Images for change: community development, community arts and photography

This article explores how community development objectives can be achieved through critical photographic practice. It summarizes the literature relating to community arts practice and its potential for social regeneration. Photography is then located within this context and explored as a critical practice, with particular attention being given to photo-elicitation, photo-novella and photovoice methods. The literature is discussed and analysed to explore how far critical photographic practice can meet the objectives of community development

Co-constructing early adolescent education through image-based research : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education at Massey University, Palmerston North

Professional literature reporting the needs and characteristics, both educational and developmental of early adolescents presents a compelling case that students of this age group are distinct and require the development of a unique educational approach to best support their needs as learners and young people. Although much has been written about these students, little has been written with them, and even fewer studies have involved students themselves as co-researchers to investigate their own experience and understandings. The research reported in the thesis describes the implementation into practice of an image-based research methodology with early adolescent students themselves constructing and articulating their voice as the core focus of the research. The research was predicated on the belief that 'student voice' is the element vital in an educational approach developmentally responsive to students of this age group, and an element all too often missing. Extended Visual Dialogue, the methodological approach devised to implement the research, was employed to conduct exploratory voice research with 38 early adolescent students in Years 7 and 8, across three participating schools in 2004. The approach combined elements from the research genres of voice research, participatory action research and image-based research and the students used a combination of auto-photography (participant-generated photography) and photo elicitation interviews to investigate how they perceive school and learning, perceive their identity as young persons and learners, and perceive the world in which they live. Through the processes of the research progressively, the students shared their perspectives with the adult researcher and brought themselves, and the researcher, to a deeper understanding of their unique point of view as learners in our schools, and as young persons in their own right. The findings of the research revealed the sound understanding the students have about their educational and personal needs, preferences, and agendas, and organised these into a framework representing the perspective of the students, accessible to their teachers as key stimulus for their development as distinctly middle level practitioners and their schools as authentic middle level education providers

The Textual-Visual Thematic Analysis: A Framework to Analyze the Conjunction and Interaction of Visual and Textual Data

Visual methods offer an innovative approach to qualitative research through their potential to prompt dialogue, enrich verbal and textual data, and enable participants to communicate about difficult topics. However, the use of visual methods requires that researchers rethink methodological aspects of data generation and analysis, especially when working with participant-generated images. Although there are now many analytical frameworks and guidebooks providing instructions on the analysis of textual and visual materials, detailed descriptions of how these elements are brought together are often missing from research reports, precluding novice and other researchers from understanding how findings were attained. Our aim in this article is to describe and illustrate the Textual-Visual Thematic Analysis (TVTA), a framework we developed to collaboratively analyze the conjunction and interaction of textual and visual data in a photo-elicitation study. Given that the ethical and methodological aspects are deeply entwined, we begin the article by contextualizing the data obtained from the photo-elicitation study and then consider confidentiality and approaches to valuing participants\u27 voices. Next, we share the TVTA framework, its procedural implementation, and insights derived from evolving our data analysis approach. We conclude by offering reflections on the limitations and possibilities for future research

A picture is worth a thousand words: The empowering potential of using photo-elicitation within research and teaching.....

This paper defines photo elicitation, traces its development and use within research, and explores its potential use within a teacher education classroom setting. The paper will argue that photo elicitation enhances the possibility of conventional research and reflection, particularly when researching across cultural and language boundaries. I will draw on the insights gained during a small-scale research project conducted using photo elicitation as one form of data collection while interviewing English Language Learners (ELLs), and the use of reflective photo elicitation within a teacher training classroom setting. This paper reasons that photo elicitation, when used as a basis for interviewing, teaching and reflection, can act as a powerful trigger for memories, and can evoke unexpected and varied topics of discussion within the research setting. The challenge is made to researchers and teachers within ELL fields to extend their use of photo elicitation as a means of gaining deeper insights into their ELLs

