Photovoice: an opportunity and challenge for students' genuine participation

Abstract

It has been highlighted that youth empowerment and participation are important principles for school health promotion. Despite this fact, children and youth are rarely given instruments to participate or to influence their situations and the environments in their schools. Photovoice is a method to increased empowerment and participation. Originally it was created as a community action research method based on Freire's critical pedagogy and feminist theory. The purpose of this study was to explore challenges and opportunities for applying photovoice in a school setting to support genuine participation. Together with teachers and students in an upper secondary school in Östersund's municipality in the north of Sweden, the photovoice method was field tested and modified to a classroom situation. The teachers and the students were interviewed about their experiences with the method. The results were interpreted by content analysis and showed that the teachers' capability to be facilitators and the students' possibility to make a difference for the school or the municipality were the most important factors to succeed with photovoice. The conclusions were that photovoice challenges schools and society to have a better structure for genuine participation if youth participation is seen as valuable.

Facilitating Self-Reflection: The Integration of Photovoice in Graduate Social Work Education

“…First, using photovoice within the classroom highlighted possible tension between the roles of teacher and facilitator (Chio & Fandt, 2007;Ward, 2008;Warne et al, 2013). As noted previously, incorporating visual and narrative elements added depth to student responses that may have created additional intimacy.…”

“…Photovoice is inherently personal and participatory, allowing the students to recognize their current social positions and values. Past photovoice research with students, although not university students, found that photovoice's inclusive approach allowed participants to feel they were contributing and that their voices had value (Warne, Snyder, & Gillander Gadin, 2013).…”

Physical Activity Promotion in Primary Health Care in Brazil: A Counseling Model Applied to Community Health Workers

“…This method has been widely used in studies and interventions in the field of health promotion, both in proposals for interventions in communities and groups, 13,14 and in programs for lifelong professional education and training. 15 One of the assumptions of Paulo Freire's pedagogy lies in the idea that no one educates anyone alone and no one is educated alone.…”

‘Are we famous or something?’ Participatory Health Research with children using photovoice

“…In photovoice favorite photos are chosen and discussed in the participant group to raise their critical consciousness (Carlson, Engebretson, and Chamberlain 2006;Wang and Burris 1997). This assists participants to identify pressing issues that are relevant to their life and to discuss these issues with others (Warne, Snyder, and Gillander Gadin 2012). On the one hand, photovoice can help children to be more conscious of structural inequalities (Ingram 2013), to take collective action (Wilson et al 2007) and to critically interrogate adult perspectives (Alexander, Frohlich, and Fusco 2014).…”