black students (Azoulay, 1997; Bonilla-Silva, 2003; Kobayashi, 1994). Openly Ideological Research. Lather (1986a) explained that critical ethnography falls under the umbrella of “openly ideological research” (p. 63). In this case study, the ideology of the study is based on the Freirean notion of “praxis” applied to research (Freire, 1990; Lather, 1986b). Lather explained: Rather than the illusory “value-free” knowledge of the positivists, praxis-oriented inquirers seek emancipatory knowledge. Emancipatory knowledge increases awareness of the contradictions hidden or distorted by everyday understandings, and in doing so it directs attention to the possibilities for social transformation inherent in the present configuration of social processes. (p. 259)

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One challenge to openly ideological research is the assumption that empirical research must withstand a challenge of validity. According to Lather (1986a), there are four types of credibility checks that will increase trustworthiness and likelihood that ideology will not inhibit the ability to make inferences. These are outlined more thoroughly in the introduction to the book. They are (1) Triangulation of data sources; (2) Construct validity; (3) Face validity, AND (4) Catalytic validity. Thus, with these four checks in mind, I committed myself to research that empowers the participants through dialogue and praxis (Lather, 1986b).

10.3.4 Institutional Review Board (IRB) and Participants IRB approval. I began the process of the study as a pilot to my Ph.D. dissertation in 2011 and then continued and expanded it after my dissertation proposal was accepted in 2012. I had been supervising student teachers in the district for a semester when I began my pilot study of two teachers from a single school. To select participants, I began with the district social studies content specialist who helped me meet with the assistant superintendent overseeing curriculum. I knew the content specialist through my work with my professional organization and had done some faculty development for the district. I also supervised student teachers at the school so I was a known quantity when I walked into the office. I shared with them my research protocol and my commitment to describing the pedagogy and practice of successful teachers and they signed on. The content specialist worked with me to create a list of teachers she recommended for the study. I narrowed that list to 5 after talking with the principals of the buildings and obtaining consent from the participants. The IRB at Indiana University had just consolidated the entire University system under one IRB office in Bloomington and was bogged down with requests. Some requests were taking over two months to get approval or even feedback. My application had two issues that led to delays in the process. First, I had to obtain permission from the district research office to do a dissertation. Second, I was taking pictures of students in their classrooms. Both issues were solved through communication and building relationships with the district personnel. The district was going through leadership changes at the superintendent level. The school board was challenging many of the practices of the district and was working to replace principals and district level administrators they perceived as blocking reforms. The principal of my pilot school was summarily removed from his position after a public power struggle during the time of my IRB application. The new principal was wary, but after reading my proposal, allowed me to study his teachers. It also helped tremendously that my research advisor had an excellent relationship with the school district and was appreciated for his solidarity with them, defending the public schools against the privatizing efforts encouraged by the state. Under all this turmoil, the district suddenly restricted the research to be done in their schools. The one loophole was that they were allowing a small number of

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students to do dissertation research. This policy was to aid their own employees to do research and finish their doctorates, but it was not stated specifically that a researcher had to be a district employee. I had already collected data in a pilot study with one of the previous principals, so the district was aware that I was in the middle of the study when the tumult hit. Because I had ongoing, productive relationships with the district personnel, I was able to gain approval. Thus, all of this became a two-step process. In order to get IRB approval for the pilot study, I received permission from the school principal for the teachers in the pilot. From there, I received permission from the district personnel for my dissertation study. The issue of taking pictures in the classroom was worked out between myself and the school district fairly easily. All students’ parents signed waivers for photos to be taken “for educational purposes.” Since the district had approved the study and I was under the auspices of a partner University institution, that qualified as an educational purpose. That also meant that, as far as the district was concerned, the pictures could be public and even put on the internet. In the classes where I did my observations, the office secretaries did an audit that took a few moments to ensure all parents had signed the waiver. These waivers had been included in an early packet of information that included no shots; no school provisions and were dutifully collected upon registration. The IRB was more suspicious than the district and it took several phone calls and a letter from the assistant superintendent that assured them that the waivers were in place for them to relent. I also clearly and explicitly explained in my consent form and in the application that the photos would absolutely, unequivocally, not be shown to anyone, even transcriptionists. After those assurances, the IRB approved my application. In the end, for my purposes, the photos are unimportant for anything but the elicitation of verbal responses. They are not data points and are only important for the narratives created around them by the teachers. While this is not true for all photo method studies, for me, the photos were throwaways and the real data came from the interviews. Participants. To Lather (1986a), the researcher’s role as a “privileged possessor of expert knowledge must be reconceptualized as that of a catalyst who works with local participants to understand and solve local problems” (p. 73). Lather posited that the participants are crucial to creating meaning in formulating the questions, the solutions, and interpretation of the findings. An important part of this study was to build relationships with the participants and have them help me understand the challenges, solutions, joys, and obstacles to good teaching in the city. I worked to peel back the many layers of the classroom culture of these teachers. To accomplish this, I thought it necessary to immerse myself in classrooms where I could identify whether they were functioning in a way that is good for students and show fidelity to the discipline. I needed to be as certain as possible that I could explain the classrooms and the pedagogy behind the curriculum choices. For this reason, I chose in this study to work with social studies teachers exclusively. That was a difficult choice. As a social studies teacher and a teacher/leader in the field, I was