"I Took the Photograph Just to Show You a Little Bit of Perspective": Photo-Elicitation Interviewing With Family Caregivers in the Dementia Context

Photo-Elicitation-Interviews (PEI) sind ein bekannter Ansatz in der qualitativen Forschung. In der vorhandenen Literatur fehlt es jedoch an ausreichenden Informationen über die Perspektiven der Teilnehmer*innen, die Fotos verwenden, um ihre Erfahrungen zu erläutern, und darüber, wie die von ihnen aufgenommenen Fotos das Verständnis des untersuchten Phänomens verbessern können, dies insbesondere im Kontext von Demenzerkrankungen. In diesem Artikel berichte ich über die Erfahrungen von Teilnehmer*innen, die in einer qualitativen Studie über die familiären Pflegeerfahrungen mit einem an Demenz erkrankten Angehörigen teilgenommen haben. Insgesamt handelte es sich um fünf pflegende Angehörige, die an dem PEI-Prozess teilnahmen und 28 Fotos zur Verfügung stellten, um ihre Erfahrungen präsentieren. Mittels thematischer Analyse wurde ein übergreifendes Thema, Erleichterung eines tieferen gemeinsamen Verständnisses, identifiziert, das drei Hauptthemen über die Erfahrungen der Teilnehmer*innen unterlag: PEI förderten 1. eine eingehendere Reflexion und neue Perspektiven, 2. ermöglichten sie einen reichhaltigeren Dialog und 3. konnten durch sie komplexe und ansonsten verborgene Erfahrungen aufgedeckt werden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass PEI eine wirksame Methode sind, um die komplexen und vielschichtigen Erfahrungen bei der Pflege von demenzkranken Angehörigen besser zu verstehen. Die durchdachte Verwendung von Fotografien der Teilnehmer*innen in Interviews kann zu einem umfassenderen Verständnis führen und den pflegenden Angehörigen die Möglichkeit geben, zur Bedeutungsgebung beizutragen, die für die relationalen Aspekte der Pflege im Demenzkontext relevant ist.Photo-elicitation interviewing (PEI) is a well-known approach in qualitative inquiry. Yet existing literature lacks sufficient information on participants' perspectives on using photographs to explicate their experiences and ways in which their captured photographs can enhance understanding of the phenomenon under study, especially in the dementia context. In this article, I report on participants' experiences of partaking in the auto-driven approach of PEI in a qualitative descriptive study on family caregiving experiences to a relative living with dementia. Five family caregivers participated in the PEI process and provided 28 photographs that represented their experiences. Using thematic analysis, an overarching theme, facilitated deeper shared understandings was identified, underpinning three main themes about the participants' experiences of PEI, i.e., it 1. promoted more in-depth reflection and new perspectives; 2. enabled richer dialogue; and 3. revealed complex and otherwise hidden experiences. Findings show that PEI is an effective method for researchers to further understand the complex and multifaceted experiences involved in caring for a relative, living with dementia. Thoughtful implementation of using participant-taken photographs in interviews can provide a richer level of understanding and the means through which family caregivers can contribute to meaning-making relevant to the relational aspects of caregiving in the dementia context

THE SUPERINTENDENT’S FEED: AN ANALYSIS OF SUPERINTENDENTS’ ENGAGEMENT IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE ON TWITTER

