Frederic Fovet (ffovet@tru.ca) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, BC Canada.

Rationale

This chapter focuses on a Photovoice project which was used as a form of assessment within a Masters-level course entitled Leading for Social Justice within a Master of Arts in Educational Leadership and Management program at Royal Roads University. The Photovoice project was used early in the course and was integrated to support a reflection, on the part of the students, around social justice in schools. The project eventually led to the drafting of a more traditional research paper on the ways educational leaders can use critical pedagogy to transform the school environment. The difficulty faced by many students within this course was to make personal connections to the concepts of oppression and marginalization in education (Parkhouse, 2016; Thurber, et al, 2019).

It is generally very difficult for graduate students to identify social injustice in schools and draw up an institutional action plan addressing these injustices—a task which their final assignment, a more conventional research paper, requires—if they are not able to connect the conceptual content of the course to some of their lived experiences with inequities in the classroom. It is a central premise of critical pedagogy that students within the banking model (Alam, 2013; Kaya & Kaya, 2017) are usually unaware of their status as disenfranchised learners (Katz, 2014). The educator themselves must create conditions that trigger a phenomenon of conscientization (Macedo, 2017; Villanueva Vargas, 2019), and I hoped Photovoice would support students through this process and do so in congenial and appealing way. This activity was created in the very first year this course was launched, and the instructor reflection presented here and the use of Photovoice were at the heart of the course design.

Photovoice is a process which draws from popular culture initiatives developed by photographers with marginalized youth groups (Leung & Flanagan, 2019; Sitter, 2017). It has since been adopted widely in various sectors of education and is frequently now integrated as a form of assessment (Behrendt & Machtmes, 2016; Hunter, et al, 2020). At its roots, this remains a very simple process: individuals who may feel disempowered, marginalized, and oppressed, or simply stigmatized and voiceless, use visual processes—mostly photography but increasingly video—to gain recognition and showcase their lived experience (Drainoni et al., 2019).

The past experience of the instructor within similar courses involved challenges described by Freire (Caldas Chumbes, 2019; Cochran-Smith et al., 2009; Freire, 2020): students introduced to concepts of social justice in the educational setting felt interested in but simultaneously distant from the concepts introduced in the course. They could conceive of social inequities in the classroom, but seemingly had never experienced these themselves. Finding a voice and identity as potentially marginalized or oppressed individuals was also a hurdle (Holtby et al., 2015). The aim of this first assignment was to encourage the students to create a direct affective connection between the inequities discussed in class and their own lived experiences, particularly with regard to gender, sexual orientation, race, socio-economic status, disability, and family status.  Once this visceral connection to the individual lived experience was in place, it would be far easier and organic for the students to identify issues they might want to select, explore, and research in their final paper within the course: the school action plan.

Overview

The main objective was to draw in students who at first may have a conceptual and rather distant understanding of social inequities in school, and encourage them to identify, record and analyze instances where social justice issues have affected them in an educational setting. They were invited to use any or all of their perspectives and lenses as individuals, learners, educators, or leaders. They would later return to this work and focus on one of these themes for their final research project: a school action plan for systemic change. The process sought to create a practical, hands-on, and highly personalized pathway to the research process which unfolds more formally in the second half of the course, in order to guarantee the learner’s immersion and connectedness to the social justice issues being explored. The aim of the activity was to focus on the affective connection of the learners to the issues they have identified, and it therefore required a delivery format that would not distract from this highly personalized process of reflection. Photovoice is an ideal tool to support this activity as it enables students to showcase their lived experience of the concepts and issues at play without requiring them to get entangled in formal academic requirements or writing outcomes. Fluidity and immediacy can hence be preserved and showcased once affective connection to the central themes of the course has occurred.