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concerned that I would narrow my scope unnecessarily. After much reflection, I decided that I could reduce my own biases by avoiding the possibility of my comparing what I saw with the pedagogy of my own discipline. As an experienced social studies teacher, I was confident I knew what should be in the curriculum. Thus, I was able to set aside curriculum as a variable and focus on the relationships developed in the classroom. As Anderson (1989) explained, critical ethnographers attempt to ensure that participants in research “are not naively enthroned, but systematically and critically unveiled” (p. 253). By building relationships and asking probing questions, I hoped to see what happened behind the curtain of the classroom and learn what made these teachers successful. Sampling procedure: Finding the successful teachers. A teacher/leader and a district official with knowledge of the classrooms within the city identified teachers as successful. I am purposeful in my use of the word successful and not the word effective. While the teacher in this study was viewed as effective in pedagogy, curriculum, and practice, the discussion of teacher effectiveness has become muddied by the politics of standards and holding teachers accountable for their students’ success on standardized tests. In this study, I have chosen the word successful to explain that, while he was producing stellar scores, he was successful because his students were successful in many more ways than those test scores can measure. The sampling procedure used intensity sampling that sought “excellent or rich samples of the phenomenon of interest, but not highly unusual cases” (Patton, 2002, p. 234). Two informants who were familiar with teaching in the district helped me choose participants to contact. Between these two informants, they suggested 14 White middle and high school social studies teachers for me to choose from. To gain multiple perspectives, I wanted a range of experience and gender identifications for the study. I contacted high school teachers with a range of experience and was successful with all of the teachers I contacted. This procedure is similar to the sampling method called “community nomination” used by Ladson-Billings (2009) for her study in The Dreamkeepers. This chapter highlights one of the 5 teachers I used for the complete study and others are highlighted in other articles (Boucher, 2013, 2016; Boucher & Helfenbein, 2015).

10.3.5 Data Collection, and Analysis Photo elicitation. The techniques I used for data gathering included photo elicitation, the technique of showing photos to the participant in order to draw a more in-depth discussion and therefore richer data (Harper, 2002). Images evoke deeper elements of human consciousness than do words. Exchanges based on words alone utilize less of the brain’s capacity than do conversations in which the brain is processing images as well as words. These may be some of the reasons the photo elicitation interview seems like not simply an interview process that elicits more information, but rather one that evokes a different kind of information (p. 13). The

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ability to talk about a picture releases the participant from the gaze of the researcher, adding to comfort and limiting the natural nervousness about what is being said (Gordon, 2005). Adding photos into the mix also makes the interview process more enjoyable in that pictures can stir memories that allow the participant to tell their story in a more entertaining way, but most importantly, the participant is less like a subject under the microscope of the researcher’s clipboard and more of an instructor with an interested friend. Photo elicitation empowers the participant to reflect on his or her own life, practice, space, or whatever the photo brings to mind. Crilly, Blackwell, and Clarkson (2006) explained that photo elicitation in interviews might lead to revelations “difficult to achieve by verbal exchanges alone …This is because such stimuli bring factors external to the interview situation into view, prompting response to ‘not now’ moments, ‘not here’ events, and ‘not present’ actors” (pp. 341, 342). In interviews that use images, participants are encouraged to let their minds go wherever the photo takes them. It is a tool that allows the conversation of the interview to flow more naturally with less hesitation from the participant. To do photo elicitation well, Harper (2002) explained that the researcher must “break the frame” (p. 20). The phrase comes from framing theory, “the process by which people develop a particular conceptualization of an issue or reorient their thinking about an issue” (Chong & Druckman, 2007, p. 20). To “break the frame,” a researcher shows familiar objects to the participants in an unfamiliar way. Thus, when working in classrooms, the setting and the actions are familiar, but the photograph taken by the researcher breaks the viewpoint of the participant. This allows the teacher to see him or herself in a new way and will allow for a rich discussion of the event, their feelings about it, and the background of the interactions captured in the image. Harper (2002) also explained that images are often able to transcend culture and can lead participants to new understandings of themselves and their cultures, “the idea behind breaking the frame is that photographs may lead an individual to a new view of their [sic] social existence. It is also possible to use images as bridges between worlds that are more culturally distinct” (p. 21). In typical ethnographic fashion, I was out of the way of the action, usually in a corner on the side of the room so that I could catch the interactions using the iPad. The photos were mundane at best, often blurry and poorly lit. Many were of the backs of heads or side views of the teacher and the backs of the students. Yet, it did not matter that they were unappealing photos; their purpose was to record the teacher in the moment when he was doing the work of relationship building, and I was able to capture that. Had I been closer to the action to take better pictures, I would have intruded on the phenomena I was there to observe. Using photo elicitation as a technique allowed me to privilege the conversation over specific interview questions and created a more trustworthy study. The teacher in this chapter told his stories of the interactions in the photo, but also the back-stories of the students involved. Thus, while the photos were not exemplary, they were effective in their purpose.

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Data Collection. After IRB approval, each observation was between 90 min and 2 h. Each of the formal interviews lasted between 50 and 90 min, depending on the teacher’s schedule, and they were designed to be as open as possible so that the teacher could freely discuss his interactions, positionality, and theories on teaching. The purpose was not to make sure that all the questions were answered, but that in dialogue there could be a negotiated understanding of the experiences of this White teacher in his urban classroom (Madison, 2012). Some of the post-observation photo-elicitation interview questions included: • Looking at this picture, can you describe what is happening in the picture? • How do you feel about this interaction? • Is there anything that you will do tomorrow regarding this interaction? After the interviews, the recordings were professionally transcribed, and then I used the original recordings to check them for accuracy. Data Analysis. The interviews were transcribed and imported to NViVO along with the field notes. I began the coding with 7 nodes and expanded the eventual number to 14 parent nodes and 53 child-nodes. Using Creswell (2007) and Stake (1995) as guides, I pulled together “natural generalizations” (Creswell, 2007, p. 163). That led me to re-collapse the nodes and two themes emerged: the first theme of interrogation of whiteness with a subtheme of conflicting models of whiteness and deficit thinking and the second of solidarity with students with a subtheme of seeking role models and allies. Only the first theme and subtheme are described in this chapter.

