The Photo Narrative Process: Students’ Intercultural Learning in Agriculture

Abstract

Cultural heritage describes our way of life. It comes from previous generational traditions and incorporates our current constructed and natural environments, and tangible artifacts. The photo narrative process, derived from photovoice, combines photography and narrative expression about artifacts important to one's way of life. The purpose of this study was to explore effects of the photo narrative process on students' intercultural learning in agriculture. Photo narrative assignments were developed for students to capture facets of their cultural heritage, and their host countries' cultural heritage from three separate study abroad programs. Archival data were collected (i.e., course assignments to illustrate one's cultural heritage via photo and text) and visual social semiotics were used to analyze data. The Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity provided context for students' levels of intercultural competence. The results showed participants experienced frame shifts (i.e., perspective change in worldviews) from ethnocentrism to ethnorelativism, as evidenced in the rhetoric of their artifacts after participating in the photo narrative process. The photo narrative process is a valuable educational technique; its purposeful use helps learners experience and progress through the stages of intercultural competence. Photo narrative takes advantage of young people's preferred communication methods (i.e., social media), combining image and text, which empowers them through expressive communication and reflection. Purposeful photo narrative processes may be adapted to help learners explore perspective shifts in racism, classism, or religion to increase understanding and empathetic response between dissimilar groups.

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“…Photo-based methods are used as a research tool in many fields, such as health care (Newman, 2010), natural resource management (Beckley, Stedman, Wallace, & Ambard, 2007), and education (Goldston & Nichols, 2009). Bost and Wingenbach (2018) found photo-based methods "have immense educational value and potential as tools to impact students' ethnorelative worldviews" (p. 96). Examples of photo-based methods include photovoice and photo journal (Bost & Wingenbach, 2018;Madden & Dell'Angelo, 2016).…”

“…Bost and Wingenbach (2018) found photo-based methods "have immense educational value and potential as tools to impact students' ethnorelative worldviews" (p. 96). Examples of photo-based methods include photovoice and photo journal (Bost & Wingenbach, 2018;Madden & Dell'Angelo, 2016).…”

“…Research indicates that by combining students' photographs with text encourages reflection on knowledge and experiences as well as how they are related (Madden & Dell'Angelo, 2016). Photo journals are derived from photovoice (Wang & Burris, 1997) and are similar in concept and application to photonarrative (Bost & Wingenbach, 2018). Madden and Dell'Angelo (2016) found students who created reflective photo journal entries "developed an understanding for how that content was connected and coordinated to a bigger picture" (p. 27).…”

“…Visual methodologies are a relatively new analysis procedure in a majority of disciplines (Glaw, Inder, Kable, & Hazelton, 2017). Many studies have evaluated ISL experiences through examining emotion, cognition, and learning style (Hains, Ricketts, & Tubbs, 2012;Lamm, Cannon, Roberts, Irani, Unruh Snyder, Bredemuhl, & Rodriguez, 2011), and other studies have utilized photonarrative methods in their ISL evalutions (Bost & Wingenbach, 2018;Dobbins, Dooley, & Edgar, 2019;Homeyer, Leggette, McKim, & Walker, 2017;Uscanga, Edwards, & Watters, 2019). however, a review of literature found no ISL experiences that integrated semiotics into their photo analysis process.…”

“…however, a review of literature found no ISL experiences that integrated semiotics into their photo analysis process. Bost and Wingenbach (2018) used a semiotics framework to analyze the effects of the photo narrative process on students' intercultural learning, but the current study differs by using semiotic analysis to understand the lived experiences of students on an ISL to Guatemala. Examining photo journals through semiotic analysis may allow researchers to better understand the lived experiences of students on an ISL because traditional qualitative methods, such as coding, may not bring to light the entire experience of the students.…”