The project takes place early on in the course in week two of an eight-week course. Students were invited to create a Photovoice project within which they would identify their own experiences with social justice issues in school, either from their lived experience as a person impacted by discrimination and oppression, or as a stakeholder having observed such oppression directly.  Submissions were accepted both in photo and video formats. Captions and voice-overs were allowed but it was made clear the message had to be primarily visual. The assignment was preceded by a class on the history and objectives of Photovoice as a movement. The course also included several readings on the possible uses of Photovoice in educational settings and on the rationale behind its use in the classroom. The activity is highly personal in nature but also involves a lot of group work: the Photovoice project are shared in an open forum on the Learning Management System (LMS). Students avidly watched each other’s offerings and commented abundantly on each other’s work; the feedback targeting both process and their experiences themselves.

The students’ level of comfort with the process was at first not high across the classroom. Some students took to the idea quickly; others needed some reassurance and clearly felt more comfortable with traditional written formats of submission. The instructor provided examples of Photovoice projects and remained available for one-on-one discussions about the project. The students who were at first reticent to explore the process eventually became aware the aim of the activity was to create a personal, lived, almost visceral connection to the key concepts of oppression and marginalization. They came to appreciate that in order for this affective connection to take place they needed to worry less about traditional academic requirements and had to trust the process. The unease the students initially felt is conceptualized within the wider literature on Critical Pedagogy and the process of conscientization (El-Amin et al., 2017; Jemal 2017). The strength of the banking model is such that, when asked to embrace processes that challenge traditional education, learners may often experience transitional friction i.e. feel that everything pressures them into maintaining status quo. By the time the assignment was submitted and the activity completed, however, the students expressed satisfaction with the finished project. They expressed enthusiasm not just for completing their Photovoice project but also in viewing their peers’ projects– the assignment was shared within the class in an open format. It generated extensive discussions on the nature, frequency, and intensity of occurrences of oppression and marginalization in educational contexts.

The ultimate objective of the activity was to enable the students to develop an awareness of inequities within educational contexts, which in turn would lead them to the creation of an in-depth action plan for their school. Although the students were at times initially ill at ease experimenting with the Photovoice format, which was new to them (Liebenberg, 2018; Strack et al., 2018), by the time they started their final assignment and began designing a school action plan, they were excited, comfortable, and empowered to discuss and identify inequities in their school context. The first Photovoice activity had successfully allowed for the development of a personal and authentic connection on the part of the students to the central issues of the course and more broadly to the graduate research process.

Students mentioned, within the course itself, their pleasure at discovering and exploring the Photovoice process. It was repeatedly mentioned in the course evaluation, as well as the asynchronous class forums themselves. They tended to mention both the pleasure they experience at carrying out this activity, and the unease they originally felt. They articulated that it pushed them out of their zone of comfort and forced them to relate to the central concepts of the course in a way that was not solely conceptual or academic. This, in turn, created depth and authenticity when they reached the final project and were tackling a research process. Some students volunteered to have their Photovoice projects featured within the program’s open WordPress site, which showcases program activities to the public.

The course was launched in 2019 and this activity was included in its first iteration. The voluminous discussions that took place within the class and in the forum where the projects were shared enabled the instructor to gain a good understanding of the successes of the activity, while also allowing for some improvements. The preparation and week leading up to the activity was substantially further developed and strengthened to avoid any discomfort or hesitancy on the part of students. Further practical examples of the use of Photovoice in other contexts were added as support to ease the students into the activity. The activity is now a regular fixture of the course.

Reflection

I was extremely satisfied by the integration of the activity within the course and it will remain a feature of its design in future years. It served the purpose of supporting students while they created affective connections to the course content, which in turn enabled them to develop their awareness of inequities in school and served as the basis for the final research component of the course. Furthermore, the activity served to develop conscientization among students with regard to marginalization and oppression (Bradley-Levine, 2012; Sleeter, et al, 2004). It allowed them to shift their mindset from that of passive observer and listener, to a position of active, connected, and implicated stakeholder in relation to social justice. All students, in the end, successfully and poignantly showcased in their projects inequities they had either observed or experienced. Most students in fact did describe their own lived experiences as victims of marginalization and oppression.