10.4

Findings

What follows is a short summary of my findings from one of my participants in my dissertation (Boucher, 2013). Other participants are chronicled in separate articles (Boucher, 2016; Boucher & Helfenbein, 2015). The highlighted participant Pseudonym

Gender

School

Grade

Degree

Years of teaching

Todd Edwards

M

Eastside

10–11

BA

2

10.4.1 Todd Edwards Todd Edwards was a lanky 23-year-old White male with sandy brown hair, a kind face, and an easy laugh. Wearing a college golf shirt and khakis, he would be difficult to pick out of any suburban high school class. But in his classroom at Eastside High School, he was easy to identify, as his students were all Black and

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Latino. Todd’s classroom was in the windowless, cement block interior of the building and is stark except for a few recently purchased and casually placed posters and maps. In the center of the large room with tile floors is a circle of 20 desks. On the back wall, Todd placed white chart paper in an effort to create a makeshift screen where he projected a PowerPoint slide with the warm-up writing activity called a “Do now” question. While the other walls are nearly bare, the front wall is covered. All around that wall are handmade posters with acronyms, visualizations, and mnemonic devices for writing and other class procedures. These signs reflected the wide use of memory tools in Todd’s classroom, where process was highly valued. He had brought his students a long way in the few months they were with him. Todd taught in a Diploma Plus1 program for students who are termed at risk for dropping out based on their grades and state test scores. These 70 students and 12 teachers were a school-within-a-school, and this group of teachers placed a high value of the bonds between themselves and the students— and each other. Raised in the Los Angeles suburbs by Midwestern transplants, Todd made his way to a large college in the center of the United States, and, after graduation, decided to join Teach for America (TFA, 2016).2 He knew he wanted to teach and decided “that was the best option to get in the classroom quickly.” When I interviewed him in his second year, Todd explained that his initial year was extremely difficult. His first teaching assignment was at a school that was slowly dismantled and then handed over to an educational corporation to run as a charter school. However, Todd’s program was successful in the dismantled school, so it was moved to Eastside in the fall of 2012. All the teachers and many of the students made the move, and the district bussed in the students from several points in the city but, at the time, the future was uncertain for Eastside. The Department of Education (DoE) inspected the school during my observation period and Todd thought they did well, but he was disappointed that the DoE representatives did not come to see his classroom. As we talked, I sensed that Todd was proud of his work as a teacher and was eager to explain to me what he was doing in the classroom and why he was doing it. As Danielewicz (2001) and Britzman (2003) pointed out, the process of becoming a teacher is never finished, but it begins in the classroom. Todd was steeped in that process and had gone through many changes since his first day of teaching only a few months before. Todd’s interrogation of whiteness. As we talked about the photographs of his interactions with students, I asked Todd about his thinking about race. He had been thinking about issues of race as a history major in undergrad, but it really came

1

Diploma Plus is a nationwide program that seeks to create schools-within-schools with a performance based curriculum. These programs use teaming and small classes with longer blocks to increase student achievement (Diploma Plus, 2013). 2 https://www.teachforamerica.org/.

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home to him when he received his first assignment for Teach for America in rural Mississippi: It was a bunch of African American 6th graders all summer and that like, and they made connections, right? Playing the faculty basketball game against the students – it was fun. They were great kids. Talked to parents on the phone, made friends with African American people that are part of Teach for America staff there…Latino people there that were part of the staff as well. I mean like, I never felt like I was an outsider [even though] I was around people that were different from me.

Todd’s experience in Mississippi revealed to him that his interactions with the Other could be comfortable and casual. As with many conscientious White people with limited exposure to people of color, he was concerned that he would be offensive, marginalized, or uncomfortable. However, by placing oneself in racially uncomfortable situations where one is unsure how to navigate culturally can be seen as an act of stepping out of a comfortable existence. Placing oneself in a position to like a minority—to give up even a small amount of that power—is something that many White people avoid. While discussing a photo of a classroom presentation by a student, he explained his thinking on privilege: Just how people perceive White privilege. That is a big thing for me. And so just how some minorities … I mean some of them might just kind of like … they might think twice when like a White person complains about something having to do with relationships with people or being denied something. And so it kind of gave me that, just that perspective of things I need to be aware of or like comments that maybe people make that I’m close with that are White that are inappropriate.

Todd explained that his Mississippi experience allowed him to see himself and other White people through the eyes of the Other. When he said that he began to understand how people “perceive White privilege” and that certain comments made by White people can be “inappropriate” he expressed that he became aware in a deeper way of his own privilege and how it was perceived by people of color. Todd learned from the Mississippi experience that his White privilege could be a barrier to creating relationships with people who are racially different from him but it also assured him that he would be able to build cross-racial relationships in the classroom. While discussing a wider photo of his classroom that showed his classroom with all students of color and himself, a White male, Todd expressed that he had been nervous walking into his first classroom only 15 months before: I was around people that were different from me but definitely walking into a school, that type of population was a little bit of a culture shock. It’s kinda human nature kicked in but that established that you know it’s ok and this is gonna be fine. I can go so that was, that was kind of a reassurance that I needed.

Todd expressed his fear and discomfort at the possibility of being a minority for the first time and when he said, “human nature kicked in” he was referring to the fear that many White people feel when suddenly in a situation where everyone around them are people of color. Todd owned his fear and acknowledged it as part of his journey of interrogating his whiteness. Then he explained that his fears were

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allayed through his positive interactions with students and adults. Todd explained that his journey and his process of interrogating his whiteness began long before he stepped into a classroom. I just saw [examples of white privilege] a lot [growing up]. For me, in California it was more like … it wasn’t like Black/White. It was more like White and Latino. And I always thought about it as just … like everywhere you go, it’s kind of like it’s a lot of just White people that are like the head of things or have important positions and the numbers don’t really match the population. So, I kind of always noticed that and me being White and the privileges I had. I grew up in an upper middle class family so I felt blessed but I didn’t think about it beyond that. Then in college it kind of became apparent to me, especially being part of a fraternity—which if there’s a definition of White privilege it’d be the fraternity system —so that was almost kind of awkward when I really thought about it—so I didn’t a whole lot—because then it would be uncomfortable for me to think about how really discriminatory that whole process is. And I had … I actually had an African-American pledge brother. But the numbers didn’t really reflect the total population of our school.

In one of our discussions, as a TFA teacher and a new Diploma Plus teacher, Todd was being monitored and observed from many entities. During these observations, the mentors dialogued with him about questions that he was having. He also reported that his classroom has been a showpiece for investigators from Diploma Plus, The State Department of Education, Teach for America, and district officials. Each of these entities has checked on his classes and offered advice and counsel. In one of these reported exchanges with the Diploma Plus coach, it was suggested that he begin reading about race and whiteness. Well I just did reading issues in general. [The mentor was] like, “read the book White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son (Wise, 2005)”, and I did, and I was like, ‘Whoa.’ And then through Teach for America, our head guy was like, “Hey, I’m having a book study about Why Are All of the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? (Tatum, 2002) and I gobbled that up. Loved it.