The modern school superintendent fulfills a unique role in the American public education system. He or she is structurally empowered as the de facto head of the local educational system, thereby granted with a certain amount of trust and authority regarding educational issues. At the same time, the superintendent is, in most cases, an employee of a politically appointed school board. This construction creates a dynamic wherein the superintendent is both the leader of a highly structured, bureaucratic system, while at the same time an employee of a largely lay, often elected, group of citizens. The position of the superintendent is highly informed by the role conceptualizations first posited by Callahan (1966). Callahan argued that there are four distinct normative roles that superintendents must fill: scholarly educational leader, business executive, educational statesman, and applied social scientist. In this study, I pay special attention to the role of educational statesman, which is alternatively referred to as political strategist by later scholars (Björk & Gurley, 2005; Brunner, Grogan, & Björk, 2002). I have examined the role of political strategist as it has manifest on the social media platform Twitter. Twitter use has become a common practice among educational leaders for a variety of reasons, including the development of professional learning networks, communicating with stakeholders, and even engaging in policy discussions (Roth, 2016; Sauers & Richardson, 2015). To date, the intersection of social media use and political engagement by superintendents has been overlooked within the field, but the practice is common and has significant importance for the discipline. I employed a two-phase analysis to explore this topic. First, I have utilized discourse analysis to better understand the constructive nature of the talk and text provided by superintendents on Twitter. The second phase of analysis employs a modified photo-elicitation methodology, wherein a subset of superintendents (7) were interviewed in a semi-structured format prompted by instances of their own political tweeting. Findings from this study indicate that superintendents are using Twitter to discuss macro-political topics and employ sophisticated strategies in order to both project the image they want to be seen and to protect themselves from the political ramifications that might accompany such discourse. I believe that these findings have importance in the way superintendents engage with their community stakeholders and indicate that there should be more attention paid to an evolving nature of communication for the position

Smart Conversational Agents for Reminiscence

In this paper we describe the requirements and early system design for a smart conversational agent that can assist older adults in the reminiscence process. The practice of reminiscence has well documented benefits for the mental, social and emotional well-being of older adults. However, the technology support, valuable in many different ways, is still limited in terms of need of co-located human presence, data collection capabilities, and ability to support sustained engagement, thus missing key opportunities to improve care practices, facilitate social interactions, and bring the reminiscence practice closer to those with less opportunities to engage in co-located sessions with a (trained) companion. We discuss conversational agents and cognitive services as the platform for building the next generation of reminiscence applications, and introduce the concept application of a smart reminiscence agent

Making Public Media Personal: Nostalgia and Reminiscence in the Office

In this paper we explore the notion of creating personally evocative collections of content from publicly available material. Compared to the personal media that we look at, reminisce over, or personalise our offices with, public media offers the potential for a different type of nostalgia, signifiers of an era such as entertainment, products, or fashions. We focus on an office environment, where the use of filtered public media may mitigate concerns over protecting privacy and disclosing too much of one's identity, while keeping the existing benefits of office personalisation in terms of reminiscence, improving mood, and developing identity. After preliminary explorations of content and form, we developed a two-screen ambient display that cycled through 500 images automatically retrieved based on four simple user questions. We ran a two-week trial of the display with six users. We present qualitative results of the trial from which we see that it is possible to bring the delight associated with personal content into the workplace, while being mindful of issues of appropriateness and privacy. Images of locations from childhood were particularly evocative for all participants, while simple objects such as stickers, music, or boardgames were more varied across participants. We discuss a number of avenues for future work in the workplace and beyond: improving the chance of an evocative moment, capturing the mundane, and the crowdsourcing of nostalgia

Visual Methods for Qualitative Research with Older Refugees: Reflection on Strengths and Drawbacks

Although older refugees have similar characteristics and vulnerabilities as other populations that have benefited from visual research methods, there is scarce evidence of these methods being used for qualitative social work studies with older refugees. In this article, we discuss the application of visual methods for social work research with older refugees for a better understanding of their experiences and challenges, highlighting how it can be evocative, improve discussions by reaching senses that ordinary interviews cannot grasp, avoid re-traumatisation during research, and build resilience and coping in older refugees. We propose that visual methods could address power dynamics that privilege researchers over participants like older refugees, thus empowering and ensuring older refugees control research processes. This can be crystallised by using visual methods in participatory research. We also outline the drawbacks and concerns of using these methods for research with this population. We conclude by presenting a discourse on how visual methods can advance social work knowledge for practice and social change