The activity has also been instrumental in easing students into an active learning process (Sewagegn & Boitumelo, 2018), a state of mind which is sought to then be maintained through the program. Active learning is a cornerstone of the institution’s learning, teaching and research framework (RRU, 2020). The difficulty of transitioning students who have not yet experienced active learning into this mindset is, however, often underestimated. There can be considerable transitional friction when encouraging students to make this shift (CHERPP, 2019; Roberts, 2019). Banking model learning—originally defined by Freire (2000) as passive, rote learning subject to hierarchical in-class power dynamics—can feel very safe to students who have not engaged in a rich reflection around their own learning. Active learning can appear to them initially as more demanding, less rewarding in terms of grades, and requiring them to step firmly out of their zone of comfort (Hakkarainen, 2011; Tharayil, 2018). Supporting students while they explore and embrace active learning is a task that can, as a result, be daunting for an instructor. Using the Photovoice activity at the beginning of a course seamlessly encouraged learners to experiment with the production of content and with the use of tools (photography, video, media montage, music, etc.) which gave them autonomy and supported their creativity (Margolis & Zunjarwad, 2018). It gently placed them in the driver seat and sowed the seeds of student-centered research which later blossomed into the final action plan for a school.

Similarly, while the notion of applied research in graduate school is appealing, it can be difficult for instructors to successfully create this mindset among learners who are used to either more passive roles in the classroom, or who may consider research as a mostly academic and abstract process (Smell & Packard, 2019). Students can also find the osmosis with community engagement—an essential part of applied research—difficult to navigate, embrace and master (Blanford, et al, 2020). The final assignment of this course is designed from an applied research lens: students identify social justice issues in their own context; they seek solutions that align with the key concepts discussed in the course content; they apply these solutions in context; and produce a school action plan that is pragmatic, evidence-based, and of immediate value to leadership in their professional environments. It would be difficult to support students to achieve a sufficient level of comfort in relation to this task at the beginning of a graduate degree if they had not had access to this Photovoice. The project is a user-friendly and playful activity that creates a space for students to develop their curiosity, autonomy, hands-on ability, and affective connection to the central concepts and issues identified for inquiry.

References

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Appendix

Recommended resources include:

Hershberg, R., Andringa, O., Camm, K., Hill, H., Little, J., Smith, R., & Wilkinson, S. (2019) Learning through Doing: Reflections on the use of Photovoice in an Undergraduate Community Psychology Classroom.  Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice, 10(2)

O’Malley, L. J. & Munsell, S. E. (2020). PhotoVoice: An Innovative Qualitative Method in Research and Classroom Teaching. Educational Research: Theory and Practice, 31(1), 26-32.

Parkhouse, H. (2016) Critical pedagogy in US history classrooms: conscientization and contradictory consciousness.  PhD. Thesis, School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved from: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/210600234.pdf

Roberts, D. (2019). Higher education lectures: From passive to active learning via imagery? Active Learning in Higher Education, 20(1), 63–77.

Schell, K., Ferguson, A., Hamoline, R., Shea, J., & Thomas-Maclean, R. (2009) Photovoice as a Teaching Tool: Learning by Doing with Visual Methods. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 21(3), 340-352

Sewagegn, A., & Boitumelo, D. (2018) Empowering Learners Using Active Learning in Higher Education Institutions. In: S. M. Brito (Ed.) Active Learning: Beyond the Future.  IntechOpen.  Retrieved from: https://www.intechopen.com/books/active-learning-beyond-the-future/empowering-learners-using-active-learning-in-higher-education-institutions

University of Kansas (2020) Section 20. Implementing Photovoice in Your Community.  Community Toolbox.  Retrieved: https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-needs-and-resources/photovoice/main#:~:text=change%20their%20situations.-,What%20is%20Photovoice%3F,and%20share%20them%20with%20others.