As he learned more, Todd moved from reading about race to talking about race in a multiracial committee set up within Teach for America to discuss racial issues in the classrooms and among the staff. Todd was quite concerned, however, that more White people are not in this group discussing these issues. He also found it interesting, or perhaps ironic that he was expected to represent and speak for Whites who make up most of Teach for America recruits. And uh, yeah, and it just let me have more conversations with people and now I’m a part of this committee for Teach for America that’s the diversity and inclusion committee. And I’m the only, the only single, White, straight guy on the committee. There are about 12 of us, the other White straight guy’s married, and it’s like, kinda sad. I’m like, “Oh my gosh.” It’s like, it’s kinda cool to be the representative of like, the largest group of people that you think are like, around in [the city] or in even Teach for America.

Todd’s own study and his work to incorporate this new knowledge was part of what made him successful in the classroom. Todd committed himself to explore the effects of racialized privilege on his classroom and on himself. In the group he described, the discussions moved beyond race in just the classrooms to discussing the structure of racism in the TFA organization and the country.

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A lot of it’s like race, a lot of questions like the kind of question you [Michael] are asking teachers. You have all these [White] teachers teaching all these African American students, “What’s going on?” Then a lot of it is…as an organization, what is Teach for America – how are they perceiving different races? Are they discriminating? And what kind of archetypes have they created about what a teacher should be and where should they come from? What should they look like, and how should they teach? So that’s been interesting.

Overall, the discussions of race Todd described going on in his Teach for America group enhanced Todd’s journey of discovery and interrogation of his whiteness. Conflicting models and deficit thinking. When asked about his whiteness in the classroom, Todd was hopeful that it made no difference. There is the possibility that while he was in the process of interrogating his whiteness through readings and discussions, he still saw himself as an exception to the effects of whiteness. He understood that those White teachers had effects in their classrooms, but his class was not similarly affected. He worked to find commonalities between himself and people of color that would magically allow him to rise above the race/privilege dynamic. I hope it’s almost like a bridge to see that other people … I don’t want to say other people, but people from different backgrounds, from different places, that look differently have the same interests, all like the same stuff. [They] laugh at the same jokes, have the same character flaws, are human. I just think it’s like a little sneak preview into what people can be. I just try to get along with them as best I can so hopefully they realize that people want to get to know you no matter what you look like.

Todd was uncomfortable with the idea that his racial difference would have any effect on his students’ learning or their ability to learn from him. He stated that he was not afraid of the conversation, but neither he nor his students had the vocabulary to deeply discuss race. Part of the issue may have been that his students were wary of discussing the topic due to past experiences with teachers. The Diploma Plus program is a last intervention for students at risk for dropping out, and the students may have wanted to avoid any discussions that may get heated or uncomfortable. It was obvious that they enjoyed Todd and his class, and students may not have wanted to disturb the equilibrium they had obtained. I went to talk with Todd again in March 2013, when he had just decided to take a job in a larger city at a charter school in the middle of a major downtown area. I asked him why he decided to change schools. He said that he was young and wanted to see more of the world, but also he wanted to make a larger difference. He was pessimistic that the Diploma Plus program would continue into the next year as there had been many major shifts in state and district political offices and priorities for funding were changing. He did not believe that Eastside would be transferred to a private charter for next year, but the changes coming would water down the most important part of his job, his ability to make deep relationships with students and so he left to try and find a place where he could become the teacher he wanted to be.

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219

Conclusion

10.5.1 Interrogating Whiteness Cochran-Smith (2000) explained that that interrogation of whiteness is a crucial step in the unlearning of racism. For those teachers who do choose to interrogate their whiteness, it can be a difficult journey filled with uncomfortable conversations. Milner (2010) also described that a teacher seeking to interrogate his or her whiteness must “develop a ‘deeper understanding of the impact of race’ and develop relationships with students that ‘transcend cultural boundaries’” (p. 46). Milner also acknowledged the difficulty for teacher educators to help “teachers make the connections between their whiteness and their classroom practice” calling it a “difficult task” (p. 46). The highlighted teacher made the choice to examine his whiteness. Privilege allows White people to choose whether to fight racism and to meet the Other in fellowship. That same privilege also provides the mechanisms, through housing, employment, schools, and social groups to avoid people of color. For the teacher in this study, these questions occupied his thinking, and while imperfect, he was involved in the discussion. As Katsarou, Picower, and Stovall (2010) explained, to teach in solidarity with students is a political act that takes courage, commitment, and energy and this teacher saw himself as working to make that connection.

10.5.2 How This Method Empowered My Participants This young, TFA trained, inexperienced teacher profiled in this chapter worked to question his own positionality about race. The photo elicitation interviews allowed him a forum to theorize and discuss race and teaching in ways that would not have been as possible in a traditional interview. Though there is much research on every aspect of pedagogy and practice, there are few opportunities for real teachers to talk about the big issues they face in classrooms every day. Teaching is too often a solitary profession and it has become more so in the last decade as test scores and VAMs disempower teachers, and incentivize them to avoid talking about their pedagogy for fear of coming under increased scrutiny. By decentering the expert researcher in this study, I was able to help teachers reflect and theorize about a topic that is often taboo. The ability of an individual to get these thoughts out of their own person and into the air is an empowering experience that can even bring participants to tears talking about their lived experiences in and out of their classrooms. Teachers care deeply about their work and their students and I was able to give them a space to grow and a sounding board to express their thinking.

