Learning about Community Leadership: Fusing Methodology and Pedagogy to Learn about the Lives of Settlement Women

Abstract

This study presents a practical application of photography and drawing to a qualitative study on community building and leadership in a South African settlement. The article describes how the researcher and participants used visual data that the participants in the study produced for a collaborative nonformal education workshop on community building. Using their own photographs and drawings, the women evaluated their shared leadership roles and contributions to community building. The sharing of their own experiences created opportunities for collaboration among women who were divided along ethnic, cultural, and political lines. The fusion of methodology and pedagogy brought about a better understanding of power relationships and its effect on women's development. The study presents the research and educational potential of photography and drawing as data source and material for learning.

The visual image as discussion point: increasing validity in boundary crossing research

“…Various examples discussed here demonstrate the value of an image-based interviewing process (see also Collier, 2001;Daniels, 2003;Karlsson, 2001;Niesyto, 2000). In this case study specifically, the combination of visual data and qualitative interviews proved an effective means of facilitating an exploratory research process where the researcher was crossing multiple and heightened boundaries.…”

“…Many communities continue to be marginalized and oppressed due to factors such as illiteracy, low levels of education, age, gender and poverty. These groups more often than not comprise women and youth (Daniels, 2003;Fussell and Greene, 2002;Laird, 2003;Nsamenang, 2002).…”

Exploring the meaning of participation in a community art project: A case study on the Seeming project

“…The concept of conscientization explains that community participation may provide a collaborative learning environment which could initiate critical dialogues and awareness among individuals about the conditions that shape their life experiences and their community (Daniels, 2003;Freire 1972, see Montero, 2009, for a discussion of liberation methods). This critical awareness in turn may provide the impetus to take critical action to change those conditions.…”

Initiating a different story about immigrant Somali parents’ support of their primary school children’s education

“…The school's secretary facilitated an introduction between myself and one of the parents, after which, through a snowballing process of sampling, I was introduced to other community members, of whom three more women became participants. My prior cross-cultural research highlighted how communication (Daniels 2003) between researcher and research population can be hampered by the lack of a shared language. Chase (2005) recognises five interrelated analytical lenses when analysing narrative data: narrative as vehicle for human action, narrator voice, social circumstances as constraints to narrations, social situatedness of the narrative and the researcher as narrator.…”