Imaginary pictures, real life stories: the FotoDialogo method

Abstract

This paper explores methodological issues of recording, revisiting and portraying women's life experiences and their connections to the past, to their families and to their communities. It examines the personal histories and collective memories of a group of low-income Hispanic women, through the application of an innovative research tool that uses pictures and storytelling as projective techniques. The FotoDialogo Method uses a set of original drawings to initiate dialogical interviews, to inspire research participants to tell their stories, and to critically analyze the situations presented in these stories. The research study took place at a community-based organization providing non-formal education programs to the Spanish-speaking population in a US inner-city setting. The FotoDialogo Method has the potential to be an effective tool to help underprivileged women break the silence concerning their experiences of oppression and to engage them in a process of self-discovery and transformation that empowers them to become change agents within their families and communities.

The Evocative Power of Projective Techniques for the Elicitation of Meaning

“…By the 1930s, psychiatry, clinical psychology, and the field of cultural anthropology had adopted projective techniques for research to measure human attitudes, knowledge, and perception. The popular Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), which consisted of a series of black-and-white drawings and other prominent tools, was developed in 1935 to assist with assessment of personality traits (Ramos, 2007).…”

“…More recently, new methods using pictures and storytelling have been adopted by qualitative researchers. For example, these methods were used among lower income Hispanic American women to overcome cross-cultural miscommunication in order to tailor community-based programs to better address needs and concerns (Ramos, 2007). Women's experiences are also the focus of social science research conducted in Kuwait involving women who had lived through the Saddam Hussein-led Iraqi invasion.…”

Tell Me With Pictures! Grade 8 Students’ Digital Representations of Engagement in Learning

“…The use of photographs as a research method is not new and has assumed multiple forms in qualitative research -e.g. photo novella (Wang & Burris, 1994), FotoDialogo (Ramos, 1999), photovoice (Strack, Magill & McDonagh, 2004), and the image exercise (Pedersen, 2008). A common underpinning of each of these methods is Freire's understanding of dialogue as central to communication and education, as well as a process that seeks to empower: "In Freirian terms, photographs serve as one kind of 'code' that reflect that community back upon itself, mirroring the everyday social and political realities that influence people's lives" (Wang & Burris, 1994, p. 172).…”

Patrimonio e Identidad en la Investigación Educativa Basada en las Artes desde un Enfoque Multimodal

“…El uso de imágenes en investigación en campos como la antropología (Mead, 1975;Collier & Collier, 1986;Pink, 2001) o los estudios culturales (Prosser, 1998;Rose, 2001) tiene más recorrido temporal y experiencial. En nuestro caso se trata de utilizar los medios propios de las artes visuales (clásicos o contemporáneos) y las tecnologías, para abordar el estudio de aspectos específicos del conocimiento en educación en general (Fischman, 2001;Sinner, Leggo, Irwin, Gouzouasis & Grauer, 2006;Ramos, 2007;Hernández, 2008;Marín, 2012) y educación artística en particular (Bresler, 2007;Knowles & Cole, 2008;Marín 2011). Sin embargo en la práctica metodología y creación se dan simultáneamente desde una perspectiva multimodal.…”