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Author Biography Michael L. Boucher, Jr. Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at Texas State University. He received his Ph.D. from Indiana University and has published on White teachers who build relationships of solidarity with their African American students. He teaches instructional methods, research methods, developmental theory, and diversity classes to graduate students. Before becoming a teacher educator, he taught 9th and 10th graders to change the world at South High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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Troubling Empowerment

Michael L. Boucher, Jr. In order for the oppressed to be able to wage the struggle for their liberation they must perceive the reality of oppression not as a closed world from which there is no exit, but as a limiting situation which they can transform. This perception is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for liberation; it must become the motivating force for liberating action. (Freire, 1970/2000, p. 49)

Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970) is the touchstone for our work as critical teacher educators and education researchers. It is the sharp pointer when we have forgotten our purpose, the salve to heal us after bruising battles, and the elixir that invigorates us when we weaken. The project of liberatory pedagogy is the sinew of our work in this book and the sometimes-unspoken spirit of our method. While most of us endeavor to instill the precepts of Freirean pedagogy into our research, that goal is not without its criticism. This project of humanization and liberation has been litigated with critics who charge that our liberatory work is self-serving and based in White, male supremacy (Ellsworth, 1989). Some even call it, tyrannical (Cooke & Kothari, 2001). As Lather (1992/2013) explained, in education and, by extension, education research, we, “have failed to probe the degree to which ‘empowerment’ becomes something done ‘by liberated pedagogies ‘to’ or ‘for’ the as-yet-unliberated” (p. 169). Much of the criticism relates to the power dynamics involved in research and questions whether if, from the relatively privileged position of researcher, a person can empower another individual. There are more specific critiques of how photo-methods are employed in research that attempts to empower and liberate participants. Prosser, Clark, and Wiles (2008) reminded researchers to consider that consent is not finished when the participant has signed the form, that it is ongoing set of permissions that include every step of the process and display of the images. Wang and Redwood-Jones (2001) explained that all legal means of photography, and its reproduction are not ethical in all contexts. For example, taking pictures of people in public places is permissible and legal, and distribution of those photos is also legal, but, as the photographer imparts “meaning” to the photograph, it is not ethical to post or display pictures of people who have not consented to such representation (p. 563). When working with children, the power dynamics limit the ability for them to be © Springer International Publishing AG 2018 M.L. Boucher, Jr. (ed.), Participant Empowerment Through Photo-elicitation in Ethnographic Education Research, http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64413-4

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full partners in research. Lomax, Fink, Singh, and High (2011) challenge the data collected by children because: …children can control the questions, the technology and the choice of output in a [participatory video] project but they cannot control the ways in which adults respond to them. Their status as children is constructed by adults as necessitating a particular account or response, which is determined by the social, cultural and political contexts in which the research is taking place and by the ways in which the adults are themselves situated in those contexts.

Winton (2016) pointed out that the view of children as inferior beings stems from the notion that children are incomplete, whereas adults are complete. The misconception, as Winton explains it, is that any human being is “complete and knowable” and this assumption sets up a power imbalance between the adult and the child (p. 430). These critiques and more are included most strongly in the chapters from Miller (Chaps. 2 and 7) and are also addressed by Walton (Chap. 8).

The Challenge of Building Solidarity and the Colonial Project As stated in the introduction, ethnography began as deeply rooted in the colonial project and was part of the exploitation and destruction of indigenous societies across the planet. Mead (1995), perhaps the most celebrated ethnographer in history, explained that like endangered species, civilizations that face decline due to cultural, economic, and/or political imperialism, must be preserved, not for the sake of the people being colonized, but for the sake of western science and the White gaze. In 1995, she explained that the social sciences have: …both implicitly and explicitly accepted the responsibility of making and preserving records of the vanishing customs and human beings of the earth, whether these peoples are inbred, preliterate populations isolated in some tropical jungle, or in the depths of a Swiss canton, or in the mountains of an Asian kingdom. The recognition that forms of human behavior still extant will inevitably disappear has been part of the whole scientific and humanistic heritage. There have never been enough workers to collect the remnants of these worlds, and just as each year several species of living creatures cease to exist, impoverishing our biological repertoire, so each year some language spoken only by one or two survivors disappears forever with their deaths. (p. 3)

Mead’s plea to humanity is not one based in solidarity with the Other, but in personal interest. Like the plant that might have provided a cure for cancer had it not become extinct due to deforestation, she stated that losing the language of a people or a cultural practice diminishes the scientific project of collecting and categorizing human behavior. Never mind that the people who lost their language may also have felt that loss, feel dispossessed in a world not of their own making, and rightfully enraged at the people who dispossessed them, her underlying assumption is that she is not part of that dispossessing through her own action or inaction and that she is neutral in this tragic, tidal event.

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The lack of solidarity with the ‘Other’ in Mead’s work, even into the late twentieth century is not surprising. Said (1979) explained that Western scholarship is not objective, but is filtered through cultural biases. According to Said, Europeans and European Americans see themselves as part of the best possible world and this belief extends to researchers working within the US who study the ‘Other’ without the requisite reflection and positionality to make claims based on their observations. Andreotti (2011) used the works of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak to explain the motivations of colonizers and their civilizing mission, sending people of good intention to far-away places. A self-imposed ignorance of the ‘Other’ by a self-sacrificing person is seen by the subaltern, not as a liberator, as the colonizer sees him/herself, but as the oppressor who organizes violence against the individuals and cultures under their control. The colonizer’s purpose is to alter the perceptions of the subaltern’s understanding of the world, making her or him want to become like the colonizer. The colonizer, “legitimizes its cultural supremacy in the (epistemic) violence of creating an ‘inferior’ other and naturalizing these constructs” (p. 39). This violence has the effect on the “First World” in that it “reinforces Eurocentrism and triumphalism, as people are encouraged to think that they live in the center of the world, that they have a responsibility to “help the rest” and that “people from other parts of the world are not fully global” (p. 39). Understanding this dynamic is a challenge to researchers using ethnographic method. Spivak (1988) asked the question, “Can the subaltern speak?” explaining that oppressed peoples will not be allowed to use their legitimate voice and that it will always be filtered through the cultural biases of the researcher. Spivak also argued, “if the subaltern is speaking (given a voice) she is not a subaltern anymore, and that the terms determined for her speech (the space opened for her to speak) will affect what is going to be said and what is going to be heard” (Andreotti, 2011, p. 41). This realization that the subaltern is only subaltern as long as she or he is silent and oppressed creates a dilemma for researchers. While the point of critical, emancipatory research is to give voice to the oppressed, or amplify it, is it possible that researchers delegitimize the very participants that we are in the field to hear? The answer is resoundingly, yes. Intentionally or not, the subaltern cannot speak in a way that can be heard by the West unless there is a change in the power/knowledge dynamic that created a powerless subaltern in society. Also, the collection of knowledge from oppressed and powerless peoples for the gain of the West is just another form of imperialism and can result in an Orientalism and exoticization. Critical researchers hope that opening the dialogue can be empowering to the subaltern and can create a separate power structure from the colonizer’s dynamic. If the researcher is, either through ignorance or a sense of supremacy, part of the colonial oppressive project, then the voice of the subaltern will be used to reinforce that narrative of colonial supremacy. However, if the critical researcher can create a relationship of solidarity with the ‘Other’, then it is possible, but certainly not assured, that the giving, or a less paternalistic notion of the amplification, of the voice of the subaltern can become an emancipatory project. The subaltern may lose her status as a subaltern if she participates in a study or is quoted

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in a book, but the loss of that identity can be a tradeoff for liberation (Andreotti, 2011). One way that researchers have proposed to divest from the colonial power structure is to pull the people under study into the research itself. To pull back the curtain of the research process and to make the participants co-equal in the process as well as the eventual product. This is especially pronounced in the method of photovoice and theorized by Wang and Burris (1997). However, Godden (2017) explained that participatory photography projects (PP) can be exploitive and voyeuristic if not done properly: Participatory practice (PP) … has been an attempt to equalize the power relationship within development work by including those who are supposed to benefit from projects (the so-called ‘beneficiaries’) by including them in decisions that affect their own lives. This is an attitudinal as well as practical change that attempts to divest itself of the historically baggage of the European colonial period that tended to ignore the beneficiary’s views altogether. (asocialpractice.com)

Godden explained that the colonial project of research, especially when tied in with the distribution of money can lead to an imbalance in power that takes deep theorizing and commitment to overcome. This means ditching the superior attitude of ‘knowing what is best’ and imposition, and practically recognizing the benefits that participation means for the success and sustainability of projects where the beneficiaries have ownership and can better realize their agency….The participatory approach may attempt to amplify the voice of the communities, but just as with [participatory practice] images, although the practice has benefits, it is unlikely to challenge the fundamental power relations any more successfully than the professionals. (asocialpractice.com)

To ameliorate the possible exploitation of ethnographic research, (Andreotti, 2011), offered advice for critical educational researchers who are: …interested in working against the systems that create subalternity could use self-reflexivity and deconstruction, not only to analyze the epistemic and structural violence of capitalism, and the role of education in preserving class apartheid, but to resignify “social responsibility in their contexts in ways that are ethically responsive to the Other. (p. 47)

Advice for Those Who Work to Build Solidarity If we are truthful with ourselves, we are mountains of contradiction. As a westerner, even the best intentions leave us hypocrites to the people who are on the receiving end of our consumption lifestyle. According to Andreotti (2011), there are several ways that researchers can restructure thinking and practice to avoid, as much as possible, becoming another exploiter in the colonizer’s arsenal and to foster what

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Spivak calls an, “ethical encounter” (p. 48). She began with the practice of “negotiation from within” (p. 45). To combat the hegemonic forces of colonialism, the first step is to acknowledge that those forces exist and then to use the tools of the colonizer against oppression. Thus, deconstruction of the foundation of colonization, in that it is built on an assumption of European supremacy and capitalism, leads researchers to begin the process of decolonization of their own mindsets. Secondly, Andreotti explained that researchers must be “scrupulously vigilant” and interrogate their complicities with the colonial system (p. 47). If this is not done, Andreotti imagined a researcher who denounced (Neo)colonialism, from a position of power and benevolence, but enhanced the colonial project through replication of stereotypes and reification of the grand narrative of European supremacy and western beneficence. This imaginary researcher could be justifiably indicted, guilty of colonial violence, but would deny the charges based on her or his beneficent motivations. As discussed earlier, the way for a researcher to address these assumptions is to continually interrogate the belief system and the method used to gain the knowledge to attempt not to exploit. The third important procedure is to “unlearn privilege” (p. 48). To do that, besides the self-reflection and learning about the context the participants live in, Andreotti explained that the researcher must master the art of “learning from below” (p. 49). The researcher must learn from those who cannot normally use their voice to advocate for themselves. It is important, not to just observe and look for fixes in situations, but to look deeply into the situation and see that underlying and undergirding structures that caused that oppression in the first place. The researcher must be open to the ways in which the Western and Northern lifestyles are a result of oppression and repression in the South and East. It also demands that we must not be ignorant that some of our most cherished institutions are sometimes used as clubs against the people we are purportedly trying to empower, “Without previous learning, the result is the unexamined reproduction of Eurocentrism, which prompts the imposition of concepts such as “democracy,” “nation,” “participation,” as universal, natural good, unproblematic and incontestable, while the contexts and historical circumstances in which these concepts were written are forgotten” (p. 49). To be effective and just, the critical researcher must be aware and vigilant against becoming part of the colonial system. The colonial project of ethnography cannot be ignored when discussing the method. Even though there are new frameworks and critical mindsets in research methods, it is crucial to interrogate one’s own cultural biases before imposing constructs on people from other places and cultures. Each of us who do ethnographic work and seek to more deeply understand the ‘Other’, must seek to understand more than interpret, to listen more than explain, and to act in solidarity rather than a mere observer.

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Yes, These Methods Are Empowering I return to Freire to answer the question about empowerment. In Freirean terms, the liberation of the oppressed comes from within. The oppressed consciously remove the internalized oppressor from themselves. The oppressed free their minds from the will of their oppressor leading to a reclamation of their humanity. As the oppressor is not fully human in his or her oppression, the oppressed are not fully human until they have rejected the dehumanization that distorts their humanity. How does one give birth to this realization, this consciousness? Through questioning. Thus, we, as educators and researchers, begin to see ourselves in this cycle. We are the questioners that trouble the waters of the mind. We point out the contradictions and question the normal, everyday oppression people endure. We bring to the forefront the hidden, the glossed over, and the packed away. We pick at scabs and scrape at scars. We empower our participants through showing them their world and asking the simplest question, “What is going on in this photo?” That question, without judgement, with an open mind, leads to a new world that can empower people to question their very realities. As Freire (2000) stated, “the oppressed, who have adapted to the structure of domination in which they are immersed, and have become resigned to it, are inhibited from waging the struggle for freedom so long as they feel incapable of running the risks it requires” (p. 47). Seeing the world for the first time through another’s eyes allows for liberating risk-taking. As educators, we should not assume that our research is a space where we are not using pedagogy. In Freirean fashion, the researcher asks the question, but the participant is the questioner of their own experience. In this way, our research, in which we attempt to empower participants, is a pedagogical tool. Our research that uncovers truths and empowers participants is part of that pedagogy. As Freire explained, “the pedagogy of the oppressed is an instrument for their [the oppressed] critical discovery that both they and their oppressors are manifestations of dehumanization (Freire, 2000, p. 48).” This pedagogy within research makes our project unique. While the anthropologists and sociologists will use these techniques in service to their disciplines and participants we, as educators, know that our purpose, our spirit, is that of a teacher. We work in solidarity with our participants because our relationships are built on care for the ‘Other’. As Freire pointed out, it is our love that leads us to solidarity with those we encounter: Solidarity requires that one enter into the situation of those with whom one is in solidarity; it is a radical posture. If what characterizes the oppressed is their subordination to the consciousness of the master, as Hegel affirms, true solidarity with the oppressed means fighting at their side to transform the objective reality which has made them these “beings for another”. (p. 49)

Education is an empowering project. There are inherent contradictions in that statement, in that most of education literature shows that education has been disempowering. Yet the acknowledgement is always there that it should be empowering. As a teacher educator, I work with my preservice teachers and education grad

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students to shape them into teachers who act in solidarity with their communities and empower their students. As a middle and high school teacher for 18 years, I can say without equivocation that the project of empowering our students yielded results, but not perfect results. We, who are imperfect conduits, working in solidarity with individuals and communities, seek knowledge. With us, we bring a mirror on which participants can reflect on their own life situations. As Freire explained, “The oppressor is in solidarity with the oppressed only when he stops regarding the oppressed as an abstract category and sees them as persons who have been unjustly dealt with, deprived of their voice, cheated in the sale of their labor— when he stops making pious, sentimental, and individualistic gestures and risks an act of love” (p. 50). There is no perfect method. There is no perfect study. There is no perfect researcher. While I understand, and honor the work of critics who do not believe that empowerment is possible, I am concerned that the focus on perfection in research has tied the hands of those who wish to do good work. That focus can disempower people to the point that they think the best way to serve is to do nothing, or nothing worth doing. It is my hope that the studies in this volume have inspired a new generation of researchers to see that their studies are more than exercises in attaining knowledge and data, but are a means to build a better world through solidarity, love, empathy, and care.

References Andreotti, V. (2011). Actionable postcolonial theory in education. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Cooke, B., & Kothari, U. (Eds.). (2001). Participation: The new tyranny?. London, UK: Zed Books. Ellsworth, E. (1989). Why doesn’t this feel empowering? Working through the repressive myths of critical pedagogy. Harvard Educational Review, 59(3), 297. Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed (30th Anniversary ed.). New York, NY: Bloomsbury Academic USA. Godden, R. (2017). Participatory photography—Jack of all trades, master of none? Retrieved from http://www.asocialpractice.com/participatory-photography-jack-of-all-trades-master-ofnone/. Lather, P. (1992). Post-critical pedagogies: A feminist reading. In C. Luke & J. Gore (Eds.), Feminisms and critical pedagogy (pp. 120–137). New York, NY: Routledge. Lomax, H., Fink, J., Singh, N., & High, C. (2011). The politics of performance: Methodological challenges of researching children’s experiences of childhood through the lens of participatory video. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 14(3), 231. doi:10.1080/ 13645579.2011.563622. Mead, M. (1995). Visual anthropology in a discipline of words. In P. Hockings (Ed.), Principles of visual anthropology (pp. 3–10). New York, NY: De Gruyter Mouton. Prosser, J., Clark, A., & Wiles, R. (2008). Visual research ethics at the crossroads. Retrieved from www.manchester.ac.uk/realities. Said, E. W. (1979). Orientalism. New York, NY: Vintage Books. Spivak, G. C. (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In C. Nelson & L. Grossberg (Eds.), Marxism and the interpretation of culture (pp. 271–313). Basingstoke, UK: Macmillian Education.

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Wang, C. C., & Redwood-Jones, Y. A. (2001). Photovoice ethics: Perspectives from flint photovoice. Health Education & Behavior, 28(5), 560–572. doi:10.1177/ 109019810102800504. Wang, C., & Burris, M. A. (1997). Photovoice: Concept, methodology, and use for participatory needs assessment. Health Education & Behavior, 24(3), 369–387. doi:10.1177/ 109019819702400309. Winton, A. (2016). Using photography as a creative, collaborative research tool. The Qualitative Report, 21(2), 428. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1776156767.

Author Index

A Adams, Ansel, 3

L Lather, Patty, 18, 207, 209, 211

B Bourdieu, Pierre, 5, 6, 53

M Mead, Margaret, 3, 7, 14

C Clark-Ibáñez, Marisol, 9, 55 Collier, John Jr, 8, 13, 52, 73, 146, 186 Collier, Malcom, 8, 9, 13, 52

N Niblett, Blair, 173

E Eberhart-Wright, Alice, 159

S Said, 5–7, 229 Said, Edward, 3, 5 Sontag, Susan, 97 Spivak, Gayatri C., 229

F Freire, 16, 19, 209, 227, 232, 233 Freire, Paulo, 16, 19 H Habermas, Jürgen, 177, 180, 183 Harper, Douglas, 5, 7, 12, 14, 18, 52, 123, 168, 181, 212

P Powell, John Wesley, 5

T Thoutenhoofd, Ernst, 47, 52, 53, 65 W Worsley, Peter, 6

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Subject Index

A Action research, 16, 20, 98, 99, 123 Adults, 20, 32, 39, 53, 71, 74, 77, 80, 84, 88, 118, 133, 164, 203, 217 Anthropocene, 94 Anthropology, 5, 7, 10, 17 Assent, 33, 184 Auto-driven, 19, 26, 51, 52, 55, 63, 119, 123, 141 Aware(ness), 29, 37, 39, 40, 54, 96, 100, 118, 158, 170, 179, 181, 194, 195 B Biodiversity, 93, 94, 100 Bully(ing), 20, 51, 164–166, 169, 170, 172, 173 C Children, 7, 9, 10, 32, 33, 35, 39, 53, 78, 84, 98, 106, 124, 127, 129, 131, 135, 140, 142, 148, 150, 152, 154, 155, 157, 158, 160, 165, 167, 168, 172, 174, 202, 203, 206 Colonial(ism) (Neo)colonialism, 6, 7, 193 Community(ies), 8, 9, 16, 20, 33, 35, 38, 74, 79, 81, 83, 87, 89, 94–100, 102, 103, 106–108, 110, 111, 121–124, 126–130, 132–136, 157, 158, 182 Community immersion, 97, 98, 111 Confidential(ity), 28, 33, 34, 40, 145 Consciousness-raising, 178, 179, 181, 186, 194 Consent informed consent, 28, 29, 32, 34, 58, 99 Counternarrative, 205, 206 Cultural immersion, 181 Cultural therapy, 181 Culture, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 17, 65, 90, 101, 179, 188, 189, 195, 213

D Deaf, 20, 34, 48, 49, 51–55, 61, 63, 64 Deficit, 21, 39, 159, 202, 206, 214 Digital photographs, 10, 28, 57, 95, 126, 145 Disabled/Disability, 170 E Ecojustice, 20, 96 Empowerment, 4, 17, 21, 29, 63, 118, 172, 173, 207 Enlightenment, 5 Ethics code of ethics, 26, 37 ethical encounter, 10, 19, 25–29, 32, 33, 35, 37, 38, 40, 54, 58, 184, 208 Ethnography ethnographer, 3, 6, 16, 212 I Image, 3, 9, 11–13, 15, 26, 31, 34–37, 40, 58, 73, 95, 107, 108, 141, 145, 146, 150, 152, 155, 158, 160, 166, 168, 169, 172, 181, 183, 184, 186, 188, 190–192, 195, 212, 213 Inquiry, 95, 97, 164 Institutional Review Board (IRB) beneficence, 38, 39 ethics committee, 26, 28, 31, 32, 35, 36, 39, 54, 56, 58 personal ethics, 26, 38, 39 Intellectual disability, 71, 77, 80 Interviews, 8, 10, 15, 35, 50, 52, 54–57, 59, 61, 63, 65, 73, 74, 84, 88, 99, 123, 127, 141, 142, 146, 150, 154, 157, 160, 167–169, 181, 182, 185, 211, 214, 219 IPhones/iPads, 74 L Language/Languages, 5, 9, 33, 49, 51, 55, 56, 78, 94, 95, 99, 203

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238 Learned helplessness, 73 Legal -law, 26, 29, 84, 87 Lifeworlds, 98, 180, 195 O Orientalism, 5 Other, the, 8 P Participants subjects, 6, 15, 64 Participatory action research, 15, 96, 117, 123 Perception, 11, 50, 71, 75, 79, 91, 99, 159, 187 Perspective, 6, 13, 18, 20, 28, 32, 60, 71, 76, 77, 94, 147, 166, 172, 178–180, 183, 187, 189, 191, 193–195, 212 Philippines, 15, 20, 93–95, 104 Photo, 3, 5, 7–16, 18–20, 35, 52, 65, 71, 73, 74, 76, 91, 96, 97, 99, 104, 106, 109, 126, 131, 135, 142, 150, 151, 168, 172, 184, 185, 211, 213 Photo elicitation, 9, 14, 17, 18, 20, 71, 121, 123, 140, 146, 164, 167, 168, 172, 173, 181, 212, 219 Photoessay, 15, 20, 95, 96 Photofeedback, 15, 20 Photographs, 3, 7–9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 26, 29, 31, 34–36, 39, 40, 52, 53, 58–60, 62, 64, 66, 76, 96, 127–129, 141, 145, 146, 150, 152, 154, 156, 158, 172, 182, 185, 187, 193, 194 Photointerview, 15, 20 Photo methods, 4, 10, 16, 19 Photonarrative, 15 Positionality, 4, 147, 209, 219 Posthumanist, 95 Power, 4, 6, 10, 15, 18, 19, 29, 39, 51, 64, 95, 97, 120, 159, 192, 210 Privacy, 19, 36, 65, 128 Privilege, 105, 207, 216, 217, 219

Subject Index Q Quality of life, 20, 71, 77 R Race, 6, 8, 96, 119, 168, 170, 195, 202, 206, 207, 217, 219 Rapport, 55, 148 Relationships of solidarity, 206 Research protocol, 19, 27, 75, 210 Risk, 19, 32, 37, 66, 193, 218 S Safe spaces, 36 Safety, 28, 37, 75 School to prison pipeline, 205 Self determination, 72, 75, 79, 86, 88 Sign language, 50 Sociology, 10 Solidarity, 17, 180, 210 Stakeholders, 29, 72, 75, 76, 159 Storage, 58, 76 Subaltern, 229, 230 T Triangulation, 18, 210 V Validity catalytic validity, 18, 19, 210 construct validity, 18, 210 face validity, 18 Visual anthropology, 8, 140 Visual sociology, 5 Visucentrism, 49, 50, 52, 64, 65 Voice amplification, 229 Vulnerable vulnerable adults, 10, 34, 94 W White supremacy, 